International aid group World Central Kitchen confirmed that seven of its members were killed in an apparent Israeli airstrike in Gaza on Monday as they tried to feed thousands of starving people, according to chef José Andrés, the group's founder.
WCK said it would cease operations in Gaza.
According to a statement from the nonprofit organization, the team members were traveling in a conflict-free zone in two armored vehicles with the WCK logo and another vehicle without armor. The WCK said it coordinated its movements with Israeli forces but that the convoy was hit as it left a warehouse in Deir al Balah, a city in central Gaza. The team had unloaded more than 100 tons of food that had been brought to Gaza by sea.
Photos and videos circulating on social media on Monday showed bodies and bloody passports allegedly belonging to the deceased members of the Gaza-based World Central Kitchen team. The WCK said the seven killed were from Australia, Poland, the United Kingdom, the United States/Canada and the Palestinian territories.
“I am heartbroken and horrified that we – World Central Kitchen and the world – lost beautiful lives today to a targeted attack by the IDF. “The love they had for feeding people, the determination they embodied to show that humanity is above all else, and the impact they made in countless lives will forever be remembered and appreciated will,” Executive Director Erin Gore said in a statement.
According to World Central Kitchen, the IDF is “conducting an in-depth, high-level investigation to understand the circumstances surrounding this tragic incident.”
Andres could not be reached for comment.
“Today @WCKitchen [World Central Kitchen] “We lost several of our sisters and brothers in an IDF airstrike in Gaza,” Andrés posted on the social media platform Angel… I have served alongside you in Ukraine, Gaza, Turkey, Morocco, the Bahamas and Indonesia. They are not faceless…they are not nameless.
“The Israeli government must stop this indiscriminate killing,” the chef continued. “It must stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon.” No more innocent lives lost. Peace begins with our shared humanity. It has to start now.”
Andrés called for a ceasefire on social media in December. 10 along with an “end to hostilities,” one of the most prominent voices in the global food community doing so.
Andrés' organization distributes free meals, water and other resources to crisis areas around the world following war and natural disasters. In March, World Central Kitchen Approximately 200 tons of food was collected and shipped to Gaza with the help of the Spanish humanitarian organization Open Arms to deliver the food.
The action was one of the first in an increasingly loud call to provide aid by sea to Palestinians after five months of the Israel-Hamas war. President Biden shared similar but unrelated plans for the US in his State of the Union address The military ordered the construction of a floating dock to provide assistance off the coast of the Gaza Strip.
World Central Kitchen's team of employees, volunteer chefs and other local helpers have been providing food and water to Palestinians since the fall. According to a statement from Andrés and Gore in late March, the organization has served more than 42 million meals in Gaza and called the humanitarian crisis in Gaza “the worst we have ever seen or experienced in our 15-year history.”
World Central Kitchen is suspending operations in the region immediately and said in a statement that it would soon make decisions about future work in Gaza.
“This is not just an attack against WCK. This is an attack on humanitarian organizations that appear in the worst situations where food is used as a weapon of war. “This is unforgivable,” Gore said.
Betty Hallock contributed to this story.
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