Chef Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen demands independent probe into Gaza drone strikes
Celebrity chef Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen demanded an independent investigation into the Israeli drone strike that killed seven of its staffers – including an American – in Gaza this week, saying Israeli troops cannot be trusted to credibly review their own "failure."
The aid group’s call for an outside inquiry came after the Israeli Defense Force announced Friday it had fired two officers and reprimanded other personnel after a preliminary probe found the shocking April 1 massacre was “a grave mistake.”
The deaths brought worldwide condemnation of Israel’s conduct in its six-month-old war with Hamas and pushed President Joe Biden on Thursday to issue an ultimatum to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: Protect civilians and humanitarians, and allow direly needed aid into Gaza – or face a loss of U.S. military support.
“We demand the creation of an independent commission to investigate the killings of our WCK colleagues,” Andres’ group said Friday. “The IDF cannot credibly investigate its own failure in Gaza.” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters there were “no plans” for a separate U.S. investigation.
More: Israeli military fires officers for their roles in strikes that killed 7 aid workers
Israel promises new aid routes to starving Gaza
Andres’ call for an independent probe came as aid groups and governments said that Israeli plans to open new aid routes into Gaza – announced just hours after Biden got tough with Netanyahu – wouldn’t be enough to prevent famine in the northern part of the coastal enclave, where the World Central Kitchen team had just unloaded 100 tons of food before they were killed.
“It's not enough to prevent starvation in #Gaza,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on X (formerly Twitter).
Israel said Thursday it would open its port in the southern city of Ashdod and, roughly 20 miles away, the border crossing between Erez and northern Gaza to aid shipments, among other measures.
More: 'Not working': Democrats press Biden to change course on Israel. $14 billion is at stake
The aid group Oxfam said Thursday that residents of northern Gaza have been surviving on an average of 245 calories a day, less than 12% of the recommended daily 2,100 calories, and a consortium of humanitarian organizations warned last month that famine was imminent. An estimated 50,000 children under five are “acutely malnourished,” the U.N. reported Friday.
Whether the new aid routes will make a dent depends on what kind of restrictions Israel places on the movement of supplies and people into northern Gaza, Scott Paul, humanitarian policy lead for Oxfam America, told USA TODAY.
More: Death of José Andrés' World Central Kitchen crew marks a new low in Gaza war, aid workers say
Border aid bottlenecks
Case in point: With no electricity in Gaza to power water treatment plants, Oxfam dispatched thousands of drinking water testing kits and four water desalination units to Egypt for shipment into Gaza through the Rafah border crossing. More than four months later, the group is still awaiting Israeli permission to bring them in, Paul said.
“The default rule has been ‘No,’” when it comes to allowing aid into Gaza, Paul said. “It needs to be ‘Yes.’ We need to flip it. Is there any basis for prohibiting the transport of any basic commodities or services?”
Aid experts said Gaza needed a flood of medics to treat severe malnutrition, water engineers to prevent disease, and trusted security procedures to protect humanitarians and civilians. More than 30,000 civilians have died, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, since Hamas fighters rampaged through southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people.
"What we are interested in...is sustainable, implementable, deconfliction processes, particularly when it comes to humanitarian organizations," Kirby said.
The Israeli announcement was “a good first step,” said Dr. Zaher Sahloul, president of the aid group MedGlobal, which works in Ukraine, Syria, Sudan and Gaza.
Sahloul led a MedGlobal delegation to the White House on Tuesday, where he and other Muslim-American doctors briefed Biden and top officials including Vice-President Kamala Harris and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on their experiences treating injured and malnourished children during a trip to Gaza in January.
Bringing 'reality' to the White House
“We wanted to bring reality to the president,” Sahloul told USA TODAY. “He said he wants the humanitarian catastrophe and the deaths of civilians to stop.”
“These stories from the field can touch the heart,” Sahloul said. “I hope they helped him to push for a cease-fire two days later.”
Dr. Thaer Ahmad was the lone Palestinian-American to take part in the White House meeting. He made a statement to the president and then asked to be excused. Asked on Friday about Biden’s newly assertive tone with Israel, he said, “I think they want to see results on the ground.”
The U.N. reported ongoing fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups across Gaza overnight Thursday, and an aid worker in Rafah told USA TODAY that as many as 300 explosions could be heard a day.
Martin Indyk, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, wrote on social media that Biden had boxed Netanyahu in by demanding swift, comprehensive changes. “And if you don’t do all this in the next few days I will condition military assistance to your war in Gaza,” Indyk wrote, characterizing Biden’s demands to the Israeli prime minister.
“Bottom line: Bibi is screwed,'' Indyk said. ''He will have to bring this war to an end.”
Contributing: Francesca Chambers, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: World Central Kitchen says Israel's Gaza probe can't be trusted
