World Central Kitchen (WCK) confirms that seven of its employees were killed in an Israeli airstrike that took place on Monday.
The group traveled through an area that had been designated as safe, in armored cars marked with the organization’s logo, the international organization said.
The convoy is also said to have coordinated its transport with Israel’s military. The purpose was to deliver 100 tons of food that had just reached Gaza by sea.
“Unforgivable”
“This is not just an attack on WCK, it is an attack on humanitarian organizations that go to the very worst of situations, where food is used as a weapon in war,” says the organization’s CEO Erin Gore in a press release.
“This is unforgivable.”
WCK suspends its work in the region with immediate effect.
The information follows information from the Hamas-controlled health authorities in Gaza, which previously announced that several foreign aid workers had been killed along with a Palestinian driver.
The remains of several people were transported to a hospital in Dayr al-Balah in central Gaza, where their passports were shown to international media.
Israel: It is being investigated
Those killed are said to have been from Australia, Poland and Great Britain, among others. One was Palestinian.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed that one of them was an Australian woman and demanded an explanation from Israel.
Adrienne Watson, spokeswoman for the US National Security Council, announces that the country “is devastated”. She emphasizes that aid workers must be protected.
According to Israel’s military, a “thorough investigation is underway at the highest level to understand the circumstances surrounding this tragic event.”
Desperation at delivery
International aid organizations have organized sea transport of food and supplies to the Gaza Strip. On Monday, a fleet of fully loaded ships was allowed to enter port for the second time. It was the food that the WCK working team had been with and distributed.
Hundreds of thousands of the residents of the Gaza Strip are starving. Israel is under strong pressure from the outside world to enable the introduction of aid to the area’s civilian population.
When the shipments were delivered on Monday, before the deadly airstrike, there were reports of chaos and several deaths as desperate Gazans rushed there.