An Israeli airstrike killed seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen, leading the charity to suspend delivery on April 2 of vital food aid to Gaza, where Israel’s offensive has pushed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to the brink of starvation.
Ships still laden with some 240 tons of aid from the charity that arrived just a day earlier turned back from Gaza, according to Cyprus, which has played a key role in trying to establish a sea route to bring food to territory. Israel has allowed only a trickle of aid into devastated northern Gaza, where experts say famine is imminent.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged that the country’s forces had carried out the “unintended strike . . . on innocent people.” He said officials were looking into the strike and would work to ensure it did not happen again.
The strike could also set back efforts by the US and other countries to open a maritime corridor for aid from Cyprus that would help ease the growing humanitarian disaster in Gaza’s north. World Central Kitchen, a food charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, was key to the new route.
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