The international community lashed out at Israel on Tuesday, including calls for a ceasefire, after an IDF airstrike mistakenly killed seven aid workers from celebrity chef Jose Andres’s World Central Kitchen (WCK) in central Gaza early Tuesday morning.
“All this talk about ceasefires, and still, this war steals the best of us,” UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths said Tuesday. “The actions of those behind it are indefensible. This must stop.”
He called for an immediate halt to the war and said the victims were “heroes, killed while trying to feed starving people.”
US National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said the White House was “outraged.”
The United Arab Emirates suspended its involvement in humanitarian assistance to Gaza, as did WCK, which had included opening up a maritime route for goods from Cyprus to the enclave.
The seven aid workers – a local Palestinian, three British citizens, and three others from Poland, Australia, and the United States – were killed after they had unloaded 100 tons of goods from a barge.
A second barge loaded with 240 tons, which was at sea at the time of the attack, turned around and headed back to Cyprus.
Countries whose citizens were among the dead called for accountability, with Great Britain taking the additional step of summoning Israeli Ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely.
“I set out the government’s unequivocal condemnation of the appalling killing” and “requested a quick and transparent investigation, shared with the international community, and full accountability,” UK Minister for Development and Africa Andrew Mitchell said after the meeting.
The UK has been one of Israel’s staunchest allies in the war. On Tuesday, however, it highlighted Israel’s failure to ensure the distribution of aid and a deconfliction mechanism to ensure the safety of humanitarian workers in Gaza.
“I reiterated the need for Israel to put in place an effective deconfliction mechanism immediately and urgently to scale up humanitarian access,” Mitchell said. “We need to see an immediate humanitarian pause, to get aid in and the hostages out, then progress towards a sustainable ceasefire.”
Officials respond to the event
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Israel must explain “how this tragic incident happened.”
“All our thoughts are with the families of those killed,” he posted on X.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said he had stressed those points when he spoke with Foreign Minister Israel Katz about the incident.
“These were people who were working to deliver life-saving aid to those who desperately need it,” he posted on X. “It is essential that humanitarian workers are protected and able to carry out their work.”
Katz offered his condolences to Cameron over the death of British citizens in this “tragic event,” which he said was under investigation, and the results would be shared with the UK.
Israel was taking every step possible to “ensure the safety of aid workers in Gaza and to increase the flow of goods into the enclave,” Katz said.
Israel was “interested in continuing to operate in cooperation with Great Britain and other countries,” he said.
Katz spoke with his Australian and Polish counterparts and assured Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong that “the tragic incident was not intentional” and that Israel would continue to act according to international law.
Israel is fighting a “war of self-defense,” he said.
Wong said Australia expected “full accountability for those deaths.”
“We repeat our demands for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire leading to a sustainable ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and that international humanitarian law be upheld,” she posted on X.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski posted on X: “I asked the Israeli ambassador @YacovLivne for urgent explanations.”
“He assured me that Poland would soon receive the results of the investigation into this tragedy,” he wrote. “I join in my condolences to the family of our brave volunteer and all civilian victims in the Gaza Strip.”
The president of the city of Przemysl, in southeastern Poland, identified the volunteer as Damian Sobol.
“Yesterday, our colleague, resident of Przemysl, volunteer, member of the World Central Kitchen team – Damian Sobol, was killed in a rocket attack by Israeli forces on a humanitarian convoy delivering food in the Gaza Strip,” he wrote on Facebook. “There are no words to describe what people who knew this fantastic guy feel at this moment... May he rest in peace.”
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell condemned the attack and urged an investigation.
“Despite all the demands to protect civilians and humanitarian workers, we see new innocent casualties,” he posted on X.
French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said: “Nothing can justify such a tragedy.”
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said during a visit in Jordan: “I hope and demand that the Israeli government clarifies as soon as possible the circumstances of this brutal attack that has taken the lives of seven aid workers who were doing nothing more than helping.”
“It is urgent that Israel allow access to humanitarian aid in Gaza, as demanded by various international bodies, including the International Court of Justice,” he said, adding that the ICJ’s rulings were binding.
Speaking before Sanchez’s trip, a Spanish government source praised the efforts of Spanish charities using a maritime corridor to bring aid to Gaza but said it was not enough, and that Spain was pushing for safe land corridors to be opened too.
Earlier on Tuesday, Sanchez said he was “horrified” by the deaths of the WCK workers. Their “solidarity, altruism and commitment to those in need” was a source of pride for the Spanish government, he posted on X.
Sanchez is also visiting Qatar and Saudi Arabia to discuss the conflict in Gaza and business partnerships in the region.
On Monday, Sanchez told reporters accompanying him on the tour that Madrid would recognize Palestinian statehood by July.
The attack comes amid heightened international concern over the possibility of famine in Gaza and charges that Israel has failed to safely ensure the distribution of food in Gaza.
World Central Kitchen is one of the nongovernmental agencies that worked to help deliver food to the more than 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza.
WCK said its volunteer employees had been traveling in two armored cars emblazoned with the charity’s logo and another vehicle.
Despite coordinating movements with the IDF, the convoy was hit as it was leaving its Deir el-Balah warehouse after unloading more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza by sea, WCK said.
IDF Spokesperson R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari pledged to immediately investigate the “tragic deaths of the aid workers,” as they “fulfilled the vital mission of bringing food to people in need.”
“As a professional military committed to international law, we are committed to examining our operations thoroughly and transparently,” he said.
Hagari said he had personally spoken with WCK founder Andres and “expressed his deepest condolences.”
“We also express sincere sorrow to our allied nations,” he said. “We have been doing and continue to do so much to assist those in need.”
“We have been reviewing the incident at the highest levels to understand the circumstances of what happened and how it happened,” Hagari said, adding that an independent professional expert body would examine the killing.
“We will share our findings transparently,” he said. “For the last few months, the IDF has been working closely with the World Central Kitchen to assist them in fulfilling their noble mission of helping bring food and humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.”
WCK had been one of the first NGOs to help Israel in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 terrorist attack, Hagari said, adding that it was on the “front lines of humanity” for their work.
Reuters and Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.