The World Food Programme said on Wednesday that Israeli forces had opened fire on one of the UN agency's teams as they headed to an Israeli checkpoint in the Palestinian territories in a highly marked vehicle, forcing the programme to suspend the movement of its staff in the Gaza Strip.
The WFP team was returning from a mission in two armoured vehicles “after escorting a convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian supplies towards central Gaza”, the agency said in a statement.
“The vehicle was hit directly by gunfire while traveling towards an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) checkpoint, despite being clearly marked and having received multiple authorizations from Israeli authorities to approach,” WFP said. “The vehicle was hit by at least 10 bullets: five in the driver's side, two in the passenger side and three in other parts of the vehicle. No employees inside the vehicle were physically injured.”
The WFP statement did not explicitly say that Israeli forces were responsible for the shooting, but UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Wednesday that the food agency's vehicle was “hit 10 times by IDF gunfire, with some bullets aimed at the windshield.”
WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain said the attack was “completely unacceptable and the latest in a series of unnecessary security incidents that have put the lives of WFP teams in Gaza at risk.”
“Last night's events demonstrated that our current deconfliction system is broken and cannot continue,” McCain said. “I call on the Israeli authorities and all parties to the conflict to act immediately to ensure the safety and security of all aid workers in the Gaza Strip.”
The latest attack by Israeli forces on aid workers in Gaza comes as famine continues to spread across the Strip, suffocating the territory with an Israeli blockade that restricts the flow of food and other essential supplies.
Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, Characteristic The WFP said the attacks were part of an “Israeli starvation strategy.” The Israeli military has repeatedly targeted humanitarian workers in the Gaza Strip, making it the most dangerous place in the world for aid workers.
Chef Jose Andres, founder of the Gaza Team nonprofit, which was hit by a deadly Israeli attack earlier this year, expressed solidarity with WFP in a social media post late Wednesday.
The WFP has not said how long the suspension of staff movements will last, but any disruption to the agency's humanitarian work could have dire consequences for starving Palestinians.
The U.N. food agency said in a statement on Wednesday that Israel's “frequent and continuing evacuation orders continue to hinder families and food aid efforts aimed at supporting them.”
“Last week, WFP lost access to its third and last operational warehouse in central Gaza, forcing the evacuation of five WFP-run community kitchens,” the agency said. “This Sunday, August 25, evacuation orders affected WFP's main operational base in Deir al-Baraf, forcing our teams to relocate for the third time since the start of the war.”
