World Central Kitchen to Resume Operation in Gaza After Workers Killed in Israeli Strikes
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29 April 2024 10:10 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - World Central Kitchen (WCK) said it would resume operations in the Gaza Strip on Monday, April 29, a month after seven of its workers were killed in an Israeli air strike. The US-based nonprofit has distributed more than 43 million meals in Gaza since October, representing by its own accounts 62% of all international NGO aid.
The charity said it had 276 trucks with the equivalent of almost 8 million meals ready to enter through the Rafah Crossing and will also send trucks into Gaza from Jordan.
"The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire," said the charity's chief executive officer Erin Gore. "We are restarting our operation with the same energy, dignity, and focus on feeding as many people as possible."
The April 1 deaths triggered widespread condemnation and demands from Israel's allies, including the United States., for an explanation. Tel Aviv said its inquiries had found serious errors and breaches of procedure by its military, dismissing two senior officers and reprimanding senior commanders.
Meanwhile, WCK is demanding an independent investigation.
Israel's six-month operation in Gaza followed the October 7 attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas in southern Israel when more than 250 hostages were seized and some 1,200 people killed, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's attack on the enclave has killed more than 34,000 people, Palestinian health authorities say, and caused a humanitarian disaster for more than 2 million Palestinians residing in the Gaza Strip.
Israel had previously threatened to launch an all-out attack on Gaza’s Rafah in the south. Western countries, including Tel Aviv's close ally the United States, have appealed to Israel to refrain from attacking Rafah, which is currently where more than one million Gazans took refuge after being displaced from across the strip..
REUTERS
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