Seven employees of an American NGO which delivers food to the Gaza Strip, threatened with famine, were killed in an Israeli “targeted attack”, the organization said on Tuesday, announcing the suspension of its activities in the region.
Since the start of hostilities between Israel and Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip almost six months ago, World Central Kitchen (WCK) has participated in humanitarian operations, including providing meals to hungry residents of the besieged and devastated Palestinian territory. the war.
“World Central Kitchen is devastated, and confirms that seven members of our team were killed in Gaza in an IDF strike,” the Israeli armed forces, Monday, lamented the NGO based in the United States.
“I am heartbroken and dismayed that we, World Central Kitchen and the world, lost beautiful lives today due to a targeted IDF attack,” said WCK President Erin Gore.
The victims were “from Australia, Poland, the United Kingdom, [qu’elles comprenaient aussi] a citizen with dual American and Canadian nationality and a Palestinian person,” added the NGO which decided to “suspend its operations in the region.”
Australia denounced a “completely unacceptable” event, while Warsaw and Madrid demanded explanations, with Spain condemning a “brutal attack”.
China said it was “shocked” and the head of European Union diplomacy, Joseph Borrell, called for an “investigation to be launched as quickly as possible”.
The United States said it was “deeply troubled” and called for “protection of aid workers”.
“Tragic incident”
“We urge Israel to promptly investigate what happened,” Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the National Security Council at the White House, said on X.
Initially, the Hamas Ministry of Health reported five victims arriving at a hospital in Deir el-Balah (center), after “an Israeli airstrike targeting a vehicle of the American organization World Central Kitchen”.
An AFP correspondent saw five bodies and three foreign passports near the remains at Deir el-Balah hospital. In an AFP image, we can see the body of one of the victims wearing a black T-shirt with the NGO logo. AFPTV images show the destroyed carcass of the vehicle, a gaping hole in the roof, right over the WCK logo.
The Israeli army said it was “reviewing the tragic incident at the highest level to understand the circumstances” and assured that it had “worked closely with WCK” for its aid distribution.
WCK participated in sending a first aid boat from Cyprus to Gaza which unloaded its cargo in mid-March under the supervision of the Israeli army.
The war broke out on October 7 when Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza carried out an attack in southern Israel. This led to the death of at least 1,160 people, mainly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data. According to Israel, around 250 people were also kidnapped and 130 of them are still hostages, including 34 who died in Gaza.
Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, considered a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, and its army has launched an intense aerial bombardment campaign on Gaza, followed by a ground offensive.
Since the start of the war, which caused a humanitarian catastrophe and colossal destruction, 32,845 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the Gaza Strip, according to a latest report from the Hamas Ministry of Health, published Monday.
Israeli soldiers withdrew from the al-Chifa hospital complex in Gaza on Monday after two weeks of operations, leaving behind immense destruction and dead bodies.
Israeli forces “killed more than 200 terrorists and arrested more than 900 people suspected of terrorist acts” on the site of the ruined hospital, the Israeli army spokesperson said Monday evening.
Gaza’s civil defense agency, run by Hamas, reported 300 deaths in and around the hospital during the Israeli operation.
Doctors and civilians at the complex told AFP that at least 20 bodies had been found, some of which appeared to have been driven over by military vehicles.
Ban Al Jazeera
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Monday that he wanted to “act immediately” to ban the broadcast of the Qatari channel Al Jazeera in the country, shortly after Parliament voted for a law authorizing it to do so.
Al Jazeera, which accuses Israel of systematically targeting its journalists in the Gaza Strip, denounced a “frantic campaign” against it.
The Washington-based Committee to Protect Journalists “urged the Israeli government not to close the bureau” of Al Jazeera in Jerusalem.
Furthermore, according to the White House, Israeli officials spoke remotely with their American counterparts on Monday and “agreed to take into account” American concerns about Israel’s planned offensive on Rafah, in the south. from Gaza.
The situation in this city, where 1.5 million Palestinians are crowded together, was already to be the subject of an in-person meeting in Washington, but Israel canceled the sending of its delegation a week ago.
An “in person” meeting could take place “as early as next week,” said a press release from the American executive.
The war has also heightened fears of an escalation of conflict in the region. Eleven people, including seven Revolutionary Guards – Iran’s ideological army – were killed Monday in an unprecedented raid attributed to Israel against the consular section of the Iranian embassy in Damascus.
Tehran denounced a “cowardly crime” which “will not remain unanswered”.