World Central Kitchen, a charity that delivers food aid to Gaza has announced on Tuesday that it is suspending its operations. According to an AP report, the announcement made by the organisation’s founder celebrity chef José Andrés is being seen as a major setback. The decision comes after an Israeli airstrike killed six international aid workers who world with World Central Kitchen.
Prime Minister Netanyahu said that aid workers were killed in an “unintended strike” and acknowledged that Israeli forces carried out the strike. In a statement, he said: “Unfortunately over the last day there was a tragic incident of an unintended strike of our forces on innocent people in the Gaza Strip.”
He added that officials are “checking this thoroughly” and “will do everything for this not to happen again.”
Apart from Netanyahu, the Israeli military have also expressed their “sincere sorrow” and said that an investigation will be carried out at the highest level that “will help us reduce the risk of such an event from occurring again.”
Footage shows that the dead workers included three British nationals, an Australian, a Polish national and an American-Canadian dual citizen, according to hospital records.
The workers were killed after their convoy was hit as it left the In response the charity said it had coordinated its movements with the Israeli army.
Members of the charity said that despite coordinating movements with the (Israeli army), the convoy was hit as it was leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse. The team had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza from there.
“This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable,” said Erin Gore, the CEO of the charity. The charity was key to a recently opened sea route for delivering desperately needed aid to northern Gaza.
Tweeting about the Israeli air strike, Andrés wrote on X. “The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing. It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon.”
