José Andrés the world-renowned chef has accused Israel of deliberately bombing humanitarian workers trying to provide food and supplies to desperate Palestinians in Gaza on Monday.
“They were the “best of humanity.” One of the victims was Palestinian. The others came from Australia, Poland, Britain, Canada and the United States,” Andrés said in a tribute.
“Their work was based on the simple belief that food is a universal human right,” he wrote. “It is not conditional on being good or bad, rich or poor, left or right. We do not ask what religion you belong to. We just ask how many meals you need.”
World Central Kitchen, Andrés’ aid group helps provide food in conflict and disaster zones.
The Aid group began delivering food in northern Gaza last month via a maritime corridor from Cyprus. Since then, the chef said, the charity has served more than 43 million meals in Gaza, preparing hot meals in 68 community kitchens where “Palestinians are feeding Palestinians.”
Israel troops launched multiple airstrikes on a convoy of three vehicles that had just dropped off 100 tons of food in Deir al-Balah in an effort to fight Gaza’s starvation crisis.
The vehicles had a clearly visible WCK logo on their roofs so that the military would be aware the cars were full of aid workers.
“It was a direct attack on clearly marked vehicles whose movements were known by the Israel Defense Forces,” Andrés wrote. “It was also the direct result of a policy that squeezed humanitarian aid to desperate levels.”
Andrés said that initially his group lost contact with its team in Gaza and that he realized what had happened only when he saw images of the aid employees’ corpses.
After Israeli forces struck the first car, the aid team tried to escape to a second car in the convoy. When that car was struck, the workers then fled to a third car, where they were killed in yet another strike.
“They were targeting us in a deconflicting zone, in an area controlled by IDF. They know that it was our teams moving on that road,” Andrés told journalists, adding that Israel targeted the aid workers “systematically, car by car.”
