"Unforgivable": José Andrés' NGO says 7 aid workers killed in Gaza strike
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Two men hug each other Tuesday, April 2, as they receive the bodies of World Central Kitchen workers who were killed by Israeli air strikes in Gaza. Photo: Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images
Seven aid workers from chef José Andrés' World Central Kitchen were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip on Monday, the NGO said in a statement.
The big picture: Andrés' organization has been leading the efforts to get food to Gaza by sea, and has delivered tons of supplies to the enclave via a ship from Cyprus over the past few weeks.
- World Central Kitchen said it was pausing its operations in the area after the attack, and the Israeli military said it has "been reviewing the incident at the highest levels."
- Andrés' group said the seven killed were from Australia, Poland, the U.K. and Palestine. One was a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada.
- British Foreign Secretary David Cameron confirmed in a post on X Tuesday that three British citizens were among those killed, calling their deaths "completely unacceptable."
What they're saying: "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," World Central Kitchen CEO Erin Gore said in a statement early Tuesday morning.
- "This is unforgivable."
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the strike "a tragic incident of an unintentional targeting of innocent civilians in Gaza that we regret."
- "It happens during war and we are thoroughly investigating this," he said in the statement Tuesday. "We will do everything to prevent this from happening again."
The latest: World Central Kitchen said the targeted team "was traveling in a deconflicted zone in two armored cars branded with the WCK logo and a soft skin vehicle."
- "Despite coordinating movements with the IDF, the convoy was hit as it was leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse, where the team had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route," the statement said.
- The IDF "will be opening a probe to examine this serious incident further," Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a statement Tuesday. "This will help us reduce the risk of such an event from occurring again."
On Monday night, Andrés said on X that he was "heartbroken and grieving" for the members of the organization who were killed.
- "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," he said.
- Hagari said he had spoken with Andrés and "expressed the deepest condolences of the Israel Defense Forces."
- "The work of WCK is critical; they are on the frontlines of humanity," Hagari said. "We will get to the bottom of this and we will share our findings transparently."
Zoom in: White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a post to X that Biden administration officials were "heartbroken and deeply troubled by the strike" that killed the aid workers.
- "Humanitarian aid workers must be protected as they deliver aid that is desperately needed, and we urge Israel to swiftly investigate what happened," she added.
Zoom out: The U.S., the UN and many aid organizations have been urging Israel's government for months to do more to improve its deconfliction mechanisms to avoid targeting aid convoys.
- The Biden administration raised this issue on a very high level with the Israeli government several times, but there was little change on the ground, U.S. officials say.
Go deeper: Scoop: Inside José Andrés' risky mission to get food to Gaza
Editor's note: This article has been updated with a new death toll, as well as statements from World Central Kitchen and the IDF.
