The NGO World Central Kitchen announced this Sunday that it will resume its humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip for the first time after an Israeli bombing killed seven of its employees and collaborators on April 1. “We are going to restart our operations with the same energy, dignity and concentration when it comes to feeding as many people as possible,” the head of the NGO, Erin Gore, said in a statement published this Sunday.
The entity acknowledges that it has received an apology from Israel for the attack that killed its members but estimates that it still has no guarantees that the Israeli army has modified its operational rules. “Our demand for an impartial and international investigation remains valid,” Gore added.
In the statement, Gore indicated that throughout these weeks WCK aid workers have been exposed to a decision between “stopping delivering food during one of the worst food crises in history” or continuing with their work “knowingly.” that aid workers and civilians in Gaza are being intimidated and killed.
This deliberation has represented “the toughest conversations of these days” until “in the end, it has been decided that (WCK) continues with its mission of delivering food to people, even in the hardest times.” In this sense, WCK has 276 trucks ready, with the equivalent of almost eight million meals, ready to enter through the Rafá crossing, through Egypt. The NGO also intends to send trucks from Jordan and is already exploring the possibility of delivering food through the new sea corridor to Gaza or through the Israeli port of Ashdod.
WCK workers and associates were killed in a bombing raid by Israeli aircraft as their convoy left a warehouse in the center of the Gaza Strip. Among the deceased were Australian, British, Palestinian, Polish and dual American and Canadian citizens. Israel published the results of a preliminary investigation that claims that NGO workers were mistaken for armed Hamas militiamen, even though the group had communicated their movements to Israeli authorities. The consequence has been the dismissal of two officers from the Israeli forces.
