An Australian woman is reported to be one of the aid workers killed in an Israeli military attack while supporting humanitarian food delivery efforts in Gaza.
Speaking in a press conference on Tuesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed the woman’s identity to be Zomi Frankcom, an Australian aid worker for World Central Kitchen.
“This is someone who volunteered in Australia to help people during the bushfires. This is someone who was volunteering overseas to provide aide to this charity for people who are suffering tremendous deprivation in Gaza,” Albanese said.
“And this is just completely unacceptable.”
World Central Kitchen had also confirmed in a statement earlier that four foreign aid workers from their not-for-profit non-governmental organisation were victims of the attack.
“This is a tragedy”, the statement reads. “Humanitarian aid workers and civilians should NEVER be a target. EVER.
Health officials in Gaza said four aid workers, including an Australian woman, and their Palestinian driver died while delivering supplies that had arrived only hours earlier by ship from Cyprus, according to SMH.
There has been footage and images posted to social media showing the bodies of the alleged five killed at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah.
Several of the bodies were shown to be wearing protective gear with the World Central Kitchen logo. They were photographed alongside three passports– British, Australian and Polish. The nationality of the fourth aid worker has yet to be reported.
Albanese said the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was making enquiries to confirm these reports.
With more than 60 kitchens in Southern and Central Gaza, World Central Kitchen says it works daily to distribute food to displaced Palestinians.
Founder of World Central Kitchen, Chef José Andrés, said in a statement he is “heartbroken and grieving” after hearing news of the tragedy.
“These are people…angels…I served alongside in Ukraine, Gaza, Turkey, Morocco, Bahamas, Indonesia. They are not faceless…they are not nameless.”
“The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing. It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon.”
The Israeli Defense Force has said in a statement that they are “conducting a thorough review at the highest levels to understand the circumstances of this tragic incident.”
“The IDF makes extensive efforts to enable the safe delivery of humanitarian aid, and has been working closely with WCK in their vital efforts to provide food and humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.”
The situation in Gaza is “catastrophic”, according to the latest analysis from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) partnership which reports famine is imminent as 1.1 million Gazans experience food insecurity.