According to José Andrés, the chef who founded the organization, international aid workers at World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit disaster relief organization that has become a crucial source of food for desperate Gazans, are were killed in an air strike in Gaza.
Mr. Andrés said on the X platform that “many of our sisters and brothers” were killed in the airstrike, reported Monday evening in Deir al-Balah, a town in central Gaza. She said the Israeli army carried out the attack, although this could not immediately be confirmed.
Graphic video footage that followed showed five corpses, three of which had passports on their chests identifying them as citizens of Poland, Australia and Britain. Some of the victims wore protective clothing with visible World Central Kitchen patches. The nationalities of the other two could not immediately be confirmed.
The Israeli military said in a statement Tuesday that it is “conducting a thorough analysis at the highest levels to understand the circumstances of this tragic incident.”
The army said it was “making great efforts to enable the safe delivery of humanitarian aid and has worked closely with the WCK in their vital efforts to deliver food and humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the country's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was “urgently investigating” reports that an Australian aid worker had been killed.
“I am very concerned about the loss of life that is occurring in Gaza,” he said. “My government has supported a sustainable ceasefire, we have called for the release of hostages and there have been too many innocent lives – Palestinian and Israeli – lost during the Gaza-Hamas conflict.”
World Central Kitchen has become a key organization in the dangerous and politically challenging efforts to distribute humanitarian aid to desperate Gazans. Israel has severely limited aid reaching Gaza through land crossings, leaving sea shipments as an increasingly important means of delivering food to the enclave. A ship carrying 400 tons of food left Cyprus on Saturday bound for Gaza.
The Israeli military said it had provided security and coordination to the organization in previous operations.
World Central Kitchen said in a statement on Monday that he was “aware of reports” that members of his staff had been killed “in an IDF attack while working to support our humanitarian food delivery efforts in Gaza,” referring to the Israel Defense Forces.
“This is a tragedy,” the organization said. “Aid workers and civilians should never be a target. Never.”
Andrés said in his social media post that the Israeli government “must stop these indiscriminate killings.
“It must stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon.”
Damiano Grotta contributed a report from Sydney, Aric Toler from Kansas City, Kan., and Anushka Patil From New York.