Last Updated on April 2, 2024
The Israeli military launched an unprovoked airstrike against World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza, who were in the region to bring food to starving civilians who’ve been cut off from the rest of the world. Seven aid workers were killed in the Israeli strike, including a British citizen, an Australian citizen, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada, and a Jewish citizen of Poland.
Seven humanitarian workers with the World Central Kitchen were killed in an Israeli airstrike as their three-vehicle convoy left a warehouse in a deconflicted zone of Gaza, where they’d just unloaded more than 100 tons of food aid to be given to civilians in the region, who are battling starvation as tens of thousands of women and children continue losing their lives.
Though Israel is claiming that the attack on the humanitarian workers was a tragic accident, the World Central Kitchen is refusing to fall into the governmental narrative and has revealed in a public statement that their team was “coordinating movements with the IDF” when they were struck, and was driving in vehicles outfitted with World Central Kitchen logos, including on their rooftops.
In other words, the World Central Kitchen (WCK) says that Israeli forces knew exactly where they were and what they were doing there, but they called in an airstrike anyway.
“This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable,” World Central Kitchen CEO Erin Gore said in a public statement responding to the deadly Israeli attack.
World Central Kitchen founder, Spanish-American Chef Jose Andres, echoed those sentiments in a post he made to X, confirming the loss of life among his colleagues and declaring that “The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing. It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon.”
As the World Central Kitchen and its leadership mentioned in their statements, Israel has sought to block or tightly control all aid, especially food, from entering Gaza and making its way to the Palestinian people, who face a massive and rapidly mounting civilian death toll, made up largely of children.
While international pressure has forced some food and other forms of aid to be allowed to trickle in, the situation is dire, and aid workers, as well as Palestinians seeking help, are at an extreme risk of losing their lives.
And due to the attack, the World Central Kitchen is suspending operations in the region.
Several weeks ago, Israeli forces killed more than 100 Palestinians and left over 700 more wounded, when they opened fire on a crowd as they retrieved food from an aid convoy.
Nevertheless, Israel has operated with impunity and continued American support, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring that those who wish to investigate alleged Israeli war crimes are antisemites.
