Two humanitarian aid orgnizations will freeze their Gaza operations following the deaths of five World Central Kitchen (WCK) employees on Monday night.
According to WCK, seven members of the group's team were killed in an IDF strike in Gaza. The IDF has promised to investigate the incident.
"The WCK team was traveling in a deconflicted zone in two armored cars branded with the WCK logo and a soft skin vehicle," the group claimed. "Despite coordinating movements with the IDF, the convoy was hit as it was leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse, where the team had unloaded more than 1https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/38776100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route."
"World Central Kitchen is pausing our operations immediately in the region. We will be making decisions about the future of our work soon," the statement added.
World Central Kitchen CEO Erin Gore argued, "This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable."
A second organization,the American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), which works closely with the WCK, announced that it would also freeze operations.
"Anera and WCK are pausing our Gaza operations. Together, Anera and WCK provide some 2 million meals a week in Gaza," ANERA CEO Sean Carroll told BBC.