Aid organisations working in Gaza have said they are demanding the Israeli military improve and adhere to security procedures intended to keep their workers safe, following Israeli airstrikes that killed all seven members of a convoy of humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen (WCK).
“What happened is above all else a tragedy, but I would be surprised if coordination [with Israeli forces] continues in the same way it did in the past,” said one aid worker from a leading humanitarian organisation, who asked not to be named.
They said their organisation was constantly pushing for improvements to the deconfliction system, including improved lines of communication and “command and control” within the Israeli military.
A second senior aid official at a different organisation said they felt attacks on aid workers were due to “a loophole in the chain of command within the Israeli army”.
“We do this everywhere in the world: every time we move into a dangerous area we coordinate to deconflict with the army in charge. We are doing our job. What the Israeli army needs to do is theirs – which means respect the laws of war,” they said.
WCK said in a statement after the incident that the convoy had coordinated its movements with the Israeli military, but was struck on a coastal road while leaving a warehouse in Deir al-Balah, south of Gaza City.
“The deconfliction system works if Israel wants it to. We want Israel to abide by the existing system, where we notify them and they don’t hit us,” said Bushra Khalid, Oxfam’s policy adviser for the occupied Palestinian territories.
“I don’t think it’s a problem of the system. I think there’s an unwillingness to abide by the system and by the locations provided,” she added.
Israeli authorities, including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, labelled the strikes on the WCK convoy “unintentional” and have promised to investigate. But the attack raised fears and insecurity for aid groups working in Gaza. Multiple organisations, including WCK, have ceased operations there citing risks to worker safety, further curtailing aid at a time when the global authority on food security believes famine is imminent, if not already happening, in northern Gaza.
WCK was one of few aid organisations permitted by Israeli authorities to deliver food to northern Gaza. It said before suspending operations that it had delivered 35m meals in the enclave.
“Children trapped in Gaza are dying of hunger while Israel obstructs aid and kills aid workers – this is why children are dying of starvation. This is not a natural disaster,” said Khalidi. “The burden is on Israel to avoid harming us. We make ourselves visible when delivering aid so we protect our teams and the people in Gaza where we serve.”
But, she added, an internal debate persists about whether it is safe or not to share the locations of their guesthouses and offices with Israeli authorities for fear staff will be targeted.
The strikes in the early hours of Tuesday follow a pattern of attacks on humanitarian facilities and aid workers in Gaza since 7 October.
Aid groups working in the enclave provide the coordinates of their offices, residences and the movements of their aid convoys to Israeli forces via a system of deconfliction, which operates through the UN.
An international outcry after the strikes on the WCK convoy, aid workers hope, will force a change in how they are treated on the ground.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and Cogat, a body within the Israeli military that oversees operations in Gaza, have been contacted for comment.
Last November, a convoy from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) carrying medical supplies for hospitals came under fire, damaging two trucks and wounding a driver, after the organisation had provided details to Israeli forces. The IDF said they were unwilling to comment on the incident without the exact coordinates of the attack. The same month, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) said its guesthouse in Rafah was also struck shortly after staff had left.
In January, Israeli naval forces struck a guesthouse used by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Medical Aid for Palestinians in the coastal area of al-Mawasi. IRC said it had shared coordinates of the building through the UN deconfliction process and that the IDF had provided “six different explanations as to why the airstrike took place”, without providing any clarity about the attack.
A month later, Doctors Without Borders said one of its guesthouses in the same area was struck by Israeli naval fire and Unwra said that Israeli naval gunfire hit an aid truck as it attempted to cross the northern Gaza Strip.
“This is not an isolated incident,” said Jamie McGoldrick, UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian Territories, of the strikes on the WCK convoy. “As of 20 March, at least 196 humanitarians had been killed in the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territory] since October 2023. This is nearly three times the death toll recorded in any single conflict in a year.”
During a previous round of conflict in 2014, when Israeli forces also conducted a ground invasion of Gaza, a physical operations room with aid groups was set up early in the conflict, according to a humanitarian worker. This allowed organisations to relay details of aid convoys and locations of shelters or offices in real time and ensure swift deconfliction.
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant announced following the attack on the WCK convoy that the Israeli military would establish an operations room with aid groups to coordinate distribution, although some aid workers questioned why it had taken six months of war for this to happen.
A staff member from the aid group Anera, which suspended operations in Gaza after the strike on the WCK convoy, was killed in an Israeli strike last month ago, although aid groups said the coordinates of his shelter had been provided to Israeli forces multiple times.
Khalidi pointed to the unprecedented scale of loss in Gaza. “A hundred-and-ninety-six aid workers is an army that could be helping, but they’re dead,” she said. “This is not proportionate, and no distinction is being made here.”
