Key Points
- Celebrity chef Jose Andres says employees of the aid organisation he founded were targeted by the Israeli military.
- He says there may have been more than three strikes against the aid convoy that killed at least seven employees.
- Andres has called on United States President Joe Biden to do more to end the war in Gaza.
Celebrity chef Jose Andres told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday that an Israeli attack that killed seven of his food aid workers in Gaza had targeted them “systematically, car by car”.
Speaking in a video interview, Andres said the World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity group he founded had clear communication with the Israeli military, which he said knew his aid workers’ movements.
“This was not just a bad luck situation where ‘oops, we dropped the bomb in the wrong place,'” Andres said.
“Even if we were not in coordination with the (Israel Defence Forces), no democratic country and no military can be targeting civilians and humanitarians.”
The aid workers were killed when their convoy was hit shortly after they oversaw the unloading of 100 tonnes of food brought to Gaza by sea.
Israel’s military expressed “severe sorrow” over the incident and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it unintentional.
Andres said there may have been more than three strikes against the aid convoy.
He said he was supposed to be in Gaza with his team but for different reasons “wasn’t able to go back again to Gaza”.
Andres, who spoke to US President Joe Biden on Tuesday, pressured the United States to do more to stop the war.
“The US must do more to tell Prime Minister Netanyahu this war needs to end now,” he said.
Andres said his organisation was still studying the safety situation in Gaza as it contemplates starting aid deliveries again.
Australian, British and American citizens were among seven WCK aid workers killed when their convoy was hit.
The aid convoy was hit as it was leaving its Deir al-Balah warehouse after unloading more than 100 tonnes of food aid brought to Gaza by sea, the aid group said.
At least 196 humanitarian workers have been killed in Gaza since October, according to the United Nations, and Hamas has previously accused Israel of targeting aid distribution sites.
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