Israeli strike in Gaza reportedly kills food charity workers

Wafaa Shurafa, Tia Goldenberg and Bassem Mroue
| Associated Press

Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip – An Israeli airstrike on a car in the Gaza Strip on Saturday killed five people, a senior Palestinian health official said.

Three of them were reportedly employees of the charity World Central Kitchen, whose efforts to deliver aid to the war-torn territory were temporarily suspended earlier this year after an Israeli strike killed seven of its workers, mostly foreigners.

World Central Kitchen could not immediately be reached for comment and did not mention the deaths on social media. The Israeli military said it had struck a wanted militant who was involved in the Hamas attack that sparked the war. In a later statement, it said the alleged attacker had worked with WCK and asked “senior officials in the international community and the WCK administration to clarify” how this happened.

Violence in Gaza continues, even as the cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah appears to be holding, despite sporadic episodes that have tested its fragility. Israel struck what it said were Hezbollah arms smuggling sites along Syria’s border with Lebanon on Saturday.

The strike on the Gaza vehicle was the latest in what aid agencies described as dangerous aid work in Gaza, where the war has sparked a humanitarian crisis that has displaced much of the population of 2.3 million. inhabitants of the territory and triggered widespread famine.

World Central Kitchen provides freshly prepared meals to people in need following natural disasters or those suffering conflict. Its teams have spread across Gaza and Israel and Lebanon since the start of the war and have often served as a lifeline for Gazans struggling to feed themselves and their families.

Palestinian health official Muneer Alboursh confirmed the strike, and an aid worker in Gaza confirmed that three killed were WCK workers. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

At Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, a woman held up an employee badge bearing the WCK logo, the word “contractor” and the name of a man said to have been killed in the strike. A pile of possessions—burnt phones, a watch, and WCK stickers—lay on the hospital floor.

Nazmi Ahmed said his nephew has been working for WCK for the past year. He said he was driving to the charity’s kitchens and warehouses.

“Today, he went out to work as usual … and was targeted without prior warning and for no reason,” Ahmed said.

In April, a strike on a WCK aid convoy killed seven workers – three British citizens, Polish and Australian citizens, a Canadian-American with dual citizenship and a Palestinian. The Israeli military said the strike was a mistake.

The strike prompted an international outcry and the suspension of aid to Gaza for a short period by several aid groups, including the WCK. Another Palestinian WCK worker was killed in August by shrapnel from an Israeli airstrike, the group said.

The Gaza war was sparked by a Hamas attack in October 2023, when militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostages. Israel’s retaliatory offensive killed more than 44,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials. which do not distinguish between civilians and combatants in their numbers, but say that more than half of the dead were women and children.

Efforts to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have repeatedly weakened. But the US-France-brokered deal for Lebanon looks set to stand after it came into force on Wednesday. However, Israel accused Hezbollah of violating the ceasefire, and Lebanon accused Israel of doing so.

On Saturday, the Israeli military said it struck sites that were used to smuggle weapons from Syria into Lebanon after the ceasefire took effect, in what the military called a violation of the terms. There was no immediate comment from Syrian authorities or activists monitoring the conflict in that country. Hezbollah did not immediately comment. Israeli jets have struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, citing ceasefire violations, several times since the ceasefire began.

The Israeli attack in Syria came as insurgents there swept into the country’s largest city, Aleppo, in a shock offensive that added new uncertainty to a region reeling from multiple wars.

The truce between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah calls for an initial two-month ceasefire in which the militants withdraw north of Lebanon’s Litani River and Israeli forces return to their side of the border.

Many Lebanese, some of the 1.2 million displaced by the conflict, were heading south to their homes despite warnings from the Israeli and Lebanese armies to stay away from certain areas.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that an Israeli drone attacked a car in the southern village of Majdal Zoun. Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said three people were injured, including a 7-year-old child. Majdal Zoun, near the Mediterranean Sea, is close to where Israeli troops still have a presence.

The Israeli military said earlier Saturday that its forces, which remain in southern Lebanon until they gradually withdraw during the 60-day ceasefire, had moved to remove “suspects” from the region, without giving details, and had said troops located and seized the weapons found. hidden in a mosque.

Israel says it reserves the right under the ceasefire to strike against any perceived violations. Israel has made the return of tens of thousands of displaced Israelis a goal of the war with Hezbollah, but Israelis, worried that Hezbollah has not been deterred and could still attack northern communities, have been anxious to return home.

Hezbollah began attacking Israel on October 8, 2023, in solidarity with the Palestinian militant group Hamas and its attack on southern Israel the day before. Israel and Hezbollah maintained a low-level cross-border firefight for nearly a year until Israel escalated its fight with a sophisticated attack that detonated hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah fighters. An intense aerial bombardment campaign against Hezbollah assets followed, killing many of its top leaders, including longtime chief Hassan Nasrallah, and launched a ground invasion in early October.

More than 3,760 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting has killed more than 70 people in Israel – more than half of them civilians – as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.

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Mohammad Jahjouh from Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, contributed.