World Central Kitchen to resume Gaza aid work
Three days after an emotional ceremony at Washington National Cathedral in which World Central Kitchen (WCK) celebrated the seven workers killed in an Israeli airstrike, the organisation announced it would resume operations in Gaza, where more than 1 million Palestinians face catastrophic levels of hunger.
WCK said it would resume humanitarian work this week with a “Palestinian team delivering food to address wide-spread hunger, including in the north”. It was not clear whether it would continue to allow staff and outside contractors to enter Gaza as part of its renewed operations.
“The majority of our Gaza operation has always been Palestinians feeding Palestinians,” said Linda Roth, WCK’s chief communications officer. “Our model, as you know, is one of community engagement. We have hundreds of Palestinians employed as contractors and hundreds more volunteering. They want to get back to work.”
Late on April 1, an Israeli airstrike hit a WCK convoy, killing all seven people inside three vehicles, two of which were armoured. Among those killed were four members of WCK’s relief team: Lalzawmi ‘Zomi’ Frankcom, a 43-year-old Australian; Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha, a 25-yearold Palestinian; Damian Soból, a 35-yearold from Poland; and Jacob Flickinger, a 33-year-old dual US-Canadian citizen. The other three victims – John Chapman, 57; James Henderson, 33; and James Kirby, 47 – were British nationals contracted to WCK’s security team.
The killings received condemnation worldwide, including from United States President Joe Biden. “I am outraged and heartbroken by the deaths,” he said then.
Last month. World Central Kitchen founder and celebrity chef José Andrés said: “I will have to live with this the rest of my life. We will all have to live with this the rest of our lives.”
Before suspending its operations for four weeks following the deaths, WCK had established 68 community kitchens in Gaza. Now it will open a third high-production kitchen in Mawasi called Damian’s Kitchen in honor of Soból.
He “was pure joy for everyone who knew him,” Andrés said during last week’s ceremony. – Washington Post