World Central Kitchen workers killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza will be honoured at memorial

Washington, Apr 25 (AP) A memorial at the National Cathedral in Washington on Thursday will honour the seven World Central Kitchen aid workers killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza this month.
     Jose Andres, the celebrity chef and philanthropist behind the Washington-based World Central Kitchen disaster relief group, is expected to speak at the celebration of life service and cellist Yo-Yo Ma will perform, organisers said.
     The Biden administration said Douglas Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, and Kurt Campnell, assistant deputy secretary of state, would be among those at the event. Diplomats from more than 30 countries were also expected to attend.
     A lone bagpiper played as mourners arrived.
     The aid workers were killed April 1 when strikes from Israeli armed drones ripped through vehicles in their convoy as they left one of World Central Kitchen's warehouses on a food delivery mission. Those who died were Palestinian Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha; Britons John Chapman, James Kirby and James Henderson; dual US-Canadian citizen Jacob Flickinger; Australian Lalzawmi Frankcom; and Polish citizen Damiam Sobol.
     After an unusually swift investigation, Israel said the military officials involved in the attack 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 dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others.
     The aid workers, whose trip had been coordinated with Israeli officials, are among more than 220 humanitarian workers killed in the Israel-Hamas war that began on October 7, 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 nonprofit work galvanised widespread outrage over the killings of the group's workers. The deaths intensified demands from the administration and others that Israel's military change how it operates in Hamas-controlled 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, along with several other humanitarian aid agencies, suspended work in the territory after the attack. “We haven't given up,” World Central Kitchen spokesperson Linda Roth said last week. “We are in funeral mode right now.”
     Religious leaders of a range of faiths are set to participate in Thursday's services. Funerals were held earlier in the workers' home countries. (AP) PY
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)