Humanitarian aid organisation World Central Kitchen has said it is pausing its operation in Gaza after a number of its workers were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
World Central Kitchen (WCK) said it was “heartbroken to share” that a vehicle carrying its employees was hit by the strike, confirming earlier claims by both Israeli and Palestinian officials.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) earlier claimed that one of the three aid workers killed was also a “terrorist” who helped orchestrate the 7 October massacre last year.
But WCK’s statement said: “World Central Kitchen had no knowledge that any individual in the vehicle had alleged ties to the October 7th Hamas attack.”
It added: “World Central Kitchen is pausing operations in Gaza at this time. Our hearts are with our colleagues and their families in this unimaginable moment.”
WCK’s aid deliveries in Gaza were temporarily suspended earlier this year after seven of its workers, most of them foreigners, were killed in another Israeli airstrike.
WCK is a non-profit that says it is first to frontlines to provide “fresh meals in response to crises”.
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Two others were killed in Saturday’s strike, according to an official from the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry – but did not give further details.
An uncle of one of the aid workers killed said he was “driving his car… normally as usual” but was “targeted without prior warning and without any reason”.
He added that he worked “providing food and helping people and the displaced” and was “deliberately targeted”.
The deadly incident is the latest to have impacted aid workers in Gaza, who help provide food, medicine, and shelter for the millions displaced there.
In an earlier statement, the IDF said the “terrorist” killed was “monitored for a while by IDF intelligence and was struck following credible information regarding his real-time location”.
“We emphasise that it was a civilian unmarked vehicle and its movement on the route was not co-ordinated for transporting of aid,” a spokesperson added.
At least 32 Palestinians were killed by Israeli strikes across Gaza overnight on Friday, Reuters said, quoting medics inside the territory.
Among them were seven killed when a house was destroyed in central Gaza, the Hamas-run Gaza civil defence agency said.
The agency said one of its officers was also killed in an attack in Jabalia, northern Gaza.
Meanwhile, Hamas has released a video of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, 20, where he pleads for US President-elect Donald Trump to secure his release.
The captive’s mother Yael said the footage “gives us hope, but it also shows how difficult it is for Edan and for the other hostages, and how much they are crying out and praying for us to rescue them”.
According to the Gaza health ministry, at least 44,382 people have been killed and 105,142 injured inside the territory since Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire broken in Lebanon
Elsewhere in the region, Israel broke a short-lived ceasefire with Hezbollah on Saturday when its aircraft struck the Iranian-backed group’s weapons sites along the Lebanese border.
The 60-day truce was only brokered on Tuesday, with both sides promising to withdraw from southern Lebanon.
Smoke rises above the skyline in southern Lebanon near the border with Lebanon. Pic: Reuters
But the IDF said in a statement on Saturday that it had “acted during the day against activities in Lebanon that posed a threat to the State of Israel, violating the ceasefire understandings”.
The IDF detailed four incidents, in which it and the Israeli air force attacked Hezbollah targets.
Israel says it acted in response to ceasefire violations by Hezbollah, which has not commented on the strikes.
Some 1.2 million people have been displaced by the conflict in southern Lebanon, which reignited on 8 October after Hezbollah began attacking Israel in solidarity with Hamas.
Many displaced people have tried to return to their homes, despite warnings by both Israeli and Lebanese authorities to stay away from areas prone to clashes.