INDIANAPOLIS — An organization that was bringing food to Gaza to help feed people there is halting operations after seven of its workers were killed Monday night when they came under fire from an Israeli air strike.
The workers with World Central Kitchen were in two armored cars and had just left a warehouse after delivering 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza by a ship.
The workers killed were from across the globe, Australia, Poland, the United Kingdom and who was a dual citizen of the United States and Canada. Their driver was Palestinian.
According to the World Central Kitchen website, the workers were in vehicles that had the World Central Kitchen logo on the roofs when they came under attack.
World Central Kitchen's CEO Erin Gore called what happened unforgivable. The aid workers' deaths also drawing reaction here in Indianapolis.
Brian Rund, a former volunteer with World Central Kitchen, learned of the attack Tuesday morning. Rund mourned the loss of the seven workers, none of whom he knew, but said he knew the kind of mission they were on.
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He praised World Central Kitchen's ongoing work to meet peoples' basic need for food wherever they went.
"Every disaster, they show up and it's amazing how well they do it," said Rund, who volunteered with WCK two years ago in Poland, feeding Ukranian refugees fleeing the war with Russia. "They're just there to help. There's nothing political about World Central Kitchen. They're about humanity and making sure people are fed."
According to World Central Kitchen's website, Monday's strike happened in a deconflicted zone after WCK had coordinated with Israeli Defense Forces about their movements.
The vehicles they were traveling in were marked with WCK logos on their roofs.
"The irony of that, that it just blasted through, right next to the World Central Kitchen logo, which was on the roof of the van to identify it as an aid vehicle. It's like shooting an ambulance, it's unconscionable," said Rund.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the strike "unintentional," saying "unfortunately, in the last day, there was a tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people in the Gaza Strip."
"When Netanyahu says the IDF knew about it and it was just a mistake, well there's been a lot of mistakes," said Rund.
According to the United Nations, close to 200 aid workers have been killed since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October.
"To be wiped out in a military strike where they were told ahead of time, communicated to the IDF, where they were going, what the vehicles were, through a demilitarized area and seven people still end up dead, that's disgusting and it's wrong," added Rund.
RELATED: World Central Kitchen charity halts Gaza operations after Israeli airstrike kills 7 workers
"Food, water and shelter are the absolute the most basic human needs to survive," said Rep. Andre Carson, D-Indiana, who called the aid workers' deaths heartbreaking.
"Peoples' access to food, shelter, water, essential needs are under constant attack and now those who are so bravely working to provide humanitarian aid have been killed," said Carson, who has repeatedly called for a cease fire in the war.
Carson said World Central Kitchen's work is more important now than ever.
"Blocking or even preventing humanitarian aid is killing people just as much as bombs are and that's scary to say," Carson added.
World Central Kitchen is one of the few groups delivering food to Gaza, where aid agencies have warned that half of the population is on the edge of starvation.
"Most Americans understand that this important work is critical to saving lives and it's really unthinkable that even food would be blocked from starving refugees," Carson said.
World Central Kitchen announced it was suspending operations and ships carrying aid were turning back after the incident.
"It just hurts the aid efforts that are supposed to be going to the people who have nothing to do with this and are just trying to live their lives," said Rund.