World Central Kitchen (WCK) said it was “heartbroken to share” that a vehicle carrying employees was hit by the strike, confirming earlier claims by both Israeli and Palestinian officials.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said that one of the three aid workers killed was also a “terrorist” who helped orchestrate the 7 October massacre last year.
But WCK’s statement said: “World Central Kitchen had no knowledge that any individual in the vehicle had alleged ties to the October 7th Hamas attack.”
It added: “World Central Kitchen is pausing operations in Gaza at this time. Our hearts are with our colleagues and their families in this unimaginable moment.”
WCK’s aid deliveries in Gaza were temporarily suspended earlier this year after seven of its workers, most of them foreigners, were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
The organisation is a non-profit that says it is first to frontlines to provide “fresh meals in response to crises”.
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An official at the Hamas-run health ministry said earlier on Saturday that two others were killed in Saturday’s strike – but did not give further details.
An uncle of one of the aid workers killed said he was “driving his car… normally as usual” but was “targeted without prior warning and without any reason”.
He added that he worked “providing food and helping people and the displaced” and was “deliberately targeted”.
The deadly incident is the latest to have impacted aid workers in the territory, who help provide food, medicine, and shelter for the millions displaced.
The IDF said the “terrorist… was monitored for a while by IDF intelligence and was struck following credible information regarding his real-time location”.
“We emphasise that it was a civilian unmarked vehicle and its movement on the route was not co-ordinated for transporting of aid,” a spokesperson added.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, at least 44,382 people have been killed and 105,142 injured in Gaza since Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
At least 32 Palestinians were killed by Israeli strikes across Gaza overnight on Friday, Reuters said, quoting medics inside the territory.
Seven of the 32 were killed when a house was destroyed in central Gaza, the Hamas-run Gaza Civil Defence agency said.
The agency said one of its officers was killed in an attack in Jabalia, northern Gaza.
