The disaster relief nonprofit World Central Kitchen paused operations in the Gaza Strip and the region Tuesday after the organization said seven of its workers were killed in an airstrike.
José Andrés, the organization’s founder, said on X, formerly Twitter, that “several of our sisters and brothers” were killed in an Israeli airstrike Monday. The group later said in a statement that the team was leaving a warehouse in central Gaza in two armored cars after unloading humanitarian food aid. The group said the convoy was hit despite having coordinated movements with the Israeli military.
The Israeli military said in a statement early Tuesday that it was “conducting a thorough review at the highest levels to understand the circumstances of this tragic incident.”
Erin Gore, the nonprofit’s CEO, said in the statement that the group’s employees were killed in “a targeted attack” by the Israeli military, without providing evidence.
“This is unforgivable,” Gore said in the statement.
Graphic video footage from the aftermath showed several bodies, some wearing protective gear with visible World Central Kitchen patches. The cars were also marked with the group’s logo, the organization said in the statement. The nationalities of the seven killed included Australia, Poland, Britain, the United States, Canada, and Palestine, according to World Central Kitchen.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia identified one of the victims as Zomi Frankcom, an Australian citizen and a manager at World Central Kitchen. “We want full accountability for this because this is a tragedy that should never have occurred,” he told reporters.
“The truth is that this is beyond any reasonable circumstances,” he said, adding that his government had summoned the Israeli ambassador to Australia.
Australia has previously called for a “sustainable cease-fire” in Gaza.
World Central Kitchen has become a key organization in the perilous, politically fraught efforts to distribute humanitarian aid to desperate Palestinians in Gaza. Israel has severely limited the aid that reaches Gaza through land crossings, leaving shipments by sea as an increasingly important means of delivering food to the enclave. A vessel carrying 400 tons of food left Cyprus for Gaza on Saturday.
The Israeli military has said that it provided security and coordination to the organization in prior operations.
On Tuesday, the military said that it “makes extensive efforts to enable the safe delivery of humanitarian aid, and has been working closely with WCK in their vital efforts to provide food and humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
What is World Central Kitchen
- US-based, non-governmental organization WCK was set up by Michelin-starred celebrity chef Jose Andres and his wife Patricia in 2010 following a major earthquake in Haiti, initially to provide emergency food aid to survivors.
- WCK expanded from there to provide resilience training, meals, and support to survivors of other natural disasters, as well as refugees and people affected by conflict.
- WCK has served tens of millions of meals in Ukraine since 2022.
- WCK was involved in the first shipment of aid to Gaza via a sea corridor from Cyprus in March. A second WCK maritime aid shipment carrying 332 tons of food was due to arrive in Gaza early this week.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
