More humanitarian groups consider pausing aid to Gaza after WCK workers killed
Humanitarian groups are considering pausing efforts in Gaza over safety concerns after an airstrike carried out by the Israeli military killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers on Monday. This comes amid an impending famine.
World Central Kitchen (WCK), a nonprofit organization founded by celebrity chef José Andrés in 2010, provides fresh meals for people impacted by conflict or natural disasters. A team based in Gaza served millions of people ravaged by the war that broke out in October between Israel and Hamas, killing more than 32,000 people before operations were halted after the airstrike.
Andrés said on social media that he was “heartbroken and grieving” for the deaths of his team members. “The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing,” he said on Monday. “No more innocent lives lost. Peace starts with our shared humanity. It needs to start now.”
Monday’s deadly airstrike is one of many attacks that has resulted in a record number of deaths to humanitarian aid workers. Nearly 200 aid workers have been killed since October, about three times higher than any other conflict, according to the United Nations. This has caused many organizations to reconsider operations in Gaza.
The nonprofit American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera) announced that it is taking the “unprecedented step” of pausing its humanitarian aid efforts in Gaza following the attack. The organization said the bombings come less than a month after the “still-unexplained” killing of one of their staff members. This and the loss of other aid workers and their families led Anera to decide that delivering aid safely was no longer feasible.
“While we understand the severe consequences this suspension will have on the Palestinian population, the escalating risks associated with aid delivery leave us with no choice but to halt operations until our staff regain confidence that they can do their work without undue risk,” the organization said in a statement.
The organization stressed the gravity of the decision, noting that conditions for the first time in six months have become “intolerable” with disregard for international law. This is the first time in more than 50 years that Anera has stopped operations in the Palestinian territories.
Project HOPE, a nonprofit humanitarian aid group, paused their programming in the region for the next three days in solidarity with the killed aid workers and to reassess security for their staff.
The organization denounced the bombings in a statement on Tuesday and called for an immediate ceasefire and accountability in an international criminal court. Project HOPE also lost a colleague in the war and said this was “the most dangerous place in the world to be a humanitarian worker.”
On Monday, two armored cars with the WCK logo and another vehicle were hit after the team unloaded about 100 tons of food in Deir al-Balah. The attack happened despite coordinating travel with the Israel Defense Forces, WCK said in a statement.
“This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable,” said WCK CEO Erin Gore.
The seven people killed were from Australia, Poland, the United Kingdom, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada and Palestine. WCK released their identities on Tuesday. The organization said it would be making decisions about the future of their work soon.
The airstrike drew immediate criticism in the U.S. and around the world, prompting concerns that already difficult efforts to increase humanitarian aid to the starving region will be met with more hostilities. Some Palestinian rights groups went further and accused Israel of intentionally planning the attack, knowing “the world would allow them to continue to starve Gaza with impunity.”
A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council on Monday posted that they are “heartbroken and deeply troubled” by the strike and reiterated that humanitarian workers must be protected.
On Tuesday night, President Joe Biden said he was “outraged” in what analysts consider the harshest rebuke by the White House against Israel’s actions in the war. Biden said this is not a stand-alone incident.
“Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians. Incidents like (that) simply should not happen,” Biden said. “The United States has repeatedly urged Israel to deconflict their military operations against Hamas with humanitarian operations, in order to avoid civilian casualties.”
Biden said he is pushing “hard” for an immediate ceasefire as part of a deal to release hostages held by Hamas.
Some Republicans and GOP groups also expressed dismay about the airstrike. The John McCain institute said in a statement that it supports Israel’s right to defend itself, but the country needs to do it “in a way that is militarily more precise.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strike was an “unintended” consequence of wartime and said they will ensure it does not happen again. The IDF said in a statement that it is investigating the circumstances of the attack.
Organizations pausing aid in Gaza comes after the U.S. decided in its fiscal appropriations bill to stop funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) at least until March next year.
The U.S. has historically provided the majority of UNRWA’s funding, but that changed early this year amid claims by Israel of UNRWA staff involvement in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. The U.N. has cast doubt on those claims over a lack of evidence, but at least 16 nations put their funding on hold.
As of Tuesday, the European Commission, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Finland and most recently Japan have lifted their pauses on UNRWA aid, according to Al Jazeera.