Haven't We Lost Enough Lives in Gaza?

José Andrés, the renowned chef who founded World Central Kitchen (WCK), condemned Israeli officials after troops killed seven of his charity’s workers who were delivering food and supplies to starving Palestinians in Gaza ― leading the aid group to pause its desperately needed work in the region.

Andrés confirmed that WCK lost “several of our sisters and brothers” in the Israeli attack. The workers were traveling in a convoy of three cars traveling from Deir al-Balah in Central Gaza to deliver food to starving people in the North.  Two of the cars in the convoy were armored vehicles branded with the charity’s logo on their roofs so Israeli forces would know not to attack them. WCK also said the convoy was driving in a deconflicted zone.  WCK had also been coordinating movements with the Israeli military.

Saif & Damian the day they were killed by Israel

Despite those safety measures, Israeli troops (using so-called precision intelligence and the most technologically advanced weaponry) bombed the convoy as it was leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse. The WCK warehouse had just received more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid that had arrived via sea route. According to some reports and geolocation of the area, Israel launched three strikes on the cars in succession.

“I am heartbroken and grieving for their families and friends and our whole WCK family,” Andrés wrote of the victims on X, formerly Twitter. “These are people...angels...I served alongside in Ukraine, Gaza, Turkey, Morocco, Bahamas, Indonesia. They are not faceless...they are not nameless.”   The innocent aid workers killed by Netanyahu's IDF are:

• 25-year-old Saifeddin Issam Aya Abutaha (Palestine) 
• 43-year-old Lalzawmi (Zomi) Frankcom (Australia)
• 35-year-old Damian Sobol (Poland)
• 33-year-old Jacob Flickinger (U.S./Canada)
• 57-year-old John Chapman (U.K.)
• 33-year-old Jim Henderson (U.K.)
• 47-year-old James Kirby (U.K.)

“The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing. It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon,” Andrés said. “No more innocent lives lost. Peace starts with our shared humanity. It needs to start now.”

Israel’s preventable attack on WCK workers threatens aid ships from being able to actually deliver life-saving aid to Palestinians facing a dire humanitarian crisis.   Three aid ships coming from Cyprus arrived in Gaza with 400 tons of food and supplies organized by WCK, but 240 tons of that cargo had to be sent back as a result of Israel’s shocking attack and WCK’s subsequent pause in operations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the attack was “unintentional” but failed to articulate exactly what the intention of the attack actually was.  He flippantly remarked that the killings were also something that “happens in war.”  Historically, Israel’s probes into its own military have rarely produced results that hold the army accountable. 

The Israeli military has killed more than 200 humanitarian workers in Gaza since launching its military offensive, following the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas in which some 1,200 people were killed and another roughly 250 were taken hostage. More than 30,000 people have since been killed in Gaza, and it’s believed that more than 12,000 of them were children.