Seven aid workers with the World Central Kitchen charity were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza. The victims of the airstrike were from the U.K., Australia, Poland, and Palestine, and one was a U.S.-Canadian dual citizen.
The World Central Kitchen released the following statement on its website:
World Central Kitchen is devastated to confirm seven members of our team have been killed in an IDF strike in Gaza. The WCK 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. “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,” said World Central Kitchen CEO Erin Gore. The seven killed are from Australia, Poland, United Kingdom, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada, and Palestine. “I am heartbroken and appalled that we — World Central Kitchen and the world — lost beautiful lives today because of a targeted attack by the IDF. The love they had for feeding people, the determination they embodied to show that humanity rises above all, and the impact they made in countless lives will forever be remembered and cherished,” said Erin. The IDF says it is “carrying out an in-depth examination at the highest levels to understand the circumstances of this tragic incident.” World Central Kitchen is pausing our operations immediately in the region. We will be making decisions about the future of our work soon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the airstrike, stating, “Unfortunately in the last day there was a tragic incident where our forces unintentionally struck innocent people in the Gaza strip. It happens in war and were thoroughly investigating it, we are in contact with the governments and will do everything to prevent such occurrences in the future.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the victims of the airstrike “heroes,” stating, “The victims of yesterdays strike join a record number of humanitarian workers who have been killed in this particular conflict. These people are heroes, they run into the fire, not away from it. They show the best of what humanity has to offer when the going really gets tough. They have to be protected. We shouldn’t have a situation where people who are simply trying to help their fellow human beings are themselves at great risk.”
Blinken also said the United States is requesting an investigation into the airstrike: “We have spoken directly to the Israeli government about this particular incident. We’ve urged a swift, a thorough, and impartial investigation to understand exactly what happened, and as we have throughout this conflict, we’ve impressed upon the Israelis the absolute imperative of doing more to protect innocent civilian lives be they Palestinian children, women, and men, or be they aid workers.”
Representative Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) called the airstrike an abhorrent act, stating on X, “The deaths of seven World Central Kitchen volunteers bringing food to desperately hungry Palestinians is an abhorrent act of indiscriminate bombing by Israeli Defense Forces. It is indefensible and a further dark chapter for the Netanyahu government.”
