A Gaza-bound ship carrying 240 tons of canned food stands just outside the Cypriot port in Larnaca, Cyprus, Saturday, March 30, 2024. The ship, named Jennifer, was scheduled to depart after her inauguration, according to the US charity World Central Kitchen. Earlier this month, the Open Arms ship delivered 200 tons of food and water on the Cyprus-Gaza route. (AP Photo/Petros Karagias)
World Central Kitchen, the food charity founded by celebrity chef Jose Andrés, has suspended its operations in the Gaza Strip after seven of its employees, most of them foreigners, were killed in an attack believed to be carried out by Israel. I asked for it to stop.
The group, which said it would soon decide on long-term plans for the region, is delivering much-needed food to Gazans facing widespread hunger, and recently launched an effort to bring aid to Gaza by sea. became a pioneer. Their absence, even temporarily, is likely to deepen misery in the war-torn region, as the United Nations warns of impending famine.
Here, we take a look at the work of charities in Gaza and what their absence means.
Founded in 2010, World Central Kitchen delivers freshly prepared meals to people affected by natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes, or enduring conflict. The group also provided meals to migrants arriving at the U.S. southern border and to hospital staff who have worked hard during the coronavirus pandemic.
Aid organizations are deploying teams who can quickly prepare meals at scale that appeal to local tastes.
“When we talk about food and water, people don't want solutions a week from now or a month from now. Solutions have to be now,” Andres said on the group's website. reportedly said.
World Central Kitchen is active in dozens of affected areas and currently has a team in Haiti responding to the needs of Ukrainians displaced by the Russian invasion, as well as those affected by the war in Gaza. Provides meals.
The charity's teams have been deployed across the region since Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on October 7 and throughout the war it sparked. According to its website, the company provides meals to Israelis and former hostages displaced by the attack, as well as Lebanese displaced by fighting with Israel. But the operations in Gaza were the toughest.
In Gaza, the organization says it has provided more than 43 million meals to Palestinians.
The group has set up two main kitchens in the southern city of Rafah and the central town of Deir al-Balah. We support 68 community kitchens across the territory, serving more than 170,000 hot meals per day. The organization has stepped up its efforts during Ramadan, the holy month when Muslims traditionally fast from sunrise to sunset, followed by a sumptuous meal, and has delivered 92,000 food boxes, or about 4.7 million meals. was distributed.
The group also provided food through airlifts and led two maritime flights carrying hundreds of tonnes of food to northern Gaza, where the food crisis is most acute.
In an interview with The Associated Press last month, Andres acknowledged that the charity's sea shipments were the impetus for the U.S. to declare it would build a floating pier to deliver maritime aid to Gaza.
“I think this is an accomplishment for us,” he said.
World Central Kitchen immediately ceased operations, and tens of thousands of meals per day will no longer be distributed.
Other aid agencies, including the United Nations, are still providing assistance to Palestinians on the ground, but they say supplies are not arriving quickly enough and that transporting them once in Gaza is a logistical problem. They say they are hampered by constant fighting. Israel denies there is a food shortage in the Gaza Strip and blames the United Nations and other aid groups for failing to scale up deliveries within the Strip.
World Central Kitchen has spearheaded two sea shipments that have arrived in Gaza so far. It's unclear how long the maritime corridor will continue without the group, and it will be some time before the U.S.'s planned floating pier takes hold.
