Jose Andres Claims Israel Targeted Aid Workers Deliberately

Image courtesy: The Times of Israel

(The Post News) On Wednesday, the founder of World Central Kitchen, the Spanish-American celebrity chef Jose Andres, accused Israel of targeting his workers on purpose. The seven victims of Aid WCK were killed when their vehicle was destroyed in the Gaza airstrike. Due to these incidents, Jose suspended operations in Gaza until further notice.

According to the Fiona Nimoni report, the aid convoy was hit while leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse, where the team had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route. The convoy was made up of three vehicles, including two that were armored, which clearly displayed the charity’s

The chef, Jose, said in an interview with Reuters, “This was not a bad luck situation where, oops, we dropped the bomb in the wrong place. It was really a direct attack on clearly marked vehicles whose movements were known by everybody at the IDF Israel Defense Forces.”

According to Cogat, the Israeli defense ministry body in charge of civilian policy in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, WCK is responsible for 60% of the non-governmental aid getting into the territory. WCK said it had distributed 42 million meals in the Gaza Strip, dispatching more than 1,700 food trucks and also sending close to 435,000 meals by sea. The UN also announced it was pausing movements at night for at least 48 hours to evaluate the security situation.

Speaking to BBC Chief Presenter Caitrona Perry, Mr. Barkat said, “Israel was terribly sorry about killing the seven aid workers, but unfortunately, in wars, friendly fire happens. The deaths of aid workers and civilians were part of the war. However, the killings have drawn widespread international condemnation. The UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, demanded a thorough and transparent independent investigation while US President Joe Biden accused Israel of not doing enough to protect aid workers and civilians.

Joe 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.”

Nir Barkat, Israel’s minister of economy, told BBC News that Mr. Andres’ comments were nonsense. He added that the strikes that killed the workers were a grave mistake and that he has promised an investigation. In the meantime The American Near East Refugee Aid Anera, which was working closely with WCK, said, “ it has also frozen its operations in Gaza.”