Seven aid people working with World Food Kitchen, the charity spearheading efforts to alleviate looming famine in Gaza, were fatally killed early Tuesday in an Israeli airstrike on their vehicle in Deir Al-Balah City, in the Middle of the Gaza enclave.
The aid workers, from the UK, Australia, Poland, and Palestine, as well as a US-Canada dual citizen, were in two armoured vehicles branded with the charity’s logo when Israeli air forces hit them with the violent attack, according to a statement by World Central Kitchen.
The charity said it had already coordinated with the Israeli army before started working in the enclave. Despite that, the convoy was hit as it was leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse, where the team had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route, the charity added.
Erin Gore, the CEO of WCK, said: “This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the direst of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable.”
Following the horrific incident, the charity announced it would pause its operations in the region and reconsider its future work, raising fears that a nascent aid maritime corridor from Cyprus to Gaza is in the face of repeated Israeli obstructions and may collapse.
Last month, more than 100 people were killed when Israeli forces opened fire at an aid distribution point in Gaza City.
Human Rights Watch condemned the attack on humanitarian work in Gaza, saying more than 170 relief workers were murdered by ‘Israel’ while in duty in Gaza.
The UN has warned that at least 576,000 Gazans are on the brink of famine amid growing global pressure on ‘Israel’ to increase the flow of aid.
The number of aid trucks entering the Gaza enclave by land over the past five months has been far below the 500 a day that entered before the war.
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