Behind aid worker deaths in Gaza: the attempt to kill a terrorist who wasn’t there

The Israeli strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers in Gaza on Monday night was launched because of suspicion that a terrorist was travelling with the convoy.

An Israeli drone fired three missiles one after the other at a WCK aid convoy that left to escort an aid truck to a food warehouse in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, defence sources told Haaretz.

According to the sources, the cars were clearly marked on the roof and sides as belonging to the organisation, but the war room of the unit responsible for security of the route identified an armed man on the truck and suspected that he was a terrorist. It ordered the drone operators to attack the cars.

In fact the suspect terrorist never left the warehouse.

Seven WCK volunteers were killed in the strike, among them Australian Lalzawmi Zomi Frankcom, three British citizens, a Polish citizen, a Canadian-American dual citizen and their Palestinian driver.

Aid operations paused

WCK has worked on both sides of the conflict, working with IsraAid to provide more than 500,000 meals to displaced, vulnerable Israelis in wake of the Hamas attack and providing 1.4 million meals in Gaza.

After the deaths, it announced a temporary halt to its operations in Gaza. A ship that had departed for Gaza with aid returned to Cyprus.

Some other aid operations have also paused activities in the wake of the strike.