Unicorn Riot | Israel Kills International Aid Workers, Over 220 Humanitarians in Six Months of War on #gaza @UnicornRiot | Uploaded April 2024 | Updated October 2024, 4 hours ago.
Two days after the seven World Central Kitchen humanitarians were targeted and killed by Israel while delivering humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, Dr. Marwan Al-Hams assisted in facilitating the return of the bodies of six of the internationals through the Rafah crossing. Dr. Al-Hams is the head of Rafah’s health emergency committee and Director of Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah. He told Unicorn Riot that the aid workers were martyrs of “humanitarian duty” and said they were “targeted by the Israeli occupation forces.”

“We mourn the loss of six humanitarian workers. Three of them are British, one is American, one is Australian, and one is Polish. They are the humanitarian duty martyrs. They were targeted by the Israeli occupation forces yesterday, and today, we bid them farewell as we facilitate their return to their respective families through the Rafah crossing, with the assistance of a United Nations organization.” Dr. Marwan Al-Hams

Dr. Al-Hams said “the current situation after the cessation of operations at the World Central Kitchen is very dire, for all the displaced people, and also for the workers, and the patients at [Al-Najjar Hospital] where the World Central Kitchen services has stopped.”

In January 2024, a preliminary ruling by the International Court of Justice found it “plausible” that Israel was committing genocide in Palestine and ruled that they must permit the flow of humanitarian aid. Since the court’s statement, Israel has continued to block aid and target and kill aid workers while openly using food and starvation as a weapon of war.

One of the most high-profile killings of humanitarians during the first six months caused a brief outcry in the corporate news cycle earlier in April, when Israeli forces deliberately targeted aid workers with a trio of precision bombings, killing seven humanitarians working with World Central Kitchen (WCK), six of whom were from international countries.

These killings are among numerous attacks on aid workers and humanitarians in Gaza, where over 220 aid workers have been killed, 95% of them Palestinian.

Displaced Palestinian civilians seeking aid have also been killed by the dozens by Israeli forces whether at checkpoints, roundabouts, or simply being near aid trucks. Others have been killed directly from air dropped aid packages that had parachutes fail to open up and struck people on the ground.

The seven humanitarians killed during the targeted Israeli drone strikes on WCK on April 1 include Palestinian translator Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha (25), aid worker Lalzawmi “Zomi” Frankcom (43) of Australia, aid worker Damian Soból (35) of Poland, and security provider Jacob Flickinger (33) a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada, and from Britain, WCK security team members John Chapman (57) and James Henderson (33), and private security guard James Kirby (47).

World Central Kitchen CEO Erin Gore said in a statement released after the killing, “this is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable.”

Workers with WCK had worked directly with Israeli forces for many weeks, providing their coordinates for each route and delivery, including the night their workers were targeted and killed. Despite this, WCK aid workers have been directly targeted at least two other times by Israel. WCK ceased its operations after the deadly attack, which has broad implications with Israel blocking aid from being distributed.

Israeli forces claim to have fired two soldiers and reprimanded three others for the killings and the army’s social media account expressed “condolences” to WCK, calling their work “critical.” WCK called for an independent investigation into the killing along with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who called for an investigation into all the aid workers killed by Israel.

Full story: https://unicornriot.ninja/2024/ongoing-war-crimes-israel-targets-journalists-aid-workers-civilians-in-gaza/
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