An apparent Israeli airstrike killed four foreign aid workers from chef José Andrés' World Central Kitchen charity and their Palestinian driver on Monday night after they helped deliver food and supplies in Gaza. Health officials in the enclave detailed that the workers had arrived hours earlier by boat.
Images show the bodies of the five deceased at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah, in the middle of Gaza.
Several of them were wearing protective gear with the charity's logo,
and an NBC News crew saw the bodies of people wearing clothing with the World Central Kitchen logo being taken to the hospital
.
Staff showed the passports of three of the dead: British, Australian and Polish. The nationality of the fourth worker is unknown at this time.
Andrés, founder of the organization, described the workers as "angels" with whom he collaborated in several countries, including Turkey and Ukraine.
"They are not anonymous," the chef, whose full name is José Ramón Andrés Puerta, wrote on his X account, where he also said he felt "heartbroken and saddened" by the deaths.
“The Israeli government must stop this indiscriminate killing,” he said. “You have to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon. “No more innocent lives will be lost.”
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The workers' car was hit by an Israeli attack just after crossing from northern Gaza to deliver aid that had arrived hours earlier on a ship from Cyprus, said Mahmoud Thabet, a paramedic with the Palestinian Red Crescent (equivalent to the Red Cross) who was on the team that brought the bodies. The source of the fire could not be independently confirmed.
The aid ships that arrived on Monday were carrying around 400 tonnes of food and supplies in a shipment organized by the United Arab Emirates and
World Central Kitchen (WCK), the charity founded by famous Spanish chef José Andrés.
Last month, a ship delivered 200 tons of aid in a pilot test. The Israeli army participated in the coordination of both deliveries.
Regarding the incident, the Israel Defense Forces said it was reviewing it “at the highest level.”
“The IDF makes great efforts to enable the safe delivery of humanitarian aid and has been working closely with WCK in its vital efforts to provide food and humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza,” the military said.
The challenges of delivering humanitarian aid
The United States has touted the sea route as a new way to deliver desperately needed aid to northern Gaza, where several hundred Palestinians face imminent famine, largely cut off from the rest of the territory by Israeli forces.
Israel has banned UNRWA, the main UN agency for Palestinian refugees, from making deliveries to northern Gaza, and other aid groups say sending trucks to the region has been too dangerous due to the army's inability to guarantee passage. sure.
Monday's attack came hours after Israeli troops ended a two-week raid on al-Shifa hospital, Gaza's largest, leaving the facility virtually destroyed and a swath of devastation in surrounding neighborhoods. Images showed that Shifa's main buildings had been
reduced to burnt shells.
Israel said it launched the attack on al-Shifa hospital because senior Hamas officials had allegedly regrouped there and were planning attacks. The army said its troops killed 200 militants in the operation, although the claim that all were militants could not be confirmed, and Palestinians who arrived at the scene after the troops withdrew found dead bodies of civilians.
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A flotilla of three ships transports humanitarian aid from Cyprus to the Gaza Strip, on March 30, 2024.Getty Images
Iran vows revenge
Syrian officials and state media said an Israeli airstrike destroyed Iran's consulate in Syria and killed two generals and five Iranian officers. The attack appears to signify an
escalation of Israel's attacks against Iranian military officials and their allies in Syria.
The attacks have intensified since Hamas militants, who are supported by Iran, attacked Israel on October 7.
Israel, which rarely acknowledges such attacks, said it had no comment. Iran's ambassador, Hossein Akbari, promised revenge for the attack "with the same magnitude and harshness."
With information from
The Associated Press