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https://theconversation.com/israeli-strike-on-world-central-kitchen-aid-convoy-shows-growing-danger-of-humanitarian-work-in-conflict-zones-227104>
"President Joe Biden said he was “outraged” by the Israeli military’s attacks
that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers traveling in three vehicles
in Gaza on April 2, 2024, and called for Israel to conduct a swift
investigation into the strikes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he “deeply regrets” the mistake
and that Israel would undertake an investigation. World Central Kitchen, one of
the few international aid groups operating in Gaza, announced shortly after the
attack that it would suspend its operations in Gaza.
This attack was not, as Biden pointed out in his remarks on April 2, a
“stand-alone incident.” More than 180 other aid workers have been killed since
the start of the Israeli invasion in October 2023, according to the United
Nations. Most of them were Palestinians working with the United Nations.
More broadly, attacks on aid workers in many wars, including those in Syria,
Mali, Myanmar and Afghanistan, have been on the rise since the late 1990s,
according to the nonprofit group Aid Worker Security Database. In 2023, 237 aid
workers were killed, kidnapped or wounded, marking a sharp rise from the 35
humanitarians who faced the same fate in 1997.
The Conversation U.S.’s politics and society editor, Amy Lieberman, spoke
with Elizabeth Stites, a scholar of conflict, violence and humanitarianism at
Tufts University’s Feinstein International Center, to better understand what is
behind the rise in aid worker attacks and the implications of the World Central
Kitchen workers’ deaths."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
