DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli airstrike on a car in the Gaza Strip on Saturday killed five people including employees of World Central Kitchen, and the charity said it was “urgently seeking more details” after Israel's military said it targeted a WCK worker who had been part of the Hamas attack that sparked the war.
WCK in an email said it was “heartbroken” by the airstrike and that it had no knowledge anyone in the car had alleged ties to the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, saying it was “working with incomplete information.” It said it was pausing operations in Gaza.
The charity's aid delivery efforts in Gaza were temporarily suspended earlier this year after an Israeli strike killed seven of its workers, most of them foreigners.
The Israeli military in a statement said the alleged Oct. 7 attacker had worked with WCK and it asked “senior officials from the international community and the WCK administration to clarify" how that had come about.
The violence in Gaza raged even as a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah appeared to be holding, despite sporadic episodes that have tested its fragility. Israel on Saturday struck what it said were Hezbollah weapons smuggling sites along Syria's border with Lebanon.
The strike on the vehicle was the latest in what aid agencies have described as the dangerous work of delivering aid in Gaza, where the war has sparked a humanitarian crisis that has displaced much of the territory's 2.3 million population and triggered widespread hunger.
World Central Kitchen provides meals to people in need following natural disasters or to those enduring conflict. Its teams have often served as a lifeline for people in Gaza who have struggled to feed themselves.
Palestinian health official Muneer Alboursh confirmed the strike, and an aid worker in Gaza confirmed that three killed were workers with the WCK. The aid worker spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak with the media.
At Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza 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 in the strike. Belongings — burned phones, a watch and stickers with the WCK logo — lay splayed 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.
“Today, he went out as usual to work ... and was targeted without prior warning and without any reason,” Ahmed said.
In April, a strike on a WCK aid convoy killed seven workers — three British citizens, Polish and Australian nationals, a Canadian-American dual national and a Palestinian. The Israeli military called the strike a mistake.
That strike prompted an international outcry and the brief suspension of aid to Gaza by several aid groups, including WCK. Another Palestinian WCK worker was killed in August by shrapnel from an Israeli airstrike, the group said.
Another Israeli airstrike Saturday hit a car near a food distribution point in Khan Younis, killing 13 people including children gathering to receive aid. Nasser hospital in Khan Younis received the bodies.
Ceasefire appears to hold
Efforts to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have faltered repeatedly. But the U.S.- and France-brokered deal for Lebanon appears to be holding after it took effect on Wednesday.
On Saturday, Israel's military said it struck sites that had been used to smuggle weapons from Syria to Lebanon after the ceasefire took effect, which the military called a violation. There was no immediate comment from Syrian authorities, Hezbollah or activists monitoring the conflict there. Israeli aircraft have struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, citing ceasefire violations, several times since the truce began.
The Israeli strike in Syria came as insurgents there breached the country's largest city, Aleppo, in a shock offensive that added fresh uncertainty to a region reeling from multiple wars.
The truce between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah calls for an initial two-month ceasefire in which the militants are to withdraw north of Lebanon's Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border.
Many Lebanese, some of the 1.2 million displaced, were streaming south to their homes, despite warnings by the Israeli and Lebanese militaries to stay away from certain areas.
“Day by day, we will return to our normal lives,” said Mustafa Badawi, a cafe owner in Tyre.
New strikes inside Lebanon
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that an Israeli drone strike on the village of Rub Thalatheen killed two people and wounded two others. It said another drone strike hit a car in the southern village of Majdal Zoun, and Lebanon’s Health Ministry said three were wounded, including a 7-year-old.
Israel's military said earlier Saturday that its forces, who remain in southern Lebanon until they withdraw gradually over the 60-day ceasefire period, had been operating to distance “suspects” in the region, without elaborating.
Israel says it reserves the right to strike against any perceived violations. Israel has made returning the tens of thousands of displaced Israelis home the goal of the war with Hezbollah. But Israelis have been apprehensive about returning home.
Hezbollah began attacking Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with the Palestinian militant group Hamas and its assault on southern Israel the day before. Israel and Hezbollah kept up cross-border fire for nearly a year until Israel escalated its fight with an attack that detonated hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah fighters. It then launched an intense aerial bombardment campaign that killed many Hezbollah leaders including Hassan Nasrallah, and launched a ground invasion in early October.
More than 3,760 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’ October 2023 attack that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took some 250 hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 44,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants in their count but say more than half the dead were women and children.
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Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel, and Mroue reported from Beirut. Mohammad Jahjouh in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, contributed.
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Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Wafaa Shurafa, Tia Goldenberg And Bassem Mroue, The Associated Press
