IDF bombs food aid convoy
By 
The unimaginable horrors in Gaza continue:
World Central Kitchen said Tuesday that it was immediately halting its operations in Gaza after seven of its workers were killed in an Israeli strike,threatening already precarious deliveries to the besieged enclave.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Israel carried out the strike but said it was “unintentional” and that Israel would investigate.
The attack on the aid convoy killed three British nationals, U.S.-Canadian dual national, one Palestinian worker and citizens of Australia and Poland, according to the group, which has been prominently involved in Gaza relief efforts.
WCK CEO Erin Gore described the strike on the convoy as a “targeted attack” by the Israel Defense Forces and “unforgivable.” The food aid nonprofit has sent more than 1,700 trucks of assistance into Gaza as well as sea deliveries from Cyprus.
It said it had coordinated its activities with Israeli authorities. The team was traveling in a “deconflicted zone” in vehicles that included two armored cars branded with the WCK logo.
“Despite coordinating movements with the [Israel Defense Forces], the convoy was hit as it was leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse, where the team had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route,” the group said.
The strike is believed to be the first to kill foreigners working for an international aid organization in Gaza since the start of the war on Oct. 7, though a record number of Palestinians employed by the United Nations have been killed in the conflict. It sent shock waves through the humanitarian aid community, causing at least two other groups providing aid to pause their operations at a time when Gaza is on the brink of famine.
That last sentence is a critical point — in addition to the senseless deaths, this will make the access to food for residents of Gaza even more dire than it already is.
And according to Haaretz, this wasn’t one airstrike, but three:
because team survived one hit and tried taking cover in another vehicle, and then survivors moved to a third – and were finished off there. Deliberate, repeated targeting of convoy, making sure no one was left alive.
And this actually doesn't stack up w the alleged pretext:— Dimi Reider | dimireider.substack.com (@reider) April 2, 2024
at the warehouse, together with the three WKC vehicles carrying seven volunteers… minutes later, the three vehicles left the warehouse, without the truck on which an armed person was allegedly sighted. The cars traveled on a route already confirmed to WKC by the IDF. The IDF— Dimi Reider | dimireider.substack.com (@reider) April 2, 2024
to the other two. They had time to alert superiors they had been attacked, but seconds later were struck by a second missile. They began moving wounded to 3rd car, and that's when the 3rd missile hit. All seven volunteers were killed."
This is actually far worse than I imagined.— Dimi Reider | dimireider.substack.com (@reider) April 2, 2024
It’s hard to see how this could have been an “accident.” But even if Netanyahu isn’t lying, I’m not sure it makes much of a difference in the end. If the IDF is unable to distinguish between military targets and a humanitarian aid convoy that coordinated its movements with the military, the material effect is the same — this is a now a war of arbitrary collective punishment, not self-defense.