Chef José Andrés skeptical about IDF account of strike that killed 7 World Central Kitchen workers
WASHINGTON – World Central Kitchen founder Chef José Andrés on Sunday questioned Israel’s claims last week that its military targeted the charity workers’ convoy after mistakenly assuming Hamas terrorists were inside, telling ABC News that the conflict has become “a war against humanity itself.”
The Israel Defense Forces on Friday released findings of its preliminary investigation into the strikes that killed seven WCK workers during an operation to transfer humanitarian aid to Gaza, stating that a military commander “mistakenly assumed that [Hamas] gunmen were located inside the accompanying vehicles.”
“The forces did not identify the vehicles in question as being associated with WCK,” the IDF said.
“Following a misidentification by the forces, the forces targeted the three WCK vehicles based on the misclassification of the event and misidentification of the vehicles as having Hamas operatives inside them, with the resulting strike leading to the deaths of seven innocent humanitarian aid workers.”
“The strikes on the three vehicles were carried out in serious violation of the commands and IDF Standard Operating Procedures,” it added.
The IDF further claimed it could not see WCK’s logo emblazoned on the tops of the trucks, but Andres told ABC’s Martha Raddatz that he was hesitant to believe the IDF’s claims that its forces did not know the vehicles belonged to WCK.
“Every time something happens, we cannot be bringing Hamas into the equation,” Andres said, dismissing claims of a mistake. “I think IDF knows better than anybody that they can be a better army.”
Still, he said he is open to reviewing footage of the strike to see if the claims were true.
“Obviously, I would like to see high quality of the video, high quality of the images. I’m very sure that probably those logos were visible,” he said. “They were white cars; that logo is very colorful. Even in the dark night, I guarantee you, that those could be seen.”
“There is way too many cases now of humanitarians dying, many civilians – women, children – that the only thing they did was trying to get close by to somewhere that they were giving them flour or bread,” he added.
Speaking exactly six months after Hamas’ brutal slaying of more than 1,000 Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, Andres said strikes affecting civilians and aid workers in Gaza “has been happening for way too long.”
“This is not anymore about the seven men and woman of World Central Kitchen,” he said. “It’s been six months of targeting anything that seems [like Hamas.]”
“This doesn’t seem a war against terror, this doesn’t seem anymore a war about defending Israel. Really, at this point, it seems it’s a war against humanity itself,” he added.
