Three Britons among seven aid workers killed by Israeli strike on Gaza food convoy

For free actual time breaking information alerts despatched straight to your inbox signal as much as our breaking information emails

Sign as much as our free breaking information emails

Rishi Sunak has demanded a “thorough and transparent investigation” from Israel after three British residents have been among seven aid workers killed in an IDF airstrike on a food convoy in Gaza.

The prime minister telephoned Benjamin Netanyahu to say that “far too many aid workers and ordinary civilians have lost their lives in Gaza” and that the state of affairs there’s “more and more insupportable.”

The White House said it was also “outraged” by the incident, which killed workers and volunteers at World Central Kitchen (WCK), a charity that was supplying food to starving Palestinians.

The charity had just offloaded 100 tons of food aid from a barge which sailed from Cyprus when Israel attacked their vehicle convoy overnight on Monday on Gaza’s coastal road in Deir Balah. It said on Tuesday it was pausing all work in the occupied Palestinian territory.

The confirmed victims include Zomi Frankcom, 43, an Australian; Damian Sobol, 35, a Polish citizen; Saif Issam Abu Taha, 27, a Palestinian driver.

James Henderson, from Cornwall, was among the British killed, according to reports in the Times and the Daily Mail.

WCK said its convoy of three vehicles was hit despite the charity coordinating on its movements with the Israeli military, and the fact that two of the cars hit were clearly marked as aid vehicles.

Foreign secretary David Cameron called on Israel to “immediately investigate”, adding that the government wanted “a full, transparent explanation of what happened”.

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

Mr Sobol, 35, started volunteering with WCK in the border town of Przemysl at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine where he was helping feed refugees. He joined WCK’s response to the earthquakes in Turkey. More recently he started working for WCK in Gaza.

Nate Mook, the former chief executive of WCK who first hired Ms Frankcom, described her as a “shining star” and “gift to the world” who had dedicated her life to helping people. “The news of her death, the killing of seven members of the World Central Kitchen is devastating for their families, friends and the world,” he told The Independent.

“It is unfathomable that they are not with us any more. They were all truly dedicated to their work, trying to do what they could in the most desperate and dangerous of situations.”

Mr Netanyahu said the killings were “unintended”.

“This happens in wartime,” he said in a video message. “We are thoroughly looking into it, are in contact with the governments (of the foreigners among the dead) and will do everything to ensure it does not happen again.”

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s top spokesperson, said officials were reviewing the incident at the highest level. He said an independent investigation would be launched that “will help us reduce the risk of such an event from occurring again”.

WCK founder, celebrity chef Jose Andres, said the deaths were a “tragedy”.

“I am heartbroken and grieving for their families and friends and our whole WCK family,” Andrés wrote in a statement. “These are people…angels…I served alongside in Ukraine, Gaza, Turkey, Morocco, Bahamas, Indonesia.

“They are not faceless… they are not nameless. The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing. It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon. No more innocent lives lost. Peace starts with our shared humanity. It needs to start now.”

It is not the first time Israel has been accused of bombing humanitarian aid convoys and distribution centres. The United Nations’ Palestinian Refugee Agency told The Independent a tank shell hit one of its aid convoys in February along the same coastal road.

The UN agency said that a supply distribution centre was also hit in March, and convoys had come under Israeli fire in December.

Alicia Kearns, a Conservative MP and the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said that there was still no explanation for the January bombing of the Medical Aid for Palestine complex in a declared safe zone which had also been deconflicted directly with the Israeli military. Four British doctors who were there at the time only just survived.

She called for a “thorough and swift investigation” into the latest incident. “And also [into] what impact it will have on the ability of the maritime corridor to function given it is World Central Kitchen who were receiving and distributing the desperately needed aid,” she tweeted. “Humanitarian agencies must be given the assurances they need that their people will be protected.”

Francesca Albanese, a United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, called for sanctions on Israel. “On the day Israel bombed a foreign embassy in a third country, it also killed WCK humanitarian workers. Israel is crossing every possible red line, still with full impunity. Sanctions now. Indictments now.”

It came hours after Israeli troops ended a devastating two-week raid on Gaza’s largest hospital, al Shifa, leaving the facility a torched, gutted shell.

Footage showed Shifa’s main buildings had been reduced to a charred mess, with what looked like flattened bodies and body parts smashed in the ground, which had been chewed up by bulldozers.

Israel claimed it launched the raid on Shifa because senior Hamas operatives had regrouped there and were planning attacks. After the troops withdrew, hundreds of Palestinians returned to search for lost loved ones or examine the damage – with Palestinian journalists reporting people had been killed by Israeli soldiers.

Among the dead were Ahmed Maqadma and his mother — both doctors at Shifa — and his cousin, said Dr Ghassan Abu Sitta, a Palestinian-British doctor who volunteered at Shifa and other hospitals during the first months of the war before returning to Britain. 

The fate of the three had been unknown since they talked by phone with family as they tried to leave Shifa nearly a week ago and the line suddenly went dead. On Monday, relatives found their bodies with gunshot wounds about a block from the hospital, said Abu Sitta, who is in touch with the family.