Apr 23 min read

Israeli airstrike on Gaza kills seven working for celebrity chef's NGO

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday an Israeli airstrike that killed seven people working for celebrity chef Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen charity in Gaza was unintended and "tragic", and the military pledged an independent inquiry.

The Israeli military confirmed the deadly strike on a WCK convoy that killed citizens from Australia, Britain and Poland as well as Palestinians and a dual citizen of the United States and Canada. WCK said they were travelling in two armoured cars emblazoned with the charity's logo and another vehicle.

The military expressed "sincere sorrow" and promised an independent investigation into the incident, which drew widespread condemnation and ratcheted up pressure for steps to ease the disastrous humanitarian situation in Gaza.

"Unfortunately in the past day there was a tragic event in which our forces unintentionally harmed non-combatants in the Gaza Strip," Netanyahu said in a video statement.

"This happens in war. We are conducting a thorough inquiry and are in contact with the governments. We will do everything to prevent a recurrence."

Israel has long denied accusations that it is hindering the distribution of urgently needed food aid in Gaza, which it has besieged in a war since October, saying the problem is caused by international aid groups' inability to get it to those in need.

Despite coordinating movements with the Israeli military, the convoy was hit as it was leaving its Deir al-Balah warehouse after unloading more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza by sea, WCK said.

"This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organisations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war," said Erin Gore, chief executive of World Central Kitchen.

"This is unforgivable."

The Israeli military (IDF) said it was conducting a thorough review at the highest levels to understand the circumstances of what it called a tragic incident, and pledged an investigation by "an independent, professional and expert body".

"The IDF makes extensive efforts to enable the safe delivery of humanitarian aid, and has been working closely with WCK in their vital efforts to provide food and humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza," the military said.

Israel has been under rising international pressure to alleviate the severe hunger in Gaza, which has been devastated by months of fighting the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. Much of the densely populated territory has been laid waste and most of its 2.3 million population displaced.

The United Nations and other international groups have accused Israel of hindering aid distribution with bureaucratic obstacles and failing to ensure the security of food convoys, underlined by a disaster on Feb. 29, in which around 100 people were killed as they awaited an aid delivery.

Hamas, Gaza's dominant group, has said the main problem with aid distribution was Israeli targeting of aid workers. After the latest incident, it issued a statement saying the attack aimed to terrorise workers of international humanitarian agencies, deterring them from their missions.

Last week, the World Court ordered Israel to take all necessary and effective action to ensure basic food supplies to the enclave's Palestinian population and halt spreading famine.

In response, Israeli officials accused the United Nations and other international bodies of "failure" over the problems in getting aid to hungry people in Gaza, saying they lack the logistical capacity to perform their jobs.

(Additional reporting by James Mackenzie and Dan Williams in Jerusalem, Sachin Ravikumar in London, Alan Charlish and Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk in Warsaw, Lewis Jackson in Sydney; writing by Lincoln Feast; editing by Clarence Fernandez, Philippa Fletcher and Mark Heinrich)