José Andrés, the founder of World Central Kitchen (WCK), claimed that Israeli forces in Gaza “systematically, car by car” attacked his humanitarian workers.
He reiterated that Israeli soldiers had been informed of the whereabouts of his workers and insisted that the attack on Monday that claimed the lives of seven of his employees was not an error. Along with their Palestinian colleague, WCK workers from Australia, Canada, Poland, the UK, and the US also died.
Israel has apologized and stated that the strike was a “grave mistake”. It has additionally pledged to conduct a separate inquiry.
The charity claims that while the relief caravan was departing the Deir al-Balah warehouse, “where the team had unloaded more than 100 tonnes of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route,” it was struck.
Andrés stated that “it was really a direct attack on clearly marked vehicles whose movements were known by everybody at the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]” in a different interview with Israel’s Channel 12 news.
Three cars, two of which were armoured and prominently carried the charity’s emblem, comprised the convoy. During the strike, all three were struck.
Since then, six dead WCK employees’ bodies have been transported from Gaza into Egypt for their return to their home countries. On Tuesday, their Palestinian colleague was laid to rest in his hometown of Rafah, in the southern Gaza area.
WCK, a major humanitarian organization to the Gaza Strip, halted operations, casting doubt on future supplies.
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According to the well-known Spanish-American chef, this was not “bad luck situation where, ‘oops,’ we dropped the bomb in the wrong place”.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, said that the hit was inadvertent.
US President Joe Biden denounced the strike and charged that Israel was not going far enough to safeguard relief workers.