Killing of 5 Foreign Aid Workers from the World Central Kitchen

[cherryjamontoast]

I've just seen on social media graphic videos of 5 dead aid workers from Australia, Austrian and British. The WCK are the people responsible for the ships coming into Gaza at the Jetty to distribute food. This was the second ship that departed from Cyprus a few days ago. Once arriving at the jetty they had to distribute the food. They were targeted in an armoured vehicle in Deir el Balah by the IDF. Its now being pick up by the press.Very sad.

Accident waiting to happen?

Israeli military officials warned of ‘coordination’ issues with aid workers before killings: Monitors

Israeli Army Radio has reported that Israel’s “Nahal Brigade (162nd Division)” was responsible for directing the air attack on the World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers that killed seven aid workers on Monday.

According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP), two US-based defence think tanks, unnamed senior Israeli military officials had warned in advance of the attack on the WCK staff that coordination between international humanitarian aid groups and Israeli forces in Gaza “was not functioning properly”.

“Unspecified senior [Israeli military] officials reportedly warned [Israel’s] Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi in recent days,” the ISW and CTP said in their latest joint report on Gaza.

Those poor people - account of their last fatal journey by Jose Andres

Food charity boss recounts ‘systematic’ killing of aid workers

Jose Andres said his World Central Kitchen first found out something was wrong when they could no longer reach the seven staff members on the ground.
“Somehow we kind of lost communication,” he told Reuters news agency. “Then we began [to get] information that something went wrong. They were targeted systematically car by car.”
Andres said he believed there were more than three strikes carried out by Israeli drones.
“They attacked the first car … We have a feeling they were able to escape safely because this was an armoured vehicle.” The people in the first car “were able to move in the second one. Again, this one was hit. They were able to move in the third one”.

The aid workers frantically made phone calls during the chaotic moments, Andres said, asking: “What are they doing? They are targeting us.”

They were deliberately killed so aid would be stopped. And that’s exactly what happened. The 7 were killed and 2/3 of the aid they were intending on delivering will not reach the Palestinians.

Well said. the anti-Semitic attack is used far too freely on forums to shut down discourse.

Exactly
And
If coordination is not functioning properly, as some unnamed official as stated, then the IDF and Israeli governing body need to step down until they can secure the free passage of humanitarian aid and the safety of all aid workers.

Not simply warn everyone and step back and use that as an excuse for murder.

Incompetence is no excuse and sounds a little too convenient.

Exactly.
They attack and kill aid workers in order to stop all aid getting in and further aid from being sent.
Its a win win for them….job done.
By their actions more will die of starvation.

The only options are:

1. The Israeli leadership ordered this as a fuck you to Biden’s criticisms and because they have decided to use starvation as a weapon of war and will therefore kill anyone who tries to feed the Gazans.
2. The Israeli leadership didn’t order this, but soldiers on the ground are in a mentality of “I am a soldier of God on a righteous war against evil I can do anything I want wahoo Gazans don’t count as human anyway” and the leadership has lost control of the day to day soldier activity.
3. The IDF are a bunch of triggerhappy incompetents who shoot anything that moves in Gaza.

My guess is 2. In other warzones it’s been known for soldiers to shoot at ‘enemy’ babies on an apartment balcony for fun. But it could also be options 1 or 3.

Why would the IDF target aid workers distributing food? It doesn't make sense

No, it doesn’t. Why would they? It’s one ‘why?’, amongst thousands.

In 2014, why did the Israeli navy fire missiles onto a fishing beach in a residential area where some kids were playing hide-and-seek and football, killing four 9 -11 yr olds from the same family and badly injuring others?

Journalists in a nearby hotel witnessed the attack and said it was intentional and the boys were targeted. We’ll never know why, because after years of obfuscation, the Israelis finally exonerated themselves from any wrongdoing in 2022 - ‘a tragic mistake’. It’s always the same answer.

Many mistakes, Israel….so many mistakes…

Some insight into WCK's relationship with the IDF

''World Central Kitchen (WCK) has a different way of coordinating its movements with the Israeli military. They’ve developed a good system of direct contact. They’re very well known to the Israelis. They constantly update their movements.

''That’s why we’re all absolutely shocked at the airstrikes – the fact that it was WCK. It has shaken confidence in the system. I feel quite nervous now, I’ll be honest.

Karyn Beattie Save the Children Gaza

,

The Israelis seem to want to starve the Palestinians who they cant kill by bombing alone.
The reports of this incident dont suggest accidental friendly fire, they suggest a deliberate act.

The WP is reporting that the same group of aid workers had complained of coming under IDF sniper fire a few days previously. So yeah it's deliberate.
And also how many times have we heard about this exact pattern of behaviour by the IDF? They do think they are superior and untouchable.
More aid workers killed than any other conflict apparently.
The injustice of it makes me seethe.

And yet this is defended time and time again on here.

World Central Kitchen (WCK) has called for an independent investigation after seven of its workers were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza
The seven victims, who were working for World Central Kitchen (WCK), were killed when their convoy was attacked from the air on Monday.

In a statement, the charity says its workers were travelling in vehicles "marked as WCK" and their movements were in "full compliance with Israeli authorities who were aware of their itinerary, route, and humanitarian mission".

When some passports are worth more than others.
200 aid workers killed. Only 7 will receive compensation

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/04/03/israel-pay-compensation-dead-aid-workers-families/?utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1712163977-1

Is offering compensation in this kind of situation tantamount to an admission by IDF of responsibility, whether it was intentional or no?

I would think so. There is precedent for paying compensation after the Israeli Military has "accidentally killed" allies. The servicemen injured/killed during the USS Liberty incident were "compensated" by Israel after they accidentally bombed the American vessel nearly sinking it.
https://www.jta.org/archive/israel-pays-full-3323500-compensation-for-liberty-attack-victims

The UAE has announced a suspension of diplomatic coordination with Israel in the wake of the murder of the World Central Kitchen humanitarian workers in Gaza.

I think that some governments have been willing to believe whatever best suits their interests and that’s why so many ‘mistakes’ have been accepted. It’s only when they can’t deny these things and they see that going along with the lies isn’t actually in their best interests anymore, that they might actually start to change their response.

Clearly it doesn't shut down discourse since people are still discussing it.

And yes, it is anti-Semitism when the one Jewish state in the world is always, always assumed to be bad actors, while every other country in the world is allowed to have friendly fire and accidents. 37 Afghanis die when an entire wedding is bombed? Sorry, mistakes were made. Ambulance workers in Libya die even though they painted the roofs of the vehicles pink to ensure that didn't happen? Whoops, our bad. Aid workers killed? DELIBERATELY TARGETED BUT NO 'INDEPENDENT' INVESTIGATION WILL EVER PROVE THAT BECAUSE OF COURSE ISRAEL WILL LIE AND COVER UP THE TRUTH.

Israel is never allowed to make a mistake. Its actions are deliberate, sinister, and genocidal. And when these actions are proved not to even happen (hospital bombing) - oh, handwave that away because it's just an attempt to distract from all these other deliberate actions!

Everything Israel does is wrong because Israel itself is the malevolent actor standing offstage twirling its mustache and cackling.

And that's why it's impossible for so many people to admit that women at a music festival were raped and mutilated (#metoo unless you're a Jew!), or why it's wrong not to give back the hostages who've now been held for nearly six months (if they're still even alive), or even to acknowledge that maybe Hamas had something to do with this, even a teeny little bit. Admitting these things means you can't cast Israel as the pantomime villain you can hiss at whenever they walk onstage. Giving Israel an ounce of sympathy means that - ZOMG! - MAYBE THEY AREN'T ALWAYS WRONG. And that can't be allowed!

Israel is evil and its intentions are always bad. When they say they made a mistake, it's just proof that they are even more evil than previously thought, because they did a bad thing and now they're pretending to be sorry.

And since I'm sure I'll be labelled as a psychopath - no, I do not want aid workers killed, or aid deliveries to be stopped. But it doesn't matter what I say, because I am clearly evil, since I am not denouncing Israel.

Hell of a lens to watch this war through.

Boo hoo Israel can't make a mistake, go have a look at how many women and children have died. Go read about the men women and children raped or sexually abused by the IDF.
Go read about the IDF soldiers 'shopping' for souvenirs in Palestinian homes.
Go look at footage of mile after mile after mile of homes, schools and hospitals in ruins.

Israels got a long list of 'mistakes' and that's before we look at their actions pre Oct 7th, and actually they've gotten away with each one, billions and billions of dollars sent to them after each 'mistake'. The victim mentality runs deep for some people

@WhiteRabbitBlackCat so what do you think would be an appropriate opinion to hold in relation to any country which has a decades-long history of occupation and oppression, whose military has killed over 30,000 people within 6 months (most of whom are documented to have been non-combatants, including thousands of children), whose leadership have openly expressed a desire to eradicate a neighbouring population, whose government and military are suspected of committing war crimes, killing aid workers and healthcare workers, etc.?

Personally, whatever the name of that country, I think it's not ok to do those things, that the international community should say that it's wrong to do those things, and that appropriate investigations need to be carried out into concerns raised.

I saw this. I don't want this to come out the wrong way because it is awful these 7 workers have been killed and it shouldn't have happened but it has taken 7 non Palestinians to be killed before the UAE have done something, was 32k+ Palestinian civilians deaths not enough for them to do something a lot earlier?

I was thinking this yesterday.

This is clearly true but I think there is a bit more to its significance. It revealed the Israeli government’s contempt towards their allies as well as giving a clear signal to the world they had no intention of facilitating increased aid, which strengthened the claim of genocide (and thus potential implications of being implicit).

2 senior officers will be removed and a few commanders formally censured

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-2-senior-officers-will-be-fired-for-involvement-in-deadly-wck-strike-on-gaza-aid-convoy/