Three days after the tragedy comes the time of reckoning. The American NGO World Central Kitchen (WCK), of which seven humanitarian workers were killed this Monday in an Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip where fighting between Hamas and Israel continues, calls this Thursday in a press release to “an independent investigation”. This is “the only way to determine the truth about what happened, to ensure transparency and accountability of those responsible, and to prevent future attacks against humanitarian workers,” the management wrote in this press release.
World Central Kitchen is calling for an independent investigation into the IDF strikes that killed seven members of our team on April 1, 2024. Read our full statement here: https://t.co/pV8Y9B41Ri pic.twitter.com/C4vgu0r4IZ
— World Central Kitchen (@WCKitchen) April 4, 2024
“This was a military attack that involved multiple strikes and targeted three WCK vehicles. The three vehicles were transporting civilians; they were marked as WCK vehicles; and their movements were fully in accordance with the Israeli authorities, who knew their route, their itinerary and their humanitarian mission,” the NGO continues in its press release.
“They knew it was our teams”
WCK also says it has asked Australia, Canada, the United States, Poland and the United Kingdom - countries of which the killed aid workers are nationals - to join its call for an independent investigation. “Yesterday
(Thursday)
, to ensure the integrity of the investigation, we called on the Israeli government to immediately preserve all documents, communications, video and/or audio recordings, as well as any other material potentially relevant to the 1st April,” adds the NGO.
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Questioned by the Reuters news agency, the Spanish-American chef José Andrés who created WCK in 2010 believes that this is not a “bad luck situation”. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recognized an “unintentional” strike on “innocents”, when the army indicated that it had opened an investigation. According to José Andrés, the IDF knew where the humanitarian convoy was located. “They targeted us in a deconfliction zone, in an area controlled by the Israeli army. They knew that it was our teams who were traveling on this road,” accused José Andrés.
According to the Spanish leader, the WCK logo was placed on the roof of the vehicles forming the humanitarian convoy. “Who we are and what we do is very clear,” José Andrés told Reuters. “No democratic country or army can target civilians and humanitarians. »
Israeli apology
This Wednesday, the remains of the six Westerners killed - the seventh being Palestinian - were evacuated to Egypt before being repatriated to their respective countries. It is “a serious error” which “should not have happened”, admitted the chief of the Israeli general staff Herzi Halevi, referring to “a bad identification” in “very complex conditions”. The day before, Israeli President Isaac Herzog presented his “apologies”.
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When the tragedy was announced, WCK said it was “devastated” and announced it was suspending its operations in the region. In mid-March, she participated in sending the first aid boat to Gaza from Cyprus. The UN, for its part, denounced a “contempt for international humanitarian law” and its workers, American President Joe Biden said he was “outraged”, believing that Israel does not “enough” protect people coming to the aid of the “starving” Palestinian population.
VIDEO. “A tragedy that should never have happened”: 7 humanitarian workers killed in Israeli strike
The Israeli strike against the seven members of World Central Kitchen "has the characteristics of a precision airstrike, indicating that the Israeli army intended to hit these vehicles," said Richard Weir of the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW), quoted in a press release. Since the start of the war, 196 aid workers have been killed, including 175 from the UN, according to its secretary general, Antonio Guterres.