As part of the memorial service, religious representatives from various faiths will participate. Funerals for the aid workers have already taken place in their respective home countries.
The tragic incident that claimed the lives of the aid workers, including Palestinian Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha, Britons John Chapman, James Kirby, and James Henderson, dual U.S.-Canadian citizen Jacob Flickinger, Australian Lalzawmi Frankcom, and Polish citizen Damiam Sobol, occurred on April 1 when Israeli armed drones targeted their convoy as they departed from one of World Central Kitchen’s warehouses during a food delivery mission.
Following a prompt investigation, Israel acknowledged that the military personnel involved in the strike had violated protocol by relying on a single indistinct photograph, which one officer had erroneously interpreted as showing one of the seven workers armed. Consequently, two officers were dismissed, and three others were reprimanded.
The aid workers, whose movements had been coordinated with Israeli officials, were among the more than 220 humanitarian workers who have been killed in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, according to the United Nations. At least 30 of those deaths occurred while the victims were actively engaged in their duties.
The international prominence and esteemed reputation of Andrés, along with the humanitarian mission of his organization, have fueled widespread condemnation and outrage over the killings. The incident has amplified demands from the Biden administration and others for Israel’s military to reassess its operational practices in Gaza to protect aid workers and Palestinian civilians, who are facing a severe humanitarian crisis and are in dire need of assistance from relief organizations amid warnings of a looming famine by the U.N.
In the wake of the attack, World Central Kitchen, along with several other humanitarian aid agencies, temporarily suspended their operations in Gaza. ‘We haven’t given up,’ declared Linda Roth, a spokesperson for World Central Kitchen, last week. ‘We are currently in funeral mode.’
