World Central Kitchen announced on Wednesday that it was suspending its humanitarian operations in Rafah and relocating its community kitchen further north in the Gaza Strip due to “ongoing attacks” by Israeli forces.
The move came as Israel appeared to escalate its attacks on Rafah despite growing international pressure to avoid them. An Israeli airstrike on Sunday killed at least 45 people at a tent camp near Gaza's southernmost city, in what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a “tragic accident.”
But the airstrikes came close to where Palestinians fleeing Israeli forces had sought safety in specially designated humanitarian areas. Witnesses and survivors said many of those caught in the attack died in the raging fires believed to have been caused by the attack. Two more Israeli attacks in Rafah on Tuesday killed at least 29 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip.
“Countless families have been forced to flee again,” WCK said in a statement on social media. The group said the “situation is dire” but that it had managed to provide nearly 100,000 meals to displaced Palestinians on Tuesday. It also said 58 aid trucks had entered the Gaza Strip since Sunday and hoped to increase that number.
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WCK resumed food distribution in the Gaza Strip in late April, about a month after seven aid workers were killed in an Israeli airstrike. “Ultimately, we decided that we had to continue distributing food,” the group said of its decision.
The Biden administration reiterated its support for Israel late Tuesday, saying the operation that killed at least 45 people in Gaza over the weekend did not amount to a major ground invasion that crossed the U.S. red line.
