Seven humanitarian aid workers who were delivering food supplies in Gaza were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Monday — adding to the growing list of volunteers and journalists killed since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday confirmed that Israel's armed forces "unintentionally" struck a convoy that belonged to the humanitarian group World Central Kitchen (WCK) in Gaza.
“It happens in war,” Netanyahu said. “We will investigate it right to the end, we check it to the end. We are in contact with the governments, and we will do everything so that this thing does not happen again.”
WCK, a nonprofit founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, has provided more than 37 million meals to Palestinians in Gaza since Oct. 7. The charity said in a statement that the seven aid workers killed included citizens of Australia, Poland and the United Kingdom, as well as one U.S.-Canada dual citizen and a Palestinian driver.
"They are not faceless. They are not nameless. The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing," Andrés said in a post on X. "It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers and stop using food as a weapon."
At least 200 humanitarian workers reportedly killed in Gaza
This is not the first instance of violence against aid workers since the start of the war almost six months ago. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which is the main UN agency in Gaza, reported that 176 of its workers have been killed since the war began.
In this war of “superlatives”, we are recording the highest number of aid workers killed in any conflict.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) April 2, 2024
176 @UNRWA staff have been killed since the start of the war in #Gaza, several in the line of duty.
Humanitarian workers are #NotATarget and must be protected at all times. pic.twitter.com/hUVRtzpNKs
The U.S.-funded Aid Worker Security Database, which documents major incidents of violence against aid personnel, has recorded more than 196 aid workers have been killed in Gaza — though not all have been killed in the line of duty.
Jamie McGoldrick, the United Nations aid coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said in a statement that the number of aid workers who have been killed is "nearly three times the death toll recorded in any single conflict in a year."
‘Deadliest period’ for journalists and media workers
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called the Israel-Hamas war the "deadliest period" for journalists and media workers since the CPJ began collecting data in 1992.
As of Tuesday, the CPJ's preliminary investigations have found at least 95 journalists and media workers have been killed since Oct. 7.
In addition to those 95 confirmed dead, 16 journalists have been reported injured, four journalists have been reported missing and 25 journalists have been reported arrested. These statistics do not account for the number of assaults, threats, cyberattacks, censorship and killings of family members that have also occurred.
Sign Up
