Celebrity chef Jose Andres has said an Israeli attack that killed seven of his food aid workers in Gaza had targeted them “systematically, car by car” — even as they tried to communicate who they were and seek shelter.
In an emotional interview with Reuters, Andres said the World Central Kitchen charity group he founded had clear communication with the Israeli military, which he said knew his aid workers’ movements.
“This was not just a bad luck situation where ‘oops’ we dropped the bomb in the wrong place,” Andres said.
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“This was over 1.5km, 1.8km, with a very defined humanitarian convoy that had signs on the top, on the roof, a very colourful logo that we are obviously very proud of,” he said.
“It’s very clear who we are and what we do.”
Andres said the Israeli Defense Forces was aware of the convoy’s whereabouts and has called for the incident to be investigated by the US government and by the home country of every aid worker who was killed — including Australian Zomi Frankcom.
“They were targeting us in a deconflicting zone, in an area controlled by IDF — they knowing that it was our teams moving on that road … with three cars,” he said.
He said that after the IDF attacked the first armoured car, the team was able to escape and move to a second car which was then attacked, forcing them to move to the third car.
The aid workers tried to communicate to make clear who they were, he said, adding IDF knew they were in the area which it controlled.
Then the third car was hit “and we saw the consequences of that,” Andres said.
Israel’s military has expressed “severe sorrow” over the incident and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it unintentional.
But Andres said there may have been more than three strikes against the aid convoy and rejected Israeli and US assertions that the strike was not deliberate.
“Initially, I would say categorically no,” Andres said when asked if he accepted the Israeli explanation.
“Even if we were not in co-ordination with the (IDF), no democratic country and no military can be targeting civilians and humanitarians,” he added.
Responding to Andres’ remarks, an Israeli military spokesperson referred to prior comments by chief-of-staff Herzi Halevi who called the incident a grave mistake and said the attack “was not carried out with the intention of harming WCK aid workers”.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said Israel’s explanation was “insufficient and unacceptable”.
“We need a full, transparent and clear explanation for how this occurred,” he told ABC radio on Thursday.
Andres spoke to US President Joe Biden on Tuesday, later saying: “The US must do more to tell Prime Minister Netanyahu this war needs to end now.”
He questioned Biden administration moves to supply aid in Gaza while also arming Israel.
“It’s very complicated to understand … America is going to be sending its navy and its military to do humanitarian work, but at the same time weapons provided by America … are killing civilians,” he said.
The chef also wondered aloud how Netanyahu could wage a war to save Israeli hostages “when they may be dying under the rubble of the same weapons” Israel used against Palestinians.
Almost 200 aid workers killed
The World Central Kitchen aid workers were killed as they were leaving the group’s Deir al-Balah warehouse, where stockpiles of food supplies had just been delivered by sea.
Andres said he was supposed to be with his team but was not able to go back to Gaza at the time.
Andres described how he learned of the attack, saying first his group lost contact with its team in Gaza and did not realise what happened until seeing images of the bodies.
Andres said his organisation was still studying the safety situation in Gaza as it contemplates starting aid deliveries again.
At least 196 humanitarian workers have been killed in Gaza since October, according to the United Nations, and Hamas has previously accused Israel of targeting aid distribution sites.
World Central Kitchen last month began moving food aid to starving people in northern Gaza via a maritime corridor from Cyprus, in collaboration with Spanish charity Open Arms.
The charity co-ordinated closely with Israel’s military, Arab nations and others, Andres said earlier.
Biden said he was “outraged and heartbroken” by the deaths.
The US has sided with Netanyahu’s assertion that the strikes were not deliberate.
World Central Kitchen — which Andres founded in 2010 after a Haiti earthquake — has tried to sidestep red tape around the world to rush aid to disaster-hit areas, including Ukraine after the Russian invasion.
The conflict in Gaza began after Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killed killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli figures.
Since then, much of the densely populated territory has been laid waste and most of its 2.3 million population displaced. More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
Andres condemned the war as a whole.
“This it seems is a war against humanity itself. And you can never win that war. Because humanity eventually will always prevail,” he said.