JERUSALEM and NEW YORK — A senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the deadly The attack came after the organization's founder said it was targeted.
An Israeli Defense Force attack in central Gaza on Monday night killed seven WCK aid workers traveling in a three-vehicle caravan bearing the WCK logo, food relief organizations said. According to WCK, the team was coordinating operations with the IDF when it was struck as it was exiting a warehouse after helping unload more than 100 tons of humanitarian aid.
In an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, WCK founder Jose Andres claimed that Israel was systematically targeting its aid workers “car by car.”
“This wasn't just an unlucky situation where you dropped a bomb in the wrong place,” the chef told Reuters.
“What I do know is that we were deliberately targeted nonstop until everyone in this convoy was dead,” he told Reuters.
Netanyahu's foreign policy adviser Ofir Falk refuted claims that the attack on WCK-branded vehicles was intentional.
“It's ridiculous,” Faulk told ABC News on Wednesday. “The last thing we want in the world is to put civilian lives at risk.”
Falk said seven workers were killed in a “midnight gunfight” and called the deaths a “tragic event.”
“This war is a complex war,” he said. “This incident happened in the middle of the night. It should never have happened and we will do everything in our power to make sure it never happens again.”
He said he “understands the outcry” from the international community over the deaths, noting that “many Israeli Defense Forces soldiers” and three Israeli hostages were killed in crossfire during the war.
Israeli military commander Helj Halevi said in a video statement late Tuesday that the airstrike was a “grave mistake” and “was not carried out with the intention of harming WCK aid workers.”
“Israel deeply regrets the tragic incident,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that the Israel Defense Forces would conduct a “prompt and transparent investigation” and publish the results.
Andres called for a “neutral” investigation into the incident.
“Even if we weren't working together, [IDF]”No democracy or military can target civilians or humanitarians,” he told Reuters.
The victims were of multiple nationalities, the youngest being 25-year-old Palestinian Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha.
The three are from the UK: John Chapman (57 years old); James “Jim” Henderson, 33 years old. and James Kirby (47).
The victims included Damian Sobol, 35, from Poland. Jacob Flickinger, 33, dual citizen of the United States and Canada. and Lalzaumi “Zomi” Francome (43) from Australia.
U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Tuesday there was no evidence the IDF intentionally targeted workers, while strongly condemning the attack.
“Yesterday, the Israeli Defense Forces killed a number of civilian humanitarian workers from the World Central Kitchen, who are working relentlessly to feed hungry people in Gaza and, frankly, around the world. We were furious when we learned of the attack,'' Kirby said.
President Joe Biden said he was “outraged” and “heartbroken” by the deaths of seven humanitarian workers.
“They were providing food to starving civilians at the height of the war. They were brave and selfless. Their deaths are a tragedy,” he said in a statement Tuesday.
The non-governmental organization WCK has been working in Gaza for several months and said it has provided more than 33 million meals since the start of the conflict. The organization said it would suspend operations in the area following the attack.
The group said Wednesday it has not yet decided when it will resume operations in Gaza.
Amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, all residents of the Gaza Strip face high levels of food insecurity, with starvation reaching ” It's imminent.''
