War in Gaza: Relief workers were slain while delivering food to those "on the verge of starvation."
An Israeli airstrike has killed six foreign relief workers and a Palestinian driver. The American humanitarian organization World Central Kitchen (WCK) declared on Tuesday that one of its employees had been killed in an Israeli military "targeted attack." Palestine, Australia, Poland, the United Kingdom, and a citizen of the United States and Canada were among the deceased. As WCK's employees were transporting food from their most recent shipment to Gaza—where Israel's offensive has driven hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to the verge of starvation—they were attacked. In the central town of Deir el-Balah, there was footage of the dead at a hospital. A few of them had on safety gear bearing the charity's emblem. UNICEF spokeswoman Tess Ingram said that following the deaths of seven relief workers in an Israeli airstrike, safety concerns for humanitarian workers are once again a priority. We're all very concerned about it. We recently held a meeting to discuss it here," she said. This tragic event brings the total number of individuals killed in the war to almost 30,000, including 174 UN colleagues. Thus, we are having a dismal day here. According to Ingram, peacekeeping forces and humanitarian organizations have mechanisms in place for collaboration to prevent attacks like this one. Here in the Gaza Strip, that isn't working. We've been letting people know for some time now that it's not working and that we're not receiving the necessary security assurances. The fact that these folks died while merely attempting to bring food to those who were about to go hungry makes the situation even worse. It is an inconceivable loss.
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