Gaza: An Israeli airstrike on a car in the Gaza Strip on Saturday killed five people, including employees of World Central Kitchen. The charity stated it was “urgently seeking more details” after Israel’s military claimed it targeted a WCK worker involved in the Hamas attack that triggered the war.
WCK, in an email, expressed being “heartbroken” by the airstrike and stated it had no knowledge of any connection between those in the car and the October 7, 2023 attack, emphasizing it was “working with incomplete information.” The charity also announced it was pausing operations in Gaza.
The charity had temporarily suspended its aid delivery efforts in Gaza earlier this year after an Israeli strike killed seven of its workers, the majority of whom were foreigners.
The Israeli military, in a statement, claimed that the alleged October 7 attacker had worked with WCK and called on “senior officials from the international community and the WCK administration to clarify” how this occurred.
The violence in Gaza raged even as a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah appeared to be holding, despite sporadic episodes that have tested its fragility. Israel on Saturday struck what it said were Hezbollah weapons smuggling sites along Syria’s border with Lebanon.
The strike on the vehicle was the latest in what aid agencies have described as the dangerous work of delivering aid in Gaza, where the war has sparked a humanitarian crisis that has displaced much of the territory’s 2.3 million population and triggered widespread hunger.
World Central Kitchen provides meals to people in need following natural disasters or to those enduring conflict. Its teams have often served as a lifeline for people in Gaza who have struggled to feed themselves.
Palestinian health official Muneer Alboursh confirmed the strike, and an aid worker in Gaza confirmed that three killed were workers with the WCK. The aid worker spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak with the media.
At Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, a woman held up an employee badge bearing the WCK logo, the word “contractor” and the name of a man said to have been killed in the strike. Belongings – burned phones, a watch and stickers with the WCK logo – lay splayed on the hospital floor.
(with agency inputs)
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