Aid workers were targeted for death by Israel. The world is outraged.
They join over 200 other aid workers and 30 thousand Palestinians killed in Gaza.
A dual US-Canada national, a Palestinian, three Brits, an Australian, and a Pole were killed when an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) strike hit a returning WCK convoy.
“These are the heroes of WCK,” the organization’s CEO Erin Gore said in a statement revealing their identities. “These 7 beautiful souls were killed by the IDF in a strike as they were returning from a full day’s mission. Their smiles, laughter, and voices are forever embedded in our memories.”
The seven dead humanitarians joined over two hundred other aid workers, many of them Palestinians themselves, who have been killed by the Israeli Defense Forces.
And they are part of the over 30,000 Palestinian civilians who have been killed, over a third of those being children.
Israeli prime minister Netanyahu called the deaths and accident.
But Jose Andres, founder of World Central Kitchen (WCF) was having none of it.
Writing in an op/ed piece in the New York Times, Andres said the group, in two vehicles a mile apart, were targeted.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said of the Israeli killings of our team, “It happens in war.” It was a direct attack on clearly marked vehicles whose movements were known by the Israel Defense Forces.
It was also the direct result of a policy that squeezed humanitarian aid to desperate levels. Our team was en route from a delivery of almost 400 tons of aid by sea — our second shipment, funded by the United Arab Emirates, supported by Cyprus and with clearance from the Israel Defense Forces.
And while President Biden has expressed his personal outrage at the killings, the U.S. continues to send more bombs and missiles to Netanyahu.
And though Senator Chuck Schumer gave his senate speech urging new elections in Israel in order to remove Netanyahu, he remained silent about any halt to arms shipments.
Asked the next day, Mr. Schumer said he did not even want to discuss the topic.
Chef Andres on the other hand was not silent.
“The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing,” he said on social media. “It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon.”