Humanitarians killed in Gaza: NGOs demand security guarantees from Israel

Will the death of seven World Central Kitchen employees, killed on Monday April 1 by an “IDF strike” in the Gaza Strip, change the mode of action of humanitarian organizations still operating in the Palestinian enclave? Since mid-March, the American NGO has distributed hundreds of tons of food (rice, pasta, flour, vegetables, proteins, etc.) in the Gaza Strip, transported to the blockaded territory by boats chartered from Cyprus by the NGO Spanish Open Arms. A first convoy docked there on March 15. A second cargo was unloaded on Monday.

“The team was traveling in a conflict-free zone aboard two armored cars bearing our logo (...), details this Tuesday in a press release the organization which announced the suspension of its activities in the region while the preparations were underway to send a third boat. Despite coordination with the IDF, the convoy was hit as it was leaving a warehouse where more than 100 tons of food aid brought to Gaza by sea had been unloaded. This Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that it was an “unintentional” strike by his soldiers.

Unlike previous strikes attributed to the Israeli army which caused the death of Palestinian humanitarian workers, Monday's strike affects international personnel for the first time. The victims were Australian, Polish, British, American-Canadian and Palestinian.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has 300 staff on site, including six French people among twenty internationals, has decided to temporarily suspend the movements of its teams, stationed in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip. “This event will not drastically change the way we work, even if reviewing the limits of our actions is a question that we have been asking ourselves since the start of the conflict,” its president for France, Isabelle Defourny, told Le Figaro. Five of our Palestinian personnel have died since October 7. We notify our movements to the Israeli authorities, we coordinate our movements with them... But this is not 100% a guarantee. In November, for example, a marked car whose movement had been notified was targeted by Israeli shooters, killing one of our employees.” Faced with this situation, “the only thing we could do is to stop sending internationals to Gaza, or to reduce their number, which we have already done,” she adds.

“Security incidents mark and punctuate this conflict which is of incredible violence and where it is extremely complicated for associations to operate,” adds Lucile Marbeau, in charge of public relations for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), who demands security guarantees from Israel. The humanitarian space is shrinking to nothing.” If, she assures, the maritime corridor between Gaza and Cyprus was not intended to replace land routes, its closure would be “bad news”. “The situation is tragic, especially since World Central Kitchen's aid was mainly directed to the north and center of the Gaza Strip,” she said. However, the ICRC does not intend to suspend its activities in the territory, where 130 of its agents operate.

Same antiphon to UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, the largest international agency active in the Gaza Strip which usually has 13,000 employees there. “We are neither going to change the way we work nor leave Gaza. Our only request is that Israel gives us security guarantees,” says Juliette Touma, communications director of the UN branch, accused by Israel of having employed Gazans involved in the October 7 massacres. Under condition of anonymity, the member of another organization finally affirms that “Monday’s drama will not be a “game changer””. In other words, this is not an event that will significantly change the way we operate.

NGOs, however, fear that the already catastrophic humanitarian situation will deteriorate. Particularly in the north of the territory, under Israeli control and cut off from the world, where around 300,000 people still live.

“Insecurity is affecting our operational capacity and we are missing out on the most deprived. In some areas, we don't know how people survive. But we maintain our desire to go to the North,” declares Lucile Marbeau, who fears an explosion of “indirect” deaths linked to the lack of assistance. “Our biggest fear is epidemics,” she continues. Hygiene, malnutrition, unsafe water… The risk is that this cocktail will explode. It could be even worse.”

According to the World Food Program (WFP), more than 1.1 million Palestinians “have completely exhausted their food reserves (...) and are fighting against famine”. According to Hamas, the terrorist group which controls the territory, the Israeli response to the October 7 attacks, which left 1,160 people dead in Israel, killed nearly 33,000 people in the Gaza Strip, the majority of them civilians.