The US charity World Central Kitchen announced on Saturday that it was “temporarily suspending operations in the Gaza Strip at this time” after an Israeli airstrike hit a vehicle carrying workers.
The Israeli military confirms that a Palestinian employee of WCK was killed in a strike and accuses the employee of being a “terrorist” who “infiltrated Israel and took part in the brutal massacre of October 7 last year” did.
WCK said in a statement that it was “not aware that the person in the vehicle had claimed any connection to the October 7th Hamas attack” and did not confirm any fatalities.
Earlier on Saturday, Gaza Civil Defense Agency spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP that five people were killed, including “three World Central Kitchen employees” in a strike in Khan Yunis, the main southern city.
“All three men work for WCK and were hit while driving a WCK jeep in Khan Yunis,” Bassal said, adding that the vehicle was “marked with a clearly visible logo.” Ta.
WCK acknowledged that the strike had taken a toll on its employees, but added: “We are working on incomplete information at this time and are urgently seeking further details.”
A statement from the Israeli military said that representatives of the unit responsible for overseeing humanitarian assistance in Gaza “have asked the international community and senior officials of the WCK government to clarify the matter and provide urgent assistance regarding the employment of workers who took part in the October 7 fighting.” “I requested that an inspection be ordered.” Massacre”.
It also said that in the attack in Khan Yunis, “unmarked civilian vehicles collided and the movement of vehicles along the route was not coordinated for the transport of aid supplies.”
In April, an Israeli airstrike killed seven WCK staff: one Australian, three British, one North American, one Palestinian, and one Polish.
Israel said it had targeted “Hamas gunmen” in the attack, but the military acknowledged a series of “serious mistakes” and violations of its own rules of engagement.
The United Nations said last week that 333 aid workers have been killed since the war began last October, of which 243 were staff of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
The October 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian extremists in southern Israel killed 1,207 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli officials.
Israel's retaliatory military strikes have killed 44,382 people in the Gaza Strip, according to figures from the region's health ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable.
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