Gaza aid workers press on, shaken by lethal Israeli strike on convoy

The shock waves of the lethal Israeli military strike on a World Central Kitchen convoy are creating fresh obstacles for humanitarian workers in Gaza who continue to fight famine even as they themselves are at risk.

The local humanitarian workers, who lack the protections of international organizations, have been left shaken by the strikes on the WCK staff, whom they had befriended. They say a suspension in operations by aid agencies in Gaza poses more obstacles to their mission.

“The airstrike on the WCK convoy elicited a range of emotions: fear, sadness, and outrage,” says Aisha Salem, a manager at the Economic & Social Development Center of Palestine, a Palestinian nongovernmental organization that distributes food parcels in southern Gaza. “It underscores the serious risks we face daily as we carry out our mission to alleviate suffering and provide aid to those in dire need.”

On Friday came signs some relief could be on the way.

Following a tense phone call between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel announced a “temporary opening” of the Erez Crossing with northern Gaza and the use of the port of Ashdod to receive Gaza-bound aid, with the potential to massively increase food and assistance to the besieged strip.

Also Friday, Israel announced that two officers – a colonel and major – had been sacked, and three others including a general had been reprimanded, following a preliminary military investigation into the drone strikes on the convoy.

Courtesy of @chefjoseandres/X/REUTERS

World Central Kitchen workers prepare food for Palestinians in Gaza in this picture released March 21, 2024, and obtained from social media.

Norwegian Refugee Council Secretary-General Jan Egeland, in an interview with BBC World Service Radio, described the temporary border opening as a “watershed moment.”

“I think it’s a turning point, and I think the aid will flow freely,” he said. “I’m glad the most recent tragedy [the WCK incident] has woken up the capitals of the West. I think they [Israelis] have understood that their current policy is counterproductive.”

Yet international NGOs operating in Gaza expressed caution, stressing that the issues of security, coordination with the Israeli military, and a cumbersome screening process imposed by Israel that has slowed aid to a trickle have yet to be resolved.

And the dangers to aid workers remain.

Groups suspend work

In the wake of the killing of one Palestinian and six international aid workers in marked WCK vehicles, the charity suspended its operations in Gaza, citing Israel’s inability to ensure its staff’s safety.

A ship laden with 240 tons of Gaza-bound WCK aid was turned back to Cyprus. In five months, the agency had delivered more than 40 million meals across Gaza.

American Near East Refugee Aid, which was serving 150,000 meals per day across Gaza, also halted its operations this week.

According to one humanitarian coordinating the international aid response in Gaza, more international organizations in Gaza “are considering suspension” in wake of the strike, with the full impact on international aid agencies’ work in Gaza yet to be felt.

The reduced activity makes the efforts of Palestinian men and women still trying to keep their communities alive more difficult – and more vital.

Ahmed Abu Sultan, a project coordinator at the Wefaq Association for Women and Child Care, a local charity that partnered with World Central Kitchen, would go to the WCK storage facility in Rafah twice weekly to load his truck with rice, cooking oil, and lentils to then prepare hot meals that would be packaged and distributed across Rafah.

Courtesy of the Wefaq Association for Women and Child Care

Ahmed Abu Sultan (center with sunglasses) from the Wefaq Association charity oversees a recent aid distribution to families in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. He says he's concerned that the World Central Kitchen's suspension of work in Gaza will decrease his own organization's capacity to deliver meals.

There he befriended Australian Zomi Frankcom, one of the seven killed in the Israeli strike, whom he described as a “dynamo” full of positivity with a contagious smile.

“Seeing international organizations in Gaza gave us some comfort,” he says. But their killing “shook us. Some volunteers stopped coming out of fear of being attacked. People with foreign nationalities have been killed. This means that I can easily get killed” as a local NGO worker, he says they reason.

With the WCK suspending its work, Mr. Abu Sultan now relies on two smaller donor organizations, cutting back on Wefaq’s meal service.

“I am afraid that this will affect our kitchen’s operations. This will reduce the number of hot meals we produce for displaced and needy people in the Gaza Strip,” he says.

UNRWA teams “terrified”

UNRWA, the largest humanitarian organization on the ground in Gaza, has had 176 staff members killed in the war, many in the line of duty – the most United Nations staff killed in any conflict.

“Our teams are absolutely terrified,” says UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma. “What happened is a testament that no one is safe in Gaza even if you are an aid worker wearing your gear, driving a marked car in a coordinated deconflicted route. You are not safe.”

UNRWA convoys have twice been hit when attempting to reach northern Gaza on a prescribed secure route.

“We had hoped foreign nationals would be able to provide aid to us without being exposed to the dangers by the Israeli military,” says Fatema Abu Atta, program officer at Aisha Society, a women’s organization that provides family support services.

“The killing of WCK workers has shaken my confidence in international humanitarian law,” Ms. Abu Atta says. “It all seems to be one big lie.”

Petros Karadjias/AP

A ship belonging to the Open Arms aid group, loaded with canned food destined to Gaza, is docked after returning with undelivered aid to the port of Larnaca, Cyprus, April 3, 2024.

Mohammed Nairab, director of Palestinian Environmental Friends, currently handing out food parcels to displaced families in camps along Gaza’s coast and in Rafah, says Tuesday’s strike “highlights the urgent need for increased protection of humanitarian workers.”

Without protective gear or armored cars, the most dangerous part of the job distributing aid, the workers say, is traveling on roads and through neighborhoods that can be hit with missiles or shelling at any moment.

While international organizations like the WCK have deconfliction arrangements and share the coordinates of their movements with the Israeli military, Mr. Abu Sultan, and many humanitarian workers like him, use public transportation every day.

Lives “shattered daily”

Also daunting, the local aid workers say, is the constant anxiety and worry over the safety of their loved ones in evacuee centers and tents.

“The decision to leave my family behind to assist those in need weighs heavily on me,” says Mr. Nairab.

Many local humanitarian workers and U.N. staff have lost family members to Israeli missile strikes, but they continue their work.

Their own safety, the workers stress to the Monitor, is a secondary concern.

Their priority: fighting against famine and a humanitarian situation deteriorating by the hour, a race against the clock to save whomever they can.

“Lives are being shattered daily, and the humanitarian crisis deepens with each passing moment,” says Mr. Nairab. “Urgent action is needed to ensure the timely delivery of assistance to save lives.”

“The urgency of the situation and the pressing needs of vulnerable populations compel us to push through our fear,” adds Ms. Salem, the Palestinian NGO manager. “We are determined to make a difference.”

“These are people who have lost families, homes, they fear for themselves and their children, and yet they still continue to risk their lives to deliver babies, [and] hand out medicine and bags of flour,” says UNRWA’s Ms. Touma. “These are heroes.”

Fatima AbdulKarim contributed to this report from Ramallah, West Bank.