World Central Kitchen halts work in Rafah due to Israeli attacks
Local volunteers of the World Central Kitchen cook meals to be distributed to needy Palestinians in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, May 3, 2024. (AFP Photo)


The World Central Kitchen (WCK), a nongovernmental organization founded by SpanishAmerican celebrity chef Jose Andres, announced that it paused its aid operations in Rafah, Gaza due to Israel's incessant attacks in the area.

"In the face of Israeli operations in Rafah, countless families are being forced to flee once again," the charity said on social media platform X late Tuesday.

"Ongoing attacks have forced us to pause work at our main kitchen in Rafah and relocate many of our community kitchens further north."

The charity had recently resumed its work in Gaza after suspending operations in April following the killing of seven of its workers in three air strikes by an Israeli drone.

The deaths – of an Australian, three Britons, a North American, a Palestinian and a Pole – had triggered a global outrage over Israel's assault.

An internal Israeli military inquiry found that the drone team had made an "operational misjudgment," an excuse frequently used by the IDF to evade responsibility.

In recent weeks, Israel's attacks on Rafah have intensified after the IDF began its ground assault there on May 7 after seizing control of the crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

Gaza officials said an Israeli strike on Sunday set ablaze a crowded camp for displaced people in Rafah, killing 45 and wounding dozens.

Israel's military, which had targeted hospitals, aid distribution centers, U.N. compounds, houses of worship and all kinds of civilian infrastructure in the past eight months, said it had "launched an investigation" into the strike but insisted its munitions alone "could not" have caused the deadly blaze.

Since the start of the Rafah assault, delivering aid into Gaza has become more difficult, aid agencies say.

Even when medical and other aid makes it into Gaza, it remains "very challenging" to transport and deliver the goods both in the south and to the north, Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization's representative in the Palestinian territories, told AFP on Tuesday.

Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that Israel had repeatedly targeted known aid worker locations in Gaza, even after their coordinates were provided to Israeli authorities to ensure their protection.

The rights watchdog said that it had identified eight cases where aid convoys and premises were targeted, killing at least 15 people, including two children.

They are among more than 250 aid workers who have been killed in Gaza since the war erupted more than seven months ago, according to U.N. figures.

In all eight cases, the organizations had provided the coordinates to Israeli authorities, HRW said.

This reveals "fundamental flaws with the so-called deconfliction system, meant to protect aid workers and allow them to safely deliver life-saving humanitarian assistance in Gaza," it said.

Israel's relentless bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza have since killed at least 35,173 people, mostly civilians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The war and siege have triggered a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with the UN repeatedly lamenting aid restrictions even as famine is looming in the north.

'Over and over again'

"On one hand, Israel is blocking access to critical lifesaving humanitarian provisions and on the other, attacking convoys that are delivering some of the small amount that they are allowing in," Belkis Wille, HRW's associate crisis, conflict and arms director, said in Tuesday's statement.

HRW highlighted the case of the World Central Kitchen, a U.S.-based charity who saw seven of its aid workers killed by an Israeli strike on their convoy on April 1.

This was not an isolated "mistake," HRW said, pointing to the other seven cases it had identified where GPS coordinates of aid convoys and premises had been sent to Israeli authorities, only to see them attacked by Israeli forces "without any warning."

"Israel's allies need to recognize that these attacks that have killed aid workers have happened over and over again, and they need to stop," Wille said.

Among the other seven attacks listed were three on Doctors Without Borders convoys and premises, and two on convoys and facilities belonging to UNRWA, the U.N. agency supporting Palestinian refugees.

All of the organizations who had seen structures and staff affected had told HRW that, as far as they knew, "there were no military targets in the area at the time of the attack."

"If confirmed, this would make the attacks unlawfully indiscriminate or unlawful for having failed to take sufficient precautions to ensure the target was military," HRW said.

On Monday, a U.N. staff member was killed and another injured when their vehicle was struck in Rafah in southern Gaza, with the U.N. saying it had conveyed the clearly marked vehicle's movements to Israeli authorities in advance.