Food charity halts work in Gaza after Israeli airstrike on car kills workers

A food relief charity working in Gaza is “urgently seeking more details” after an Israeli airstrike on a vehicle carrying its employees killed five people.

World Central Kitchen (WCK) said it was “heartbroken” by the attack, and has paused its operations in the territory.

Israel’s military claimed the airstrike had targeted a WCK worker who took part in Hamas’ October 7 attack, which sparked war in the region in 2023.

WCK said it had no knowledge anyone in the car had alleged ties to October 7, and was “working with incomplete information”.

Meanwhile, another Israeli airstrike Saturday hit a car near a food distribution point in Khan Younis, killing 13 people including children.

WCK’s work in Gaza was temporarily suspended earlier this year after an Israeli strike killed seven of its workers, most of them foreigners.

The Israeli military said the alleged attacker targeted in Saturday’s strike had taken part in the assault on the kibbutz of Nir Oz on October 7.

A statement from the Israel Defence Forces asked “senior officials from the international community and the WCK administration to clarify” how he had come to work for the charity.

At Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, a woman held up an employee badge bearing the WCK logo, the word “contractor” and the name of a man said to have been killed.

Burned phones, a watch and stickers with the WCK logo lay on the hospital floor.

Nazmi Ahmed said his nephew worked for WCK for the past year. He said he was driving to the charity’s kitchens and warehouses.

He said: “Today, he went out as usual to work … and was targeted without prior warning and without any reason.”

In April, a strike on a WCK aid convoy killed seven workers, including three British citizens, Polish and Australian nationals, a Canadian-American dual national and a Palestinian.

The Israeli military called the strike a mistake.