Local aid workers say Israeli strike on World Central Kitchen workers caused 'chilling effect' on aid efforts

In the wake of seven aid workers being killed by an Israeli drone strike in Gaza, Chicago aid workers said the “devastating” attack wasn’t surprising and represents a larger issue for aid groups trying to address humanitarian crises in Gaza.

The seven World Central Kitchen workers killed April 1 are among the more than 220 humanitarian workers who have been killed in the conflict, according to the U.N.

Israel has since dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others for the role in the drone strike that killed the aid workers. However, World Central Kitchen is now calling for an independent commission to investigate the Israel Defense Forces along with a demand to allow aid into Gaza.

Alison Pure-Slovin, Midwest regional director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization that has been outspoken about its support for Israel, called the deaths a tragedy born out of Hamas' surprise attack on Oct. 7, which killed about 1,200 Israelis. More than 33,175 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since then.

“Despite Israel’s ongoing efforts to avoid hitting innocents during the Hamas war in Gaza, this tragedy occurred,” Pure-Slovin said in a statement. “[To] put an end to the tragedies of war, Hamas must lay down its arms and release the Israeli hostages.”

In a statement, Yinam Cohen, consul general of Israel to the Midwest, called the drone strike a "grave mistake," and said that Israel has expressed appreciation for World Central Kitchen's "important humanitarian work in aid of the residents of the Gaza Strip."

"We consider the vital humanitarian activity of international aid organizations to be of utmost importance, and we will continue to work to coordinate and assist their activities, while ensuring the safety of their workers, in full respect of the values of the IDF and the laws of war," he added.

Dr. Thaer Ahmad, a Chicago emergency medicine doctor and board member of Rolling Meadows-based nonprofit MedGlobal, said that although the attack was devastating, it wasn’t surprising. He said the latest attack on aid workers came from the same issues with "deconfliction" — that is, when aid workers share coordinates and other details with governments during conflict to avoid injuries and death — he had seen before.

“Coordinates are shared, movements are cleared, there’s supposed to be safe passage for people delivering aid or healthcare,” Ahmad said. “What we’ve seen in the last six months is the Israeli military is not following through with how deconfliction is supposed to work.”

He said World Central Kitchen had some of the best communications of the aid groups and had been helping to keep the northern part of Gaza afloat because of their access to the area. It has since suspended operations there.

Ahmad and his colleagues in Gaza have also had close calls. In January, he was forced to evacuate after missile strikes got too close to the hospital where he worked. Earlier that month, aid workers working alongside MedGlobal employees were injured after missiles hit their deconflicted medical facility in central Gaza.

Ahmad, who walked out of a White House meeting last week to protest the Biden administration's handling of the conflict, said that the attack hasn't made him more hesitant about going back, but it has created a "chilling effect" that puts more pressure on MedGlobal and other groups operating in the region.

“There’s an impact that will reach far beyond this incident,” Ahmad said. “People are going to be scared to deliver aid and ultimately the Palestinian people are going to be the ones to suffer.”

That effect is already being seen in the aid community, according to another Chicago doctor, Muaiad Kittaneh — co-founder of the Palestinian American Medical Association, a nonprofit humanitarian organization that has been working in Gaza since 2013.

The group was recently working on a mobile clinic project in conjunction with other aid groups, though Kittaneh said some of them have pulled out since the seven aid workers were killed — in part because “movement is risky.”

“We have collaborative projects with other organizations that they’ve had to put on hold until the situation is a little more safe or there’s a cease-fire,” Kittaneh said. “If it was more safe to send more physicians, we would definitely be sending more.”

In addition to that, the group has compiled a warehouse of medical supplies in Orland Park, enough to fill two 40-foot shipping containers, according to Kittaneh.

They were able to get one shipped from Kansas into Gaza through Jordan, but he said there have since been more complications in the logistics of getting the containers there, leaving their teams of doctors to bring in supplies in suitcases.

Despite the issues with getting aid in, Ahmad and a MedGlobal team are headed back to Gaza at the end of the month to provide care at Al-Aqsa Hospital and start up nutrition clinics to treat those with malnutrition who need extra care.

Following last week's strike, President Biden issued a stark warning to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that future U.S. support for Israel's Gaza war would depend on the swift implementation of new steps to protect civilians and aid workers. Early last month, the U.S. military began dropping pallets of food over the enclave.

Ahmad said having people on the ground to treat patients was necessary, and that just getting aid in wasn’t enough. A cease-fire was ultimately the only way to address the ongoing humanitarian crises in Gaza.

“There are bigger gaps to be filled,” Ahmad said. “It cannot just be airdrops.”

Contributing: The Associated Press