DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli airstrike killed seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen, leading the charity to suspend delivery Tuesday of vital food aid to Gaza, where Israel’s offensive has pushed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to the brink of starvation.
Ships still laden with some 240 tons of aid from the charity that arrived just a day earlier turned back from Gaza, according to Cyprus, which has played a key role in trying to establish a sea route to bring food to territory. Israel has allowed only a trickle of aid into devastated northern Gaza, where experts say famine is imminent.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged that the country’s forces had carried out the “unintended strike … on innocent people.” He said officials were looking into the strike and would work to ensure it did not happen again.
World Central Kitchen said it had coordinated with the Israeli military over the movement of the cars carrying the workers as they left northern Gaza late Monday. Footage of the aftermath showed a vehicle with the charity’s logo printed across its roof to make it identifiable from the air. The projectile punched a large hole through the roof. Two other vehicles in the convoy were incinerated and mangled, indicating multiple hits.
Other footage showed the bodies, several wearing protective gear with the charity’s logo, at a hospital in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah. Those killed include three British nationals, an Australian, a Polish national, an American-Canadian dual citizen and a Palestinian, according to hospital records.
The killings threatened to have repercussions on multiple levels. The dead were citizens of some of Israel’s closest allies, antagonizing them at a time when the country has few friends amid mounting international criticism of its nearly 6-month-old offensive in Gaza.
The strike could also set back efforts by the U.S. and other countries to open a maritime corridor for aid from Cyprus that would help ease the growing humanitarian disaster in Gaza’s north. World Central Kitchen, a food charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, was key to the new route.
Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said Tuesday that ship deliveries would continue. Israel has barred UNRWA, the main U.N. agency in Gaza, from making deliveries to the north, and other aid groups say sending truck convoys north has been extremely difficult because of the military’s failure to either grant permission or ensure safe passage.
The strike also underscored what critics have called the Israeli military’s disregard for civilian casualties in its Gaza campaign, which it says is aimed at destroying Hamas after its Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.
Throughout the war, Israeli forces have shown readiness to inflict widespread destruction when they believe a suspected militant is present or when ground troops see a tactical need to strike.
Homes with families sheltering inside are leveled by strikes almost daily. The military has struck ambulances and aid vehicles, saying that armed fighters were in them.
In February, troops and a tank opened fire when they felt threatened as thousands of Palestinians crowded to take aid off trucks, and more than 100 people were killed. The military said it did not fire at the convoy and that some victims died in stampeding.
More than 32,900 Palestinians have been killed in the war, around two-thirds of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. Israel blames Hamas for civilian deaths, saying it operates in populated areas.
The U.S., Britain, Poland and Australia called for an investigation or an explanation from Israel over the aid workers’ deaths. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered the forming of a “profession team” to investigate the strike and the opening of a joint situation room enabling coordination between the military and aid groups.
Andrés — whose World Central Kitchen charity operates in several countries wracked by wars or natural disasters — said he was “heartbroken” by the deaths of the staffers.
