Claims that seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) relief workers in Gaza were purposefully targeted by Israeli forces have been refuted by an Israeli cabinet minister.
Claims that seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) relief workers in Gaza were purposefully targeted by Israeli forces have been refuted by an Israeli cabinet minister.
Israel is allegedly “systematically, car by car” attacking José Andrés, the founder of WCK.
Mr. Andrés’ remarks, however, were deemed “nonsense” by Israel’s Minister of Economy, Nir Barkat, who spoke with BBC News.
Israel claims that the strikes that resulted in the workers’ deaths were a “serious error” and has pledged to launch an inquiry.
Speaking to Caitriona Perry, the chief presenter of the BBC, Mr. Barkat said that although Israel was “terribly sorry” for the deaths of the seven relief workers, “unfortunately, friendly fire happens in wars.”
He declared that civilian casualties and humanitarian workers were “part of war”.
Regarding Mr. Andrés’s worries that his relief workers attempted to contact the IDF during the individual strikes and were purposefully singled out, Mr. Barkat responded, “That’s nonsense, I’m sorry.”
“With all due respect there’s no way in the world that Israel would target people that come to give people aid,” he added.
He also said that on October 7, Hamas assaulted Israeli villages on purpose, murdering and raping women.
The aid convoy was struck, according to WCK, when it was departing the warehouse in Deir al-Balah, “where the team had unloaded more than 100 tonnes of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route”.
Three cars total, two of which were armored and prominently carried the charity’s emblem, comprised the convoy.
The three cars were struck during the attack, and they were around 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) apart.
The Spanish-American celebrity chef said this was not a “bad luck situation where, ‘oops,’ we dropped the bomb in the wrong place” in an interview with the news agency Reuters on Wednesday.
Mr. Andrés stated that “it was really a direct attack on clearly marked vehicles whose movements were known by everybody at the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]” in a different interview with Israel’s Channel 12 news.
The 25-year-old Palestinian colleague of the foreign WCK workers was buried on Tuesday in his hometown of Rafah, southern Gaza, while the bodies of the six foreign workers have been transported to Egypt for repatriation.
On Tuesday, WCK declared that it was ceasing operations, raising concerns about the humanitarian supplies going to the Gaza Strip.
Sixty percent of non-governmental aid entering the Occupied Palestinian Territories is attributed to WCK, according to Cogat, the Israeli Defense Ministry organization in charge of civilian policy there.
WCK said that 42 million meals had been provided in