Sean Carroll, president and chief executive officer of the company, which has a group partnership with chef Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen (WCK) in Gaza, said Anera was asked to provide such coordination. This is the second time. This process, similar to the one announced by WCK, aims to create a deconfliction zone (a safe space for civilians, humanitarian workers, etc.) in the midst of the Israel-Gaza war.
Musa Shawa was not saved in this process.
Carroll told the Washington Post that Showa, a logistics coordinator in Anera, Gaza Strip, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on March 8 while in a deconflict shelter. Carroll said Showa had just returned from an aid mission delivering supplies such as water and blankets and was relaxing over coffee with his family and neighbors. The aid worker's 6-year-old son, Karim, died 10 days later from injuries sustained in the attack.
“There's nothing to indicate that [Shawwa] “He was targeted, but we don't have anything to indicate he wasn't targeted,” Carroll said. “There was a feeling on our team that they were targeting someone else. But we were never given an explanation.”
Less than a month later, another Israeli airstrike hit a WCK convoy, killing seven aid workers, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was “unintentional.” Stated. In an Instagram post early Wednesday morning, Andres said the seven slain WCK workers were “the best of humanity. They are not faceless and nameless. They are common aid workers and It’s not collateral damage in a war.”
WCK's attack was the last straw for Anela. Following Showa's death and the near-misses of other staff, the organization announced Tuesday that it would suspend its operations in Gaza. Carroll said the closure marks the first time since Anera was founded in 1968 that the organization has ceased operations in the occupied Palestinian territories.
“We worked through the intifada and previous wars and bombing campaigns, and we didn't stop for almost six months of this war,” Carroll said. “So it's not easy. It's not easy to know that we're saving lives and we have to stop it.”
The withdrawal of Anera and other groups from the war-torn region (after Monday's strike, WCK announced it would cease operations in the area, and at least two other groups followed suit) meant that they could get food. The focus is on the dangers faced by aid workers who are struggling to survive. Starving Palestinians, Ukrainians, Haitians, etc. In Gaza and other conflict zones around the world, workers tasked with providing food encounter potential dangers at every turn, including disrupted delivery routes, inadequate supplies and communication breakdowns. .
According to the Aid Worker Safety Database, which tracks attacks on humanitarian workers around the world, 203 humanitarian workers have been killed in Gaza since October 7. This equates to more than 260 people being killed around the world in all of 2023, according to a report by Humanitarian Outcomes and the Global Interagency Security Forum. That number in 2023 is more than double the annual average total of the past three years, the report said.
Abby Stoddard, a partner at Humanitarian Outcomes, which maintains the list, said it was not clear how many of those killed in Gaza were providing food. She points out that many of them were not on duty, but died with their families.
For those left trying to deliver flour and other essentials to the people of Gaza, the attacks on aid workers only underscore the importance of their mission.
Steve Talavera, a senior spokesman for the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), said the organization would remain in the area where it had been operating since before the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that led to Israel's declaration of war. Before the war, the group worked with grocery stores and bakeries, but most of those stores closed due to power outages and unavailability of supplies, Talavera said. Currently, the program is focused on delivering whatever it can directly to people, including canned chickpeas, date bars and flour.
“People are dying and literally dying of hunger. So it's essential that we stay and feed them,” he said. “But the conditions there are frightening.”
WFP was able to bring just 47 trucks into northern Gaza in March, but estimates that 300 trucks are needed per day.
“We all feel a bond with each other because we know the challenges of doing this type of work,” Talavera said. “So when we see something like this, whether it's our colleagues at the United Nations or another organization like the World Central Kitchen, we feel deeply that it could be us, right? And (b) it's a death that didn't need to happen. And for the same thing to happen to someone who was there and was doing something to alleviate the suffering of others…”
Still, Talavera said he feels “uncomfortable” talking about the risks workers face. “It would be a shame if the focus was on 'woe is us,'” he said. “The people who are really suffering right now are the people who are not getting enough food to sustain themselves, and many are going into true starvation because of the high calorie content.”
As President Biden expressed outrage at the death toll, he added: “This conflict is one of the worst in recent memory in terms of the death toll of aid workers. This is the main reason why it is so difficult to distribute humanitarian aid in Gaza. – because Israel does not adequately protect aid workers who are trying to deliver desperately needed aid to civilians.”
Relief workers say the risks are incremental when providing food to people in need, especially for organizations like WCK that deal with a variety of situations. For example, during the U.S. government shutdown in late 2018 and early 2019, WCK faced virtually zero risk in feeding furloughed federal workers.
However, when an organization moves into a natural disaster area, the risks increase. Days after Hurricane Florence in 2018, an all-terrain vehicle carrying hot food skidded off a flooded road and began to flood in rural North Carolina, far from civilization. This harrowing moment is chronicled in We Feed People, a documentary directed by Ron Howard about Andres and the humanitarian organization he founded.
However, the situation is completely different in conflict zones and unstable countries. WCK is working hard to feed displaced families in Haiti, as corruption and gang violence tear the country apart and state institutions are “on the verge of collapse,” according to a report this year from the United Nations Human Rights Office. Established a soup kitchen network.
But Ukraine was the first active conflict in which WCK began meal delivery operations. In April 2022, just two months after Russia invaded Russia, a missile hit a relief kitchen in Kharkiv that was being operated with support from the WCK. Four kitchen staff were hospitalized with burns, some of them seriously. This is the first time one of WCK's relief kitchens has come under attack since WCK was founded in 2010.
However, compared to Ukraine, Gaza faces even higher risks. “Nowhere in Gaza is safe. You're in a closed environment. Israel is bombing. Hamas militants are fighting. Civilians are caught in the middle. You're trapped. There is nowhere to go. Everything is destroyed. Bombs are falling everywhere,” said a former WCK employee, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on behalf of the group.
“There are good people in Ukraine and there are bad people,” the former employee continued. “Let's stay on the side of the good guys. I'm not worried, unless some freak accident happens, but I'm not worried about the Ukrainians firing at us.”
Michael Capponi, founder and director of disaster relief group Global Empowerment Mission (GEM), said that despite sending hundreds of aid trucks to villages near the front lines, no one on the Ukrainian team had died. He said no. One reason for this, Capponi said, is that the Ukrainian military continues to provide the GEM with up-to-date information about Russian missile attacks and tank entries into the region. Rescue workers have a wealth of information.
However, GEM has not informed the Russian Federation where the organization plans to distribute food. “I decided never to do that, because I think it's more risky to let them know what we're doing than not to let them know,” the founder said.
In Gaza, GEM is taking lessons learned in Haiti, where the organization has operated for years to fend off gangs that seek to steal aid to vulnerable populations in Latin America and the Caribbean's poorest countries. There is. GEM stores supplies such as food, water, blankets and mattresses in warehouses in southern Gaza, where they are packed into unmarked, covered trucks for delivery to areas further north. GEM sometimes rents vehicles from local businesses to disguise its aid efforts.
GEM trucks also never travel in groups. Capponi said the subterfuge was not designed to evade attack by the IDF. “It was more a matter of theft and looting.”
Mr Stoddard, a partner at Humanitarian Outcome, said the world of disaster and humanitarian assistance has become more professional and dangerous than it was decades ago.
Organizations providing aid in conflict zones are developing more sophisticated training to keep workers safe, she said. “Twenty years ago there was no such thing as training. Most organizations didn't even have a security manual,” she said. “I think in the past, less experienced people were doing more of a pants-of-the-pants (we used to call them cowboys) type jobs. The number of talented people is increasing.”
Depending on the situation (and budget), aid workers could be trained in basic situational awareness and personal safety, she said. Most companies have protocols in place for staff to follow, such as adhering to curfews and controlling travel methods. There may be rules requiring people to travel in convoy in dangerous areas, she said. Some companies offer an expensive course called HEAT (Hostile Environment Awareness Training), which is a more complex scenario-based coaching.
Still, more people are being killed, she said. “Despite all the professionalization and development, aid worker fatalities are on the rise over time.”
One reason is that conflicts themselves are becoming more complex. In Sudan, the number of aid workers killed increased after the 2015 peace agreement, she noted. “Instead of a limited number of belligerent political parties, we now have a large number of paramilitary and criminal organizations, all of whom have access to weapons,” Stoddard said. “It is true that aid workers have assets that make them attractive targets for violence.”
Despite the risks in Gaza, GEM plans to continue providing food and other aid to Palestinians, unlike some of its peers. “Of course, safety is very important to our team,” Capponi said. “But people die there if they don't get help. That's the situation.”
In announcing that it would “temporarily suspend” operations in Gaza, WCK added that it “will make a decision on future operations soon.” “There's a time for everything…” Andres said in a WhatsApp message when asked if he had any inkling when WCK would resume operations there.
Meanwhile, it is unclear when Anera will resume operations in the Gaza Strip, but Carroll said the organization's absence would mean 150,000 fewer meals a day in the region. Even the organization's partner organizations, 43 in total, are questioning how the closure will affect their relief efforts. Carol's answer is almost none.
“In fact, until this is recognized by Israeli society and the Israeli government, we will not know how we can all feel safe. [current] The route does not ensure the safety of Israel and its citizens. It makes them less safe,” Carroll said. “I don't know if they can provide answers until we realize that perhaps killing aid workers is not the best way to promote our security.” Anela is reassured. I don't know if they can provide a complete answer.
