The international aid organization World Central Kitchen confirmed that seven of its members were killed in an apparent Israeli airstrike in Gaza on Monday while trying to feed thousands of people facing hunger, according to chef José Andrés, the group's founder.
WCK said it would suspend its operations in Gaza.
The team members were traveling in a non-conflict area in two armored vehicles with the WCK logo and another unarmored vehicle, according to a statement from the nonprofit organization. The WCK said it had coordinated movements with the Israel Defense Forces, but that the convoy was attacked as it left a warehouse in Deir al Balah, a city in central Gaza. The team unloaded more than 100 tons of food brought to Gaza by sea.
Photos and videos circulating on social media on Monday showed dead bodies and bloody passports allegedly belonging to deceased members of the World Central Kitchen team deployed in Gaza. The WCK said the seven dead are from Australia, Poland, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and the Palestinian territories.
“I am heartbroken and shocked that we, World Central Kitchen and the world, lost beautiful lives today due to a targeted attack by the IDF. The love they had for feeding people, the determination they embodied to show that humanity is above all, and the impact they had on countless lives will be remembered and cherished forever,” CEO Erin Gore said in a statement.
According to World Central Kitchen, the IDF says it is “conducting an in-depth examination at the highest level to understand the circumstances of this tragic incident.”
Andrés could not be reached for comment.
“Today @WCKitchen [World Central Kitchen] We lost several of our brothers and sisters in an IDF airstrike in Gaza,” Andrés posted on the social media platform These are people… angels… I served alongside them in Ukraine, Gaza, Turkey, Morocco, Bahamas, Indonesia. They are not faceless… they are not nameless.
“The Israeli government must stop this indiscriminate killing,” the chef continued. “You have to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon. No more innocent lives will be lost. Peace begins with our shared humanity. It has to start now.”
Andrés had called for a ceasefire via social media on December 10 along with an “end to hostilities,” one of the most prominent voices in the global food community to do so.
Andrés' organization administers free meals, water and other resources in crisis zones around the world in the wake of wars and natural disasters. In March, World Central Kitchen collected approximately 200 tons of food and, with the help of the Spanish humanitarian group Open Arms, he embarked to Gaza to deliver the supplies.
The effort marked one of the first in a growing call to deliver aid to Palestinians by sea after five months of the war between Israel and Hamas; President Biden shared similar but unrelated plans during his State of the Union address with the US. The military was ordered to build a floating dock to administer aid off the coast of Gaza..
World Central Kitchen's team of staff, volunteer chefs and other on-the-ground helpers have been serving food and water to Palestinians since the fall. According to a statement from Andres and Gore in late March, the organization has served more than 42 million meals in Gaza and called the humanitarian crisis in Gaza “the most terrible we have ever seen or experienced in our 15-year history.”
World Central Kitchen is suspending operations in the region immediately and said in a statement that it will soon make decisions about future work in Gaza.
“This is not just an attack on WCK. This is an attack on humanitarian organizations that appear in the most horrific situations in which food is used as a weapon of war. “This is inexcusable,” Gore said.
Betty Hallock contributed to this story.
