A dual U.S.-Canadian citizen was among seven food aid workers killed in an Israeli military strike on a humanitarian convoy in Gaza, according to the World Central Kitchen.
Jacob Flickinger, 33, was identified on Tuesday alongside three other members of the nonprofit’s Gaza relief team and three members of its security team. The relief workers were named in a news release from WCK as Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha, 25, of Palestine; Lalzawmi Frankcom, 43, of Australia; Damian Soból, 35, of Poland.
The security employees, all from the U.K., were identified as John Chapman, 57; James Henderson, 33; and James Kirby, 47.
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Haaretz reported that the convoy of vehicles, which had coordinated its route through a demilitarized zone with the Israel Defense Forces, was hit three times in succession until the aid workers were all killed. After the first strike, survivors reportedly sought shelter in the other vehicles which were then targeted.
“Unfortunately, in the last 24 hours there was a tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people in the Gaza Strip,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted in a Hebrew video message, according to the BBC. “It happens in war, we check it to the end, we are in contact with the governments, and we will do everything so that this thing does not happen again.”
The vehicles were struck as they were leaving a warehouse in central Gaza, WCK said in a statement. The food charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés said its other staff members killed in the strike were from Australia, the United Kingdom, and Poland.
The charity said it is “pausing our operations immediately in the region” in the wake of the attack.
On Tuesday, former Israeli president Reuven Rivlin told IDF Radio that Israel is now “a step away from international ostracism,” according to Haaretz. “We are losing the tremendous morality that all Israeli governments for generations have enjoyed, by the conduct and behavior of the IDF and by the behavior of the State of Israel in everything related to the wars we have waged for 76 years,” Rivlin said.
According to the World Central Kitchen, its staff were traveling in a demilitarized zone in three vehicles—two of which were armored cars. The organization said it had coordinated its movements with the IDF, and the team were on the move after they had “unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route.”
All three of the vehicles were hit in the attack, according to the BBC. A Palestinian medical source said the staff were wearing bulletproof vests emblazoned with the WCK logo, and the charity itself said the vehicles were also branded with the logo.
“I am heartbroken and appalled that we—World Central Kitchen and the world—lost beautiful lives today because of a targeted attack by the IDF,” WCK CEO Erin Gore said. “The love they had for feeding people, the determination they embodied to show that humanity rises above all, and the impact they made in countless lives will forever be remembered and cherished.”
“This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war,” Gore added. “This is unforgivable.”
IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari called the incident “tragic” and said he had spoken with Andrés to “express the deepest condolences of the Israel Defense Forces to the families and the entire World Central Kitchen family.” “We have been reviewing the incident in the highest levels to understand the circumstances of what happened and how it happened,” Hagari continued.
He said a probe would be opened into the incident to help “reduce the risk of such an event from occurring again.” Hagari said an “independent professional and expert body” would investigate the attack. “We will get to the bottom of this and we will share our findings transparently,” he said.
A Bellingcat report into the attack geolocated two of the vehicles to a road identified by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs as being an “accessible road for humanitarian aid.” The third vehicle was in a field alongside the road.
“Although we are yet to see images of missile fragments, which would be required to identify the exact munition, images of the damaged convoy indicate a precision strike was carried out using low-yield or inert munitions,” the report said.
It added that if the munitions used in the attack were laser-guided, the charity’s logo on the roof of at least one of the vehicles would likely “have been visible from above when the strike was carried out, although this depends on the capability of the optic used to track the vehicle.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese identified Lalzawmi “Zomi” Frankcom as the Australian killed, calling the attack “absolutely unacceptable” and demanding “full accountability.” The family of 44-year-old Frankcom said in a statement that she was “a kind, selfless and outstanding human being that has traveled the world helping others in their time of need.”
Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, has also demanded “urgent explanations” from the Israeli ambassador in Warsaw. “He assured me that Poland would soon receive the results of the investigation into this tragedy,” Sikorski wrote on X Tuesday. Wojciech Bakun, mayor of the southern city of Przemyś, had earlier named Damian Soból as the “amazing young man” from Poland killed in the convoy attack.
David Cameron, the British foreign minister, said the U.K. is trying to verify the “deeply distressing” reports that British nationals were among the dead. (Three of those killed were British, according to hospital records cited by the Associated Press). “We have called on Israel to immediately investigate and provide a full, transparent explanation of what happened,” the former prime minister added.
The BBC said that the Palestinian killed had been named as Seef abu Taha, the driver of one of the vehicles struck in the attack.
The killings come amid urgent attempts to bring larger amounts of desperately-needed aid into Gaza, where the U.N. says many are facing starvation and famine. Israel has blocked the main U.N. aid organization in Gaza, the UNRWA, from making deliveries into the north of the enclave.
Almost 33,000 people have been killed in Gaza over the course of the last six months, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Israel launched its massive military operations in the strip in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in which 1,200 people were killed and another 250 kidnapped, according to Israeli officials.
International diplomatic efforts are currently underway to arrange a new ceasefire deal and the return of the remaining hostages. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to deliver a total victory in the fight against Hamas and has promised to invade the city of Rafah in southern Gaza despite warnings from the U.S. against doing so.
