Gaza Deaths Unforgivable
Dr Brian Mathew's letter to the Gazette and Herald
I can only describe myself as incandescent over the deaths of the seven Aid workers killed in Gaza working for World Central Kitchen (WCK), including nationals of the UK, Australia, Poland, the US, and Canada. It is not only unforgivable as the organisation said itself, but it comes on the back, as James Elder of UNICEF said, of the “most horrible records of numbers of children killed, the number of houses destroyed” and “a very dangerous place to even receive food Aid”.
WCK CEO and founder Chef José Andrés said on X “ Today @WCKitchen lost several of our sisters and brothers in an IDF air strike in Gaza. I am heartbroken and grieving for their families and friends and our whole WCK family. These are people…angels…I served alongside in Ukraine, Gaza, Turkey, Morocco, Bahamas, Indonesia. They are not faceless…they are not nameless. The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing. It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon. No more innocent lives lost. Peace starts with our shared humanity. It needs to start now.”
There are consequences to such actions, not least the sympathy people feel for the perpetrators. Israel needs to wise up to this, and I speak not only as a former Aid worker myself but as a former resident and volunteer at Kibbutz Reim, one of the kibbutzim that was attacked on October 7th last year.