22bet Israeli Strike In Gaza Kills Workers With World Central Kitchen Charity
Workers of World Central Kitchen in Gaza Photo: World Central KitchenWorkers of World Central Kitchen in Gaza Photo: World Central Kitchen
An Israeli airstrike on a car in the Gaza Strip on Saturday killed five people including employees of World Central Kitchen22bet, and the charity said it was “urgently seeking more details” after Israel's military said it targeted a WCK worker who had been part of the Hamas attack that sparked the war.
WCK in an email said it was “heartbroken” by the airstrike and that it had no knowledge anyone in the car had alleged ties to the Oct 7, 2023 attack, saying it was “working with incomplete information.” It said it was pausing operations in Gaza.
The charity's aid delivery efforts in Gaza were temporarily suspended earlier this year after an Israeli strike killed seven of its workers, most of them foreigners.
The Israeli military in a statement said the alleged Oct 7 attacker had worked with WCK and it asked “senior officials from the international community and the WCK administration to clarify" how that had come about.
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 Younis22bet, 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.