National Cathedral Memorial to Honor WCK Workers Killed in Gaza Airstrike
On Thursday, a memorial service will be held at the National Cathedral in Washington to honor the seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers who tragically lost their lives in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza earlier this month. The service will be a celebration of their lives and service, featuring speeches from celebrity chef and philanthropist José Andrés, the founder and executive director of WCK, and renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Senior Biden administration officials, including Douglas Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, and Assistant Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, will also attend the service.
The aid workers, who were killed on April 1st when a series of Israeli armed drones targeted their convoy as they were leaving one of WCK’s warehouses on a food delivery mission, included 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.
After an unusually swift investigation, Israel acknowledged that the military officials involved in the strike had violated policy by acting based on a single grainy photo that one officer had incorrectly claimed showed one of the seven workers was armed. The Israeli military dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others.
The aid workers, whose trip had been coordinated with Israeli officials, are among more than 220 humanitarian workers killed in the six-month-old Israel-Hamas war, according to the United Nations. That includes at least 30 killed in the line of duty.
The international prominence and popularity of Andrés and his nonprofit work galvanized widespread outrage over the killings of the WCK workers. The slayings intensified demands from the Biden administration and others that Israel’s military change how it operates in Gaza to spare aid workers and Palestinian civilians at large, who are facing a humanitarian crisis and desperately need aid from relief organizations as the U.N. warns of looming famine.
World Central Kitchen, along with several other humanitarian aid agencies, suspended work in Gaza after the attack. “We haven’t given up,” World Central Kitchen spokesperson Linda Roth said last week. “We are in funeral mode right now.”
Religious leaders of a range of faiths are set to participate in Thursday’s services. Funerals were held earlier in the workers’ home countries.
