Key Points
- A celebration of life has been held for seven aid workers killed in Gaza.
- The founder of World Central Kitchen paid tribute to Australian Zomi Frankcom.
- Their deaths intensified demands that Israel’s military change how it operates in Gaza.
Seven World Central Kitchen aid workers — including Australian Zomi Frankcom — killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have been honoured at a memorial at the National Cathedral in the US capital.
José Andrés, the celebrity chef and philanthropist behind the Washington-based World Central Kitchen disaster relief group, spoke at the celebration of life service.
“Zomi Frankcom, our beloved Zomi, was at the very heart of World Central Kitchen,” he said.
“She was the living, breathing, smiling heart of everything we did in the field.”
Douglas Emhoff, husband of US vice president Kamala Harris, and US assistant deputy secretary of state Kurt Campbell were in attendance.
The aid workers were killed on 1 April when as they left one of World Central Kitchen’s warehouses on a food delivery mission.
Palestinian Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha, British citizens John Chapman, James Kirby and James Henderson, dual US-Canadian citizen Jacob Flickinger, and Polish citizen Damiam Sobol were also killed in the attack.
Following an investigation, Israel said the military officials involved in the strike had violated policy by acting based on a single grainy photo that one officer had contended — incorrectly — showed one of the seven workers was armed.
The Israeli military and reprimanded three others.
“I know we all have many unanswered questions about what happened and why. There is no excuse for these killings — none,” Andrés said.
“The official explanation is not good enough and we still obviously demand an investigation into the actions of the IDF against our team.”
The aid workers, whose trip had been coordinated with Israeli officials, are among more than 220 humanitarian workers killed in the six-month-old Hamas-Israel war, according to the United Nations.
That includes at least 30 killed in the line of duty.
The international prominence and popularity of Andres and his non-profit work galvanised widespread .
Their deaths intensified demands from the Biden administration and others that Israel’s military change how it operates in Gaza to spare aid workers and Palestinian civilians at large, who are facing a humanitarian crisis and desperately need aid from relief organisations as the UN warns of looming famine.
World Central Kitchen and several other humanitarian aid agencies suspended work in Gaza after the attack.
“We haven’t given up,” World Central Kitchen spokeswoman Linda Roth said.
“We are in funeral mode right now.”
Religious leaders of multiple faiths participated in the service.
Funerals were held earlier in the workers’ home countries.
Tyler Mitchell