It was hours after dark when the eight aid trucks pulled away from the makeshift dock, built with tons of rubble accumulated in Loop after months of war.
The trucks were escorted by three vehicles carrying aid workers from World Central Kitchen, the aid organization that had organized the huge shipment of food. The seven workers were wearing bulletproof vests. The cars were identified, also on the roof, with the group’s emblem, a multicolored frying pan.
After a hard journey along a battered road, it seemed that they had accomplished their mission. The caravan left its valuable merchandise in a warehouse and the team prepared to go home.
The Moon was nothing more than a thin line that night. The roads were dark except for occasional flashes when light came from buildings with their own generators.
Just a few minutes after 10 p.m., the caravan was heading south along the Al Rashid Highway, which runs along the Gaza coast. The first missile hit just over an hour later.
Within minutes, all seven aid workers were dead.
A crucial effort to combat hunger
The lead-up to the April 1 attack began months earlier, as aid groups desperately sought ways to feed millions of people without access to regular food deliveries. Gaza had been isolated by Israeli forces just hours after the attack by Hamas militants that sparked the war on October 7. Since then, more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 80% of the territory’s 2.3 million people have been displaced.
Hunger has become common. United Nations officials warn of the growing likelihood of famine in devastated northern Gaza.
The situation is increasingly dire and deliveries over land crossings to Gaza from Israel and Egypt are limited, so World Central Kitchen made a pioneering effort to bring aid by sea.
The aid group, founded in 2010 by TV chef José Andrés, has worked as far away as Haiti and Ukraine, sending teams that can quickly produce large quantities of meals in conflict zones and after national disasters. The group prides itself on providing food according to local customs.
Its first ship arrived in mid-March with 200 tons of food, water and other relief supplies in coordination with Israel.
On March 30, three ships and one large barge left Cyprus with enough rice, pasta, flour, canned vegetables and other supplies to prepare more than a million meals, according to the group.
Two days later, some of those supplies were ready to travel by truck to the heart of Gaza.
April 1, 10 p.m.
World Central Kitchen’s convoy of eight trucks turned south after leaving the dock, driving along the coast toward a warehouse about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) away.
The World Central Kitchen team traveled in two armored cars and a third unarmored vehicle. With them was a Palestinian driver and translator, Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha. The young businessman’s mother was hopeful that he would find a wife soon. Also accompanying them was Jacob Flickinger, a security consultant with dual American and Canadian citizenship who was saving to buy a house in Costa Rica, where he and his girlfriend could raise their 18-month-old son.
There were three British Army veterans, an Australian beloved for her big hugs and tireless professional ethic, and a Polish volunteer praised by the group as “builder, plumber, welder, electrician, engineer, boss, confidant, friend and companion.”
The team had established a plan “deconflict” in advance with the Israeli forces, so that the army would know where they would travel and what route they would take.
Humanitarian organizations use complex systems to keep their teams safe. They typically send a plan in advance to COGAT, the Israeli defense agency responsible for Palestinian civil affairs, which then shares it with the Israeli military, an army member said. During deliveries, humanitarian groups can communicate with the army in real time, said the soldier, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with army rules for briefing the press.
World Food Kitchen workers carry GPS devices that record their location, according to an employee at the organization who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak to the media.
Many aid workers have expressed concerns about the system.
“It wasn’t working well.”said Chris Skopec, a Washington-based member of the aid group Project Hope, who cited communication and coordination problems. “And when it doesn’t work well, people die.”
10:28 at night
Things started to go wrong a few miles from the mooring. An Israeli soldier watching drone footage saw what he thought was a Hamas gunman climb onto the roof of a truck and shoot into the air.
Gunmen are a part of daily life in Gaza, which has been ruled by Hamas since 2007. They could be Hamas fighters, members of the Hamas-supervised police or private guards.
Some aid groups hire private guards, aid officials say, who are often plainclothes men carrying guns or long sticks to fend off starving Palestinians trying to grab supplies.
The World Central Kitchen employee said the group sometimes uses private guards, although it was unclear if they had been used for the April 1 convoy. The employee and other aid workers insisted that their guards are not part of Hamas or its allied militia Palestinian Islamic Jihad, although they did not provide details about the guards’ background. Despite these claims, it is unlikely that anyone would board an aid truck without at least tacit authorization from Hamas.
Israeli soldiers try to distinguish between private security guards and Hamas militants when determining their targets, said Maj. Nir Dinar, an Israeli military spokesman. He said he could not rule out the possibility that the armed men accompanying the World Central Kitchen convoy were security guards.
10:46 at night
In blurry airborne images that the army showed to journalists, people were seen gathering around the convoy when it arrived at the WCK warehouse in the city of Deir al-Balah. The military said between two and four men were armed, although that was not clear from aerial images shown to journalists.
10:55 at night
The trucks stayed at the warehouse, but World Central Kitchen’s three vehicles began driving south to take workers to their accommodations. Another vehicle that had joined the convoy — which the Israelis said was carrying armed people — went north toward another warehouse.
Planning messages sent by World Central Kitchen had made it clear that the aid workers would not stay with the trucks, but would continue the journey by car.
But Israeli officials say soldiers following the convoy had not read those messages. Then, an Israeli soldier believed that he had seen someone enter a WCK vehicle with a weapon.
“The view at the time was that the humanitarian mission was over and that they were following Hamas vehicles with at least one possible gunman.”said retired Gen. Yoav Har-Evan, who led the military investigation into the attack.
The darkness made it impossible to distinguish the World Central Kitchen emblems on the cars, according to Israeli officials.
11:09 at night
The first missile hit one of the armored vehicles as it moved along the coastal highway. The aid workers fled from the damaged vehicle to the other armored car, which Israel attacked two minutes later.
The survivors crowded into the third vehicle. He was soon hit too.
Abdel Razzaq Abutaha, brother of the deceased driver, said other aid workers had called him after the attacks asking him to check if his brother was okay.
He called his brother’s phone several times. Finally, a man responded and said that he had found the cell phone about 200 meters (656 feet) from one of the bombed cars.
“Everyone in the car died,” the man told Abdel Razzaq. Abdel Razzaq said he believed his brother’s job would be secure. “It is an American international institution with high-level coordination,” I saideither. “What is there to fear?”
The consequences
When the sun rose the next morning, the charred remains of the three vehicles could be seen spread over a mile of Al Rashid Street.
Israel quickly said it had mistakenly killed the aid workers and opened an investigation.
“It’s a tragedy”, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a military spokesman, told reporters. “It shouldn’t have happened. And we will make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Israel said on Friday it had dismissed two military personnel and reprimanded three others for their involvement, saying they had mishandled information and violated the army’s rules of engagement, which require several reasons to identify a target.
Following the deadly attack, Israel and COGAT have created a “war room” special where COGAT and military officials sit together to expedite the coordination process.
Israel’s promises have done little to quell growing international outrage over its offensive.
More than 200 aid workers have died in Gaza since the war began, including at least 30 who died while working, according to the United Nations. Many aid workers pointed out that the attack on the convoy only attracted attention because six of those killed were not Palestinians.
In many ways, humanitarian workers are a difficult community to define. Some are experts who earn a good salary and go from one disaster to another. Some are volunteers looking for a way to do good. Some are motivated by ambition and others by faith.
However, everyone in Gaza understood the risks.
John Flickinger’s son Jacob was a Canadian Army veteran and a member of the convoy security team.
“He volunteered to go to Gaza, and he was not deceived”Flickinger told the AP. “We talked about it, that it was a chaotic situation.”
Although World Central Kitchen and other organizations suspended operations in Gaza following the attacks, many of the largest groups, such as Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam International, barely slowed down.
The attack on the caravan “was not outside of the things we could have foreseen, unfortunately,” said Ruth James, regional humanitarian coordinator for Oxfam, based in the United Kingdom. Except for one canceled trip, Oxfam staff simply continued working.
“What keeps you going?”, asked. “I’m not sure”.
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Source: Gestion
Ricardo is a renowned author and journalist, known for his exceptional writing on top-news stories. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he is known for his ability to deliver breaking news and insightful analysis on the most pressing issues of the day.
