World Central Kitchen to Resume Work in Gaza as Hunger, Malnutrition Still Stalk Enclave

The humanitarian organization announced a local Palestinian team would resume operations in the enclave, with foreign aid workers still sidelined.

The not-for-profit organization World Central Kitchen (WCK) has announced it plans to resume humanitarian activities in the Gaza Strip after a deadly Israeli drone strike earlier this month killed seven of its workers.

The group’s CEO Erin Gore announced the plan Sunday as human rights organizations warn Gazans continue to face mass hunger amid an Israeli blockade of the besieged enclave.

“The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire,” said Gore in a statement. “We are restarting our operation with the same energy, dignity, and focus on feeding as many people as possible.”

A news release on the World Central Kitchen’s website claimed a Palestinian-run team would distribute aid starting Monday, distributing food throughout the Gaza strip from the organization’s three kitchens in the territory.

“We will continue to get as much food into Gaza, including northern Gaza, as possible – by land, air, or sea,” read the statement. Hunger has been a particular problem in the northern Gaza Strip as the destruction of roads and infrastructure has isolated areas around Gaza City.

“Limited access to northern Gaza has hindered the ability of aid agencies to fully assess the situation there,” noted a report in Western media last month, but numerous instances of the starvation of children have been reported on social media. Newborn infants are particularly vulnerable, with the Israeli destruction of hospitals in the enclave exacerbating health concerns for babies born prematurely or with special health needs.

Analysis from the group Integrated Food Security Phase Classification projected that half of people in the Gaza Strip would face “catastrophic” levels of malnutrition by mid-July if trends continued. All 2.2 million people in the enclave would be unable to fully meet nutritional needs necessary to maintain good health.

Gore added that aid workers are still under threat in Gaza, likely contributing to the group’s decision to fully delegate its work to local Palestinians for now.

“We have been forced to make a decision: Stop feeding altogether during one of the worst hunger crises ever, ending our operation that accounted for 62% of all International NGO aid, or keep feeding knowing that aid workers and civilians are being intimidated and killed,” Gora added.

The group is still calling for “an impartial and international investigation into the IDF attack” in which Israeli drones targeted three separate vehicles in the organization’s aid convoy, continuously targeting survivors of the first two strikes as they scrambled to flee the attack.

The incident generated outrage in the West and among liberal US lawmakers in particular as WCK’s founder, celebrity chef José Andrés, is a personal friend of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other high-profile Democratic Party leaders. The incident prompted former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, among 40 other top Democrats, to sign onto a letter urging Biden to halt weapons transfers to Israel without human rights guarantees.

Some observers claimed a double standard in media coverage of the attack, which killed six white foreign aid workers and their Palestinian driver. On the day of the Israeli drone strike against the organization the death toll among Gazans stood at an estimated 32,845.