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Chef José Andrés announced that members of his non-profit World Central Kitchen were killed inside Gauze by Israeli forces.
On Monday afternoon (April 1), celebrity chef and respected humanitarian José Andrés announced that several members of his World Central Kitchen were killed in the Gaza Strip in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “Today, @WCK lost several of our brothers and sisters in an IDF airstrike in Gaza,” he wrote, using the acronym for Israel Defense Forces. “I am devastated and grieve for their families and friends and our entire WCK family. These are people…angels…I served alongside Ukraine, Gaza, Turkey, Morocco, Bahamas, Indonesia. They are not faceless…they are not anonymous.” The incident puts more pressure on Israel, which has been accused of being overly aggressive since its conflict with Hamas began on October 7, 2023.
In his post, Andrés concluded: “The Israeli government must stop this indiscriminate killing. It must stop cutting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon.” According to reports, World Central Kitchen said its seven workers and a Palestinian driver were traveling in a “no-conflict zone” in two armored cars bearing its logo. The vehicles were hit after leaving a warehouse in Deir al-Balah in the central region of the region. The nationalities of the dead also include a dual citizen of the US and Canada, an Australian and citizens of Poland and Canada. They had already arranged to travel with Israeli military forces in the area before setting off.
World Central Kitchen, which the 57-year-old chef founded in 2010, thrives in areas devastated by social and environmental disasters with members cooking and delivering meals to those in need. On Tuesday (April 2), the was announced that will pause aid operations in the area. “This is not just an attack on WCK, but an attack on humanitarian organizations that appear in the most dire situations where food is used as a weapon of war,” the organization's chief executive, Erin Gore, said in a statement. “This is unforgivable.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged the incident in a video statement on Tuesday, saying in Hebrew “This happens in war,” before adding that the government was investigating and “will do everything to make sure it doesn't happen again.”