Israel says charity worker killed in Gaza airstrike was an October 7 attacker

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 (WCK). The charity said it was “urgently seeking more details” after Israel’s military said it targeted a charity worker who was part of the Hamas attack that sparked the war.

WCK said it was “heartbroken” and it had no knowledge that anyone in the car had alleged ties to the October 7, 2023 attack, and added that it was “working with incomplete information”. The charity said it was pausing operations in Gaza, having suspended work this year after an Israeli strike killed seven of its workers, including Australian Zomi Frankcom.

The World Central Kitchen food charity aid centre in Nuseirat camp, in central Gaza, in April.Credit: Bloomberg

The Israeli military said in a statement the alleged October 7 attacker took part in the assault on the kibbutz of Nir Oz, and it asked “senior officials from the international community” and the charity to clarify how he had come to work for World Central Kitchen.

The family of the man named by Israel, Ahed Azmi Qdeih, rejected the claims as “false accusations”, and confirmed in a statement he had worked with the charity. Israel named him as Hazmi Kadih.

The strike highlighted the dangerous work of delivering aid in Gaza, where the war has displaced much of the 2.3 million population and caused widespread hunger.

At Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, a woman held up an employee badge bearing the WCK logo and the word “contractor”. Belongings – burned phones, a watch and stickers with the WCK logo – lay on the floor.

A Palestinian woman among rubble after Israeli shelling in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on Friday.Credit: Bloomberg

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 — Frankcom, along with three British citizens, a Polish national, 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 on Saturday hit a car near a food distribution point in Khan Younis, killing 13 people, including children. The bodies were taken to Nasser Hospital.

“They were distributing aid, vegetables, and we saw the missile landing,” witness Rami Al-Sori said. A woman sat on the ground and wept.

Save the Children said a local employee was killed in one of the Khan Younis airstrikes while returning from a mosque.

Ceasefire appears to hold

Efforts for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have faltered. But the US and France-brokered deal for Lebanon appears to be holding since Wednesday.

On Saturday, Israel’s military said it struck sites used to smuggle weapons from Syria to Lebanon after the ceasefire 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 Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, bringing fresh uncertainty to the region.

The truce between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah calls for an initial two-month ceasefire in which the militants should withdraw north of Lebanon’s Litani River and Israeli forces should return to their side of the border.

Many Lebanese, some of the 1.2 million displaced, streamed home despite warnings by the Israeli and Lebanese militaries to avoid certain areas.

“Day by day, we will return to our normal lives,” said Mustafa Badawi, a cafe owner in Tyre.

The toll of conflicts

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said an Israeli drone strike on Rub Thalatheen killed two people and wounded two others, and another hit a car in Majdal Zoun. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said three people were wounded, including a seven-year-old.

Israel’s military said it had been operating to distance “suspects” in the region, without elaborating. Israel says it reserves the right to strike against any perceived violations.

Hezbollah began attacking Israel on October 8, 2023, in solidarity with the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Israel and Hezbollah kept up cross-border fire until Israel escalated with an attack that detonated hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah. It then launched an intense aerial bombardment that killed Hezbollah leaders including Hassan Nasrallah, and a ground invasion in October.

Relatives and supporters of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip march in Jerusalem last week to call for a deal for their release.Credit: AP

More than 3760 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel, more than half of them civilians, and dozens of Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon.

Hamas’ October 2023 attack killed 1200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 people hostage.

On Saturday, Hamas released a video of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander. Speaking under duress, Alexander referred to being held for 420 days and mentioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent $US5 million offer for the hostages’ return.

“The prime minister is supposed to protect his soldiers and citizens, and you abandoned us,” Alexander said.

Netanyahu’s office said he spoke with Alexander’s family after the release of the “brutal psychological warfare video” that held “an important and exciting sign of life”.

“[Netanyahu] reassured me and promised that now, after reaching an arrangement in Lebanon, conditions are right to free you all and bring you home,” Alexander’s mother, Yael, told protesters in Tel Aviv on Saturday night.

A statement from US National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett called the video “a cruel reminder of Hamas’s terror against citizens of multiple countries, including our own”.

“The war in Gaza would stop tomorrow and the suffering of Gazans would end immediately – and would have ended months ago – if Hamas agreed to release the hostages,” it said.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 44,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials.

AP

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