World Central Kitchen says pausing Gaza operations after Israeli strike

US charity World Central Kitchen said Saturday it was “pausing operations in Gaza at this time” after an Israeli airstrike hit a vehicle carrying its workers.

The Israeli military confirmed that a Palestinian employee of WCK was killed in a strike, accusing the worker of being a “terrorist” who “infiltrated Israel and took part in the murderous October 7 massacre” last year.

WCK in a statement said it “had no knowledge that any individual in the vehicle had alleged ties to the October 7 Hamas attack,” and did not confirm any deaths.

US charity World Central Kitchen said Saturday it was “pausing operations in Gaza at this time” after an Israeli airstrike hit a vehicle carrying its workers.

The Israeli military confirmed that a Palestinian employee of WCK was killed in a strike, accusing the worker of being a “terrorist” who “infiltrated Israel and took part in the murderous October 7 massacre” last year.

WCK in a statement said it “had no knowledge that any individual in the vehicle had alleged ties to the October 7 Hamas attack,” and did not confirm any deaths.

It also said its strike in Khan Younis had hit “a civilian unmarked vehicle and its movement on the route was not coordinated for transporting of aid.”

In April, an Israeli strike killed seven WCK staff – an Australian, three Britons, a North American, a Palestinian and a Pole.

Israel said it had been targeting a “Hamas gunman” in that strike, but the military admitted a series of “grave mistakes” and violations of its own rules of engagement.

The UN said last week that 333 aid workers had been killed since the start of the war in October of last year, 243 of them employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

Palestinian militants’ October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,200 people, most of them civilians, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed 44,382 people in Gaza, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.