World Central Kitchen announced that citizens from Australia, Britain, and Poland were among seven of its employees who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza on Monday. Below are details about this organization, which decided to temporarily and immediately suspend its operations in Gaza following the deadly attack.
**More Than 60 Kitchens**
Since the outbreak of war in Gaza, World Central Kitchen has opened over 60 community kitchens in the Gaza Strip, providing between 10,000 to 20,000 meals daily, and has delivered more than 37 million meals. It collaborated with Open Arms to operate a ship from Cyprus to the shores of Gaza and also participated alongside the United States and Israel in constructing a new seaport in the Beider area of Gaza to receive ships carrying food aid to the region.
**Charity Organization**
World Central Kitchen is a nonprofit, non-governmental charitable organization based in the United States, focused on distributing food and humanitarian aid to those in need worldwide. It was founded by Spanish-American chef José Andrés in 2010 after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, alongside his wife Patricia. The organization has a specialized team that responds to provide assistance in areas affected by natural disasters or conflict and war.
**Activities**
The organization has been active in emergency response and food provision in Ukraine during the Russian war in 2022, as well as during the COVID-19 pandemic by providing meals in American hospitals. It has also worked to feed survivors of natural disasters such as wildfires in the western United States and hurricanes in Houston and Puerto Rico, as well as in regions of Congo, Zambia, Cambodia, and others, including providing meals for migrants from Mexico to the United States.
**Assassination**
On the morning of the previous Monday, Israeli warplanes assassinated seven international relief workers from the organization, who were of various nationalities including Canadian, American, British, Irish, Australian, Polish, in addition to their Palestinian driver. They were killed while traveling in their armored vehicle marked with the organization's logo, having coordinated their movements in advance with the Israeli army. As a result, the organization announced the suspension of its work in Gaza.
