The humanitarian group, International Rescue Committee (IRC), says the killing of international charity workers this week by an Israeli air strike highlights that Gaza is the “most lethal place in the world to be an aid worker.”
Israeli airstrikes on World Central Kitchen aid workers delivering food in Gaza killed at least seven people – including a U.S.-Canada dual citizen and citizens of Australia, Poland and the United Kingdom on Monday.
“There is an uncomfortable reality that until Monday, to the best of my knowledge, all of the aid workers killed (to that point) have been Palestinians,” IRC Senior Vice President of International Programs Ciarán Donnelly told the Associated Press.
“We have seen a significant increase in global attention to this issue, to the safety of humanitarian workers in large part because of the nationalities of those who were killed on Monday.”
Before the strike, Donnelly said 196 humanitarian workers and 350 healthcare workers had been killed in the Hamas war.
While Donnelly would not speak about the motivations of the Israel Defense Forces who carried out the strikes, he did say the Gaza war “is not being conducted in ways that respect the protections provided under international humanitarian law.”
Israel has acknowledged carrying out the strikes by mistake and says it has launched an independent investigation.
World Central Kitchen, the charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, immediately paused operations in the region, delivering a blow to the recently opened sea route for food aid. Ships carrying food sailed away from Gaza after arriving just a day earlier.
