[News] Israeli airstrike kills “World Central Kitchen” workers in Gaza

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 Israeli airstrike kills “World Central Kitchen” workers in Gaza

Tuesday 2-April-2024 - https://english.palinfo.com/news/2024/04/02/316807/
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GAZA, (PIC)

An Israeli airstrike killed last night several members of the nonprofit
“World Central Kitchen (WCK)” organization in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

WCK is a not-for-profit non-governmental organization devoted to providing
meals for people in war and disaster zones.

Head of the Government Media Office Ismail al-Thawabta told a news
conference in Gaza that “Israel bombed a foreign team composed of British,
Polish, Australian citizens and other nationalities that are not yet known,
in addition to a Palestinian from Gaza.”

“The occupation forces killed them in cold blood with warplanes that keep
overlying the Gaza Strip and committing genocidal crimes,” he said.

A Palestinian man was among those killed, who was described at the news
conference as the nonprofit’s driver at the time of the strike.

WCK, for its part, said it “is devastated to confirm seven members of our
team have been killed in an IDF strike in Gaza.”

“The WCK team was traveling in a deconflicted zone in two armored cars
branded with the WCK logo and a soft skin vehicle,” according to a
statement released on Tuesday by the Washington-based organization.

“Despite coordinating movements with the IDF, the convoy was hit as it was
leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse, where the team had unloaded more than
100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route.”

“This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian
organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being
used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable,” WCK head Erin Gore said.

“The seven killed are from Australia, Poland, United Kingdom, a dual
citizen of the U.S. and Canada, and Palestine.”

“I am heartbroken and appalled that we — World Central Kitchen and the
world — lost beautiful lives today because of a targeted attack by the IDF.
The love they had for feeding people, the determination they embodied to
show that humanity rises above all, and the impact they made in countless
lives will forever be remembered and cherished,” Erin added.

WCK said it “is pausing our operations immediately in the region. We will
be making decisions about the future of our work soon.”

“I am heartbroken and grieving for their families and friends and our whole
WCK family. These are people, angels, I served alongside in Ukraine, Gaza,
Turkey, Morocco, Bahamas, Indonesia. They are not faceless…they are not
nameless,” Jose Andres, the chef who founded the nonprofit, said on X.

“The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing. It needs
to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid
workers, and stop using food as a weapon,” Andres added.

For its part, the Hamas Movement has strongly denounced the Israeli
occupation army for killing international relief workers from the World
Central Kitchen in an attack on their convoy in Deir al-Balah.

“This crime confirms once against that the occupation still insists on
pursuing the policy of systematic killing against unarmed civilians and
international relief teams from humanitarian organizations, as part of its
efforts to terrorize their workers and prevent them from continuing their
humanitarian missions,” Hamas said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Movement called on the international community and the UN Security
Council to condemn this heinous crime against the WCK workers and take
action to curb Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza.
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