An injured child is unloaded from a vehicle at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis after an Israeli airstrike on Saturday.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An Israeli airstrike on a car in the Gaza Strip on Saturday killed five people, including employees of World Central Kitchen. The charity said it was “urgently seeking more details” after Israel’s military said it targeted a WCK worker who was part of the Hamas attack that sparked the war.
WCK said it was “heartbroken” by the airstrike and that it had no knowledge anyone in the car had alleged ties to the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, saying it was “working with incomplete information.” It said it was pausing operations in Gaza.
The charity's work in Gaza was temporarily suspended earlier this year after an Israeli strike killed seven of its workers, most of them foreigners.
The Israeli military in a statement said the alleged Oct. 7 attacker had taken part in the assault on the kibbutz of Nir Oz, and it asked "senior officials from the international community and the WCK administration to clarify" how he had come to work for the charity.
The family of the man named by Israel, Ahed Azmi Qdeih, rejected the allegations in a statement as “false accusations,” and confirmed he had worked with the charity. Israel named him as Hazmi Kadih.
Violence in Gaza raged even as a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah appeared to hold, despite sporadic episodes that have tested its fragility.
The strike on the vehicle highlighted the dangerous work of delivering aid in Gaza, where the war has displaced much of the population of 2.3 million and triggered widespread hunger.
At Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, a woman held up an employee badge bearing the WCK logo, the word “contractor,” and the name of a man said to have been killed. Belongings — burned phones, a watch, and stickers with the WCK logo — lay on the floor.
Nazmi Ahmed said his nephew worked for WCK for the past year. He said he was driving to the charity's kitchens and warehouses.
“Today, he went out as usual to work ... and was targeted without prior warning and without any reason,” Ahmed said.
In April, a strike on a WCK aid convoy killed seven workers — three British citizens, Polish and Australian nationals, a Canadian-American dual national, and a Palestinian. The Israeli military called it a mistake.
That strike prompted an international outcry. Another Palestinian WCK worker was killed in August by shrapnel from an Israeli airstrike, the group said.
Another Israeli airstrike Saturday hit a car near a food distribution point in Khan Younis, killing 13 people, including children. Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis received the bodies.
“They were distributing aid, vegetables, and we saw the missile landing,” witness Rami Al-Sori said. A woman sat on the ground and wept.
Cease-fire appears to hold
Efforts for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas have faltered. But the U.S.- and France-brokered deal for Lebanon appears to be holding since Wednesday.
On Saturday, Israel's military said that it struck sites used to smuggle weapons from Syria to Lebanon after the cease-fire took effect. There was no immediate comment from Syrian authorities or Hezbollah. Israeli aircraft have struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon several times, citing truce violations.
Israel's strike in Syria came as insurgents breached its largest city, Aleppo, bringing fresh uncertainty to the region.
The truce between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah calls for an initial two-month cease-fire in which the militants should withdraw north of Lebanon's Litani River and Israeli forces should return to their side of the border.