The founder of the NGO World Central Kitchen, José Andrés, does not think the deadly attack on his aid workers in the Gaza Strip was an “unfortunate mistake”. He said this on Wednesday in interviews with the Israeli channel Channel 12 and the Reuters news agency.
Seven WCK aid workers were killed in an Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip on Monday. “I don’t think the airstrikes on our convoy were an unfortunate mistake. We were deliberately targeted. Non stop, until everyone was dead. It was really a direct attack on clearly marked vehicles whose movements were known to everyone in the Israeli army,” Andrés said in an interview with Channel 12.
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Andrès told Reuters that the Israeli army targeted WCK aid workers “systematically, car by car.” The Spanish-American top chief pointed out that the army was aware of their movements, in a zone under the control of the Israeli forces. “This wasn’t just a bad luck situation of ‘oops, we dropped the bomb in the wrong place’. This was over a distance of 1.5 to 1.8 kilometers, on a very clear humanitarian convoy with very colorful logos on the roof.”
“They knew it was our teams driving down that road, with three cars,” the chief said. After the IDF attacked the first armored car, Andrès said the survivors were able to escape into a second car, which was then attacked. They were forced to go to the third car and tried to make it clear who they were. Then the third car was also hit.
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“Even if we were not in contact with the Israeli Defense Forces, no democratic country and no army can target civilians and aid workers,” the WCK founder said.
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Andrès is calling for an investigation into the incident by the U.S. government and by the home country of each aid worker killed. The victims include people from Australia, Poland and the United Kingdom, as well as an American-Canadian citizen. The seventh victim is of Palestinian origin.
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WCK was one of the few NGOs still working in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. The employees distributed food and helped with the first delivery of relief supplies by boat from Cyprus. After the attack, the organization announced it was suspending its operations in the region.
The Israeli army acknowledged on Wednesday that it made “a big mistake” by killing them.
At least 196 humanitarian workers have been killed in Gaza since October, according to the United Nations.