World Central Kitchen said on Sunday that it would resume operations in Gaza with a local team of Palestinian aid workers, nearly a month after the Israeli military killed seven of the organization’s workers in targeted drone strikes on their convoy.
Israeli military officials have said the attack was a “grave mistake” and cited a series of failures, including a breakdown in communication and violations of the military’s operating procedures.
But the “humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire,” the aid group’s chief operating officer, Erin Gore, said in a statement.
“We are restarting our operation with the same energy, dignity, and focus on feeding as many people as possible,” she said.
World Central Kitchen said it was also planning to send trucks to Gaza through Jordan and that it would open a kitchen in Al-Mawasi, a small seaside village that the Israeli military designated as a “humanitarian zone” safe for civilians, though attacks there have continued.
Six of the seven workers killed on April 1 were from Western nations — three from Britain, one from Australia, one from Poland and one with dual citizenship of the United States and Canada.
They were killed in back-to-back Israeli drone strikes on their vehicles as they traveled toward Rafah after unloading food aid that had arrived by sea.
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Nearly a month after the Israeli military killed seven of World Central Kitchen’s employees in targeted drone strikes on their convoy, the organization announced on Sunday that it would resume operations in Gaza with a local team of Palestinian aid workers.
Israeli military officials described the attack as a “serious error” and listed several mistakes that were made, such as a communication breakdown and transgressions of military protocol.
The Washington-based aid organization stated that it had not received “no concrete assurances” that the Israeli military’s operational procedures had changed and that it continued to call for an independent, international investigation into the attack on April 1. The chief operating officer of the aid organization, Erin Gore, stated in a statement that the “humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire.”.
“We are resuming operations with the same vigor, respect, and goal of providing food for as many people as we can,” she declared.
The humanitarian organization claimed to have fed over 43 million people in Gaza to date and to have trucks ready to bring in nearly eight million meals via the southern Rafah crossing. Along with opening a kitchen in Al-Mawasi, a small seaside village that the Israeli military designated as a “humanitarian zone” safe for civilians despite ongoing attacks, World Central Kitchen announced that it also planned to send trucks to Gaza via Jordan.
Six of the seven laborers who were murdered on April 1st were citizens of Western countries: three were from Britain, one each from Australia, Poland, and the United States and Canada. Palestinians made up the seventh. After unloading food aid that had arrived by sea, they were killed in consecutive Israeli drone strikes on their vehicles as they made their way toward Rafah.
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