SEVEN aid workers from the relief group World Central Kitchen (WCK), including three Britons, were killed in a ‘targeted attack’ by the genocidal Israeli regime in central Gaza on Monday night.
The murdered WCK team members came from Australia, Palestine, Poland and the United Kingdom, one was a dual citizen of the United States and Canada.
‘This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organisations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war,’ WCK CEO Erin Gore said in a statement. ‘This is unforgivable.’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed the air strike was ‘unintended’, adding: ‘These things happen in wartime.’
Alex Fort, a logistics coordinator at Doctors Without Borders, responded: ‘Clearly, today it’s not possible to work in a safe way in the whole of the Gaza Strip. Humanitarian aid workers, health workers are directly targeted – and this is completely unacceptable.’
Charity Islamic Relief said: ‘Six months of Israeli bombing has turned Gaza into the world’s most dangerous place to deliver aid. More than 200 aid workers, mostly Palestinians, have been killed, the deadliest ever crisis for humanitarian workers.
‘Children are starving to death because Israel is preventing sufficient aid from entering by land, and now humanitarian workers are being killed while they try to deliver life-saving food that has been shipped in by sea.’
The Save the Children charity said: ‘Life-saving supplies which could be used to treat malnourished children are being delayed and denied entry by the government of Israel. Essential food and medical items are obstructed from entering Gaza for days, weeks, or even months.
‘Others are being denied entry altogether by the Israeli authorities, with reports of oxygen cylinders, ventilators and water purifiers being turned away at the border.’
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was ‘shocked and saddened’ by the Zionist slaughter of the three UK aid workers.
Labour leader Starmer said the deaths are ‘outrageous and unacceptable’, adding: ‘We condemn this strike’ and there must be ‘a full investigation and those responsible must be held to account’.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: ‘Australia expects full accountability for the deaths of aid workers,’ describing the killings as ‘completely unacceptable’.
Ireland Foreign and Defence Minister Micheal Martin said: ‘Full accountability is needed. This again underlines the need for an immediate ceasefire to protect civilians and allow full humanitarian access.’
In Rafah, hundreds of people mourned Seif Issam Abu Taha, the driver in the World Central Kitchen, who was killed along with the aid workers.
Abu Taha’s body was transported to Rafah, his hometown, where his relatives, colleagues, and friends carried him on their shoulders.
With tears and anger his close friend Hassan said: ‘He was happy to work with an organisation that provides humanitarian aid to the displaced.
‘Our hearts are broken by your death, Seif. You have hurt us with your passing, and we will not forget you.’
Al-Shifa ‘totally non-operational’
ISRAEL’S two-week siege on Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical complex in Gaza, has left it totally non-operational, said the World Health Organisation (WHO) yesterday.
‘Destroying Al-Shifa means ripping the heart out of the health system,’ WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said.
‘It was the place people go to for the kind of care that a really good health system provides, that we, in all our societies, expect to have should we be in need.’
Israel withdrew from the hospital on Monday after weeks of heavy fighting that left hundreds of patients and medical staff trapped inside.
Decomposing bodies have since been found under the wrecked hospital, and witnesses said civilians and health workers were deliberately targeted by Israeli forces.
Video shared by the WHO shows the devastation at Al-Shifa, the largest health facility in Gaza, after Israel’s two-week siege.
‘All the buildings were completely destroyed and burned,’ said the hospital’s director, Dr Marwan Abu Saadah. ‘Al-Shifa medical complex is gone forever.’
