Celebrity chef Jose Andres meets with senators on the U.S. Capitol about getting humanitarian support to Gaza on March 14. Andres mentioned Monday that his group has misplaced “several” of its worldwide volunteers in an Israeli airstrike within the Gaza Strip.

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Celebrity chef Jose Andres meets with senators on the U.S. Capitol about getting humanitarian support to Gaza on March 14. Andres mentioned Monday that his group has misplaced “several” of its worldwide volunteers in an Israeli airstrike within the Gaza Strip.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

José Andrés, the founding father of the World Central Kitchen that feeds folks in battle and catastrophe zones, mentioned Monday that his group has misplaced “several” of its worldwide volunteers in an Israeli airstrike within the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army mentioned in an announcement it’s investigating the report “at the highest levels to understand the circumstances of this tragic incident.”

The famend Spanish-born chef mentioned in a statement on X: “Today, @WCK lost several of our brothers and sisters in an IDF air strike in Gaza. I am heartbroken and grieving for the families and friends and our whole WCK family.”

World Central Kitchen operates in disaster areas across the globe. It had begun delivering meals and support to Gaza as U.N. experts and aid groups warn that enormous swaths of the inhabitants are affected by malnutrition and 1000’s of individuals, significantly within the north of Gaza, are susceptible to imminent famine. Last week, the International Court of Justice issued an order that Israel – which denies the experiences of meals shortages – ought to guarantee ample support will get into Gaza.

A Palestinian paramedic who was on the staff that introduced the help employees’ our bodies to the hospital advised The Associated Press that the WCK volunteers had been driving in a three-car convoy that had been delivering support to northern Gaza and have been headed again to the south when an Israeli missile struck. The medic, Mahmoud Thabet, mentioned they headed again to Rafah, the place greater than 1,000,000 displaced Gazans are sheltering near Gaza’s southern border with Egypt.

Footage that The Associated Press mentioned was from the Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza confirmed no less than 4 our bodies, some sporting protecting physique armor and one sporting a T-shirt with the WCK emblem on it. Hospital workers mentioned the passports of the useless indicated certainly one of them was British, one other Australian and one Polish. The nationality of the fourth was not instantly clear. Other experiences indicated a Palestinian driver from the Gaza Strip was additionally killed.

Andrés mourned the lack of his colleagues and denounced Israeli coverage within the remoted coastal enclave, which it invaded final October after the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an enormous assault on Israel that killed some 1,200 folks, and took a whole lot of hostages into Gaza, the place greater than 130 stay.

The Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed more than 32,000 people, the Gaza well being ministry says.

“The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing,” Andrés mentioned on X. “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.”

The WCK had despatched three ships from Cyprus which moored offshore on Monday with 400 tons of meals for the territory. It was the group’s second supply by sea. The United States, which has been airdropping support packages into Gaza, has mentioned it is going to construct a floating dock off the coast to facilitate support deliveries, though that’s not anticipated to be prepared for a number of extra weeks.