Saifeddin Abutaha, a World Central Kitchen relief worker, was on his way home to see his mother last week when an Israeli missile hit the car he was driving in a humanitarian convoy.
Abu Taha, 25, dotes on his parents and frequently texts them while delivering aid to the Gaza Strip, which is on the brink of famine after six months of war. His brother Abdul Raziq Abutaha said in an interview that in his final hours, he was splitting his time between delivering food and making plans for his family's Ramadan.
However, since Saifeddin passed away on April 1st, his mother Inshira, who once fantasized about seeing him married, has been unable to accept that Saifeddin is gone.
“She hasn't eaten anything since he died,” said Abdul Raziq, 33. She “keeps saying, 'He'll be back soon, probably around Eid (the holiday marking the end of Ramadan),” he said. It started on Wednesday. Saif won't be there.
The April 1 attack on Israel that killed seven World Central Kitchen employees sparked international outrage, particularly from the countries of origin of six of them: Britain, Poland, Australia, Canada, and the United States. invited.
Abu Taha, a Palestinian from Gaza, was also killed in the attack. His death underscores the harsh fact that most of the more than 200 aid workers killed since Israel's bombing of Gaza began were Palestinians, according to UN Secretary-General António Guterres. He last week called for independent investigations into each of the deaths, which have received less attention than the killings of foreign aid workers.
Palestinian workers form the backbone of humanitarian assistance in Gaza, as do local workers in combat and disaster zones where aid organizations operate. They provide important connections and on-the-ground expertise to foreign staff who are new to the area, enabling them to implement relief projects and communicate with the people they support.
Abutaha works as a driver and translator at World Central Kitchen, helping staff navigate the bureaucracy, political climate and city streets of the place where he grew up and where he was providing urgently needed aid until the missile attacks. Helped gate. He said his family's membership in a well-known, organized group provided something rare in Gaza these days: a semblance of security.
Abdul Raziq said last week: “I had no idea that Saif would be beaten or killed.'' “This was an international humanitarian organization that had very high levels of coordination with Israel and its military.”
That arrangement failed to protect Mr. Abutaha and his colleagues. An internal investigation by the Israeli military concluded that their killing was a “grave mistake” with numerous failures and violations of protocol, with officers relying partially on insufficient and erroneous evidence that the passengers died. It turned out that he had ordered an attack on the convoy. One of the cars was armed.
Israel announced that several military personnel involved in the attack had been disciplined or fired.
But José Andrés, the famous celebrity chef who founded World Central Kitchen, is calling for an independent investigation. In an interview on ABC's “This Week” on Sunday, he said, “There's no way the perpetrators would investigate on their own.”
“Obviously this was a target,” Andres said of the killings carried out in three separate strikes that hit three vehicles carrying workers one after the other. “For example, you could argue that the first one was a mistake. The second? The third?”
Israel launched a military operation in Gaza after a Hamas-led attack on October 7 killed around 1,200 people near the border, according to Israeli officials. Israel claims its aim is to destroy the group.
But local health officials say the war has killed more than 33,000 people in Gaza so far, but Hamas has not been destroyed. The most senior leaders are alive and the fighters remain active and have rallied in parts of Gaza.
Before the war started, Abdul Raziq Abutaha, his younger brother, was as upbeat as a young man could hope to be in the Gaza Strip, which has been under a punitive blockade by Egypt and Israel since Hamas took power in 2007. He said he was preparing for the future.
Abdul Raziq said Saif attended Ajman University in the United Arab Emirates and worked there until his father asked him to return in 2020. Mr. Saif wanted him to help run his family's flour mill business.
But Israeli attacks destroyed much of Gaza's civilian infrastructure, leaving the company without electricity and basic raw materials such as flour, making it impossible to operate the factory during the war.
But one day, World Central Kitchen staff visited the family's warehouse and liked what they saw. They chose this location as their headquarters in the Gaza Strip after coordinating with the Israeli military, Abdul Raziq said.
The aid workers began living in apartments within the factory and quickly became friends with the families, sharing meals and bonding over the trauma of war.
“We loved them and they loved us,” Abdul Raziq said.
World Central Kitchen staff asked Saif to translate during meetings and hired him as both a driver and an interpreter. His sister Amani said in an interview with Arabic-language channel Al Ghad TV that he and the foreign staff quickly became inseparable.
“He was always with foreigners, acting as translators and collecting aid,” she said. “He was the driver because he lived in Gaza and knew the streets of Gaza very well.”
Abdul Raziq said he was “overjoyed” that his brother had found a job helping victims of war, and that his brother “died while on a mission to feed the poor and hungry” during the holy month. The family said they found some kind of blessing. of Ramadan.
Abdul Raziq said that on the day Saif died, World Central's small kitchen group had left its facility in the southern Gaza Strip and headed north. Saif was in touch with his family throughout the day. His sister Amani said the last time she spoke to him was at 4 p.m., when he sent her a selfie he had taken while waiting for a cargo ship to arrive.
“I told him to take care of himself and let God protect him,” she said. “He answered, “I rely on God.'' Little did he know that God would soon take everything away. ”
Saif also sent a text message to Abdul Raziq, telling him that he and his mother were returning home to prepare for the Ramadan fast the next day. He then sent his last message to his mother, asking, “Mom, have you slept yet?”
