The war over food
The World Central Kitchen team had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid in Gaza when an Israeli strike hit its convoy on Monday, killing seven of their workers. The aid delivery had coordinated its movements with the Israeli military, but was hit anyway.
The deaths of the volunteers, which included a Palestinian, a U.S.-Canada citizen as well as citizens from Australia, Poland and the United Kingdom, highlight the increasingly political role that food is playing in the Israel-Hamas war: Who gets to have it (or not) and how it gets to people (or doesn't) is more and more tied up with political brinkmanship.
The United Nations has warned that millions of Palestinians are on the brink of famine. Some air drops of food have even killed Palestinians. And now WCK has paused on-the-ground operations following the deaths.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strike was "a tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people" and promised an independent investigation into the hit. But WCK founder and celebrity chef José Andrés has decried Israeli's "indiscriminate killing," calling on its government to "stop using food as a weapon."