Israel’s Deadly Airstrike on the World Central Kitchen

from New York Times I'm Michael abaro. this is a. [Music]. daily the Israeli air strike that killed. seven Aid workers delivering food in. Gaza has touched off outrage and. condemnations from across the world. today Kim Severson on the pioneering. relief group at the center of the story. and Adam rascom on what we're learning.

about the deadly attack on the group's. workers it's Thursday April. [Music]. 4th Kim can you tell us about the world. Central Kitchen World Central Kitchen. started as a little idea in Chef Jose. Andre's head he was in Haiti with some. other folks trying to do.

earthquake relief in 2010 and his idea. at that point was to teach Haitians to. cook and to use solar stoves and ways. for people to feed themselves because. the infrastructure was gone and he was. cooking with some Haitians in one of the. camps and they were showing him how to. cook beans the Haitian way you sort of. smash them and make them a little creamy. and it occurred to him that there was. something so comforting for those folks. to eat food that was from their culture.

that tasted good to them you know if. you're having a really hard time what. makes you feel good is comfort food. right and warm comfort food right so. that moment in the camp really was the. seed of this idea it planted this notion. in Jose Andre's mind and that notion. eventually became World Central. Kitchen and for those who don't know cim. who exactly is Chef Jose Andre Jose. Andre is a Spanish Chef who cooked under.

some of the Spanish Molecular Gastronomy. grates came to America really made his. bones in Washington DC with some. avangard food but also started to expand. and cook Tapas cook Mexican food he's. got about 40 Restaurants now wow yeah. and you know he's got a great Spanish. restaurant in New York he's got. restaurants in DC restaurants in Miami. come with me to the kitchen don't be shy. he's also become a big TV personality. Chef are you going to put the Lobster in. the pot with potatoes we're going to.

leave the potatoes the potatoes in one. of the most charismatic people I've ever. been around in the food World delous. he's very much the Touchstone of what. people want their celebrity chefs to. be so how does he go from being all. those things you just described to being. on the ground making local comfort food. for Haitians and how does this all go. from an idea that that would be a good.

idea to this much bigger full-fledged. humanitarian organization so he started. to realize that giving people food in. disaster zones was a thing that was. really powerful he helped feed people. after Hurricane Sandy and he realized. that he could get local chefs who all. wanted to help and somehow harness that. power but the idea really became set. when he went to Houston in. 2017 to help after Hurricane Harvey and. that's when he saw that getting local. chefs to tap into their resources.

borrowing kitchens using ingredients. that chefs might have had on hand or you. know are spoiling in the fridge because. the power's out and all these. restaurants needed something to do with. all this food before it rotted. harnessing all that and putting it. together and giving people well-cooked. delicious at least as delicious it as it. can be in a disaster Zone that's when. World Central Kitchen as we know it. today sort of emerged as a fully formed. concept.

the first pictures now coming in from. Puerto Rico after taking a direct hit. hurricane Maria slamming into the island. and as you heard one official saying the. island is destroyed shortly after that. he flew to Puerto Rico where hurricane. Maria had pretty much left the entire. Island without water and in darkness. right he flew in on one of the first. commercial jets that went back in he got. a couple of his chef buddies whose.

kitchens were closed and they just. decided to start cooking they were. basically just serving pots of stew. chicken stew in front of the restaurants. the lines got longer and of course chefs. are a really specific kind of creature. they really like to help their Community. they're really about feeding people so. all the people who were chefs or Cooks. on the ground in Puerto Rico who could. wanted to help and you had all these. chefs in the states who wanted to fly.

down and help if they could too so you. had this constant flow of chefs coming. in and out that's when I went down and. followed him around for about a week and. what did you say well one of the most. striking things was his ability to get. food to remote places in ways the. Salvation Army couldn't and other. government agencies that were on the. ground couldn't you know the Federal. Emergency Management agency FEMA doesn't. deliver food it contracts with people to.

deliver food so you have all these steps. of bureaucracy you have to go through to. get those contracts and then FMA says. you have to have a bottle of water and. this and that in those boxes it's. there's a lot of structure to be able to. meet the rules and regulations of. FEMA so Jose doesn't really care about. rules and regulations very much so he. just got his troops together and figured. out where people needed food he had this. big paper m he'd carry around and lay.

out and had a Sharpie and he'd Circle. Villages where he'd heard people needed. food or where a bridge was out and then. he would dispatch people to get the food. there now how are you going to do that. he was staying in a hotel where some. National Guard and military police were. staying to go Patrol areas to make sure. they were safe he would tuck his big. aluminum pans of food into the back of. those guys cars and say could you stop. and drop these off at this church during. that time in Puerto Rico he funded a lot.

of it off of his own credit cards or. with cash and then he's on the phone. with people like the president of Goya. or his golf buddies who are well. connected saying hey we need some money. can you send some money for this can you. send some money for that so he just. developed this network almost overnight. I mean he is very much a general in the. field you know he wears this Orvis. fishing vest has cigars in one pocket. money in the other and he just sets out. to feed people and there were deliveries.

that were as simple as he and a couple. of folks taking plastic bags with food. and waiting through a flooded parking. lot to an apartment building where an. older person had been stuck for a few. days and couldn't get out to driving up. to a community that had been cut off. there was a church that was trying to. distribute food we drive through this. little Mountain Road and get to this. church we start unloading the food and. the congregation is inside the the. church Jose comes in and the pastor.

thanks him so much and the 20 people or. so who were there gather around Jose and. they begin praying and he puts his head. down he's a Catholic he's he's a man who. prays he puts his head down he's in the. middle of these folks and he starts to. pray with. them and then pulls out his map circles. another spot and the group is off to the. next. place.

[Music]. and when Russia invades Ukraine he. immediately decided it was time for. World Central Kitchen to step into a war. zone you know so many people needed to. eat so many ukrainians were crossing the. border into Poland there are refugees in. several countries surrounding Ukraine so. a lot of the work that they did was. feeding the refugees they set up big.

operations around train stations places. where refugees were coming and then they. were able to get into cities one of. their operations did get hit with some. armaments early on nobody was hurt badly. but I think that was the first time that. they realized this was an actually more. dangerous situation than perhaps going. in after there's been an earthquake but. the other thing that really made a. difference here is Jose Andre and World. Central kitchen would broadcast on.

social media live from the kitchens in. the beginning he'd be holding up his. phone and saying we put out three. million meals for the people of Puerto. Rico chefs for Puerto Rico it was very. infectious and now one of the standard. operating procedures for people who are. in the world Central kitchens is to hold. up the phone like that you can see the. kitchen busy in the back and talk about. how many meals they've served you know. they they have these kind of wild meal. counts which one presumes are pretty. accurate but like we serve 320,000 meals.

this morning to the people of Lviv I. mean that scale seems important to know. this is not the kind of work that feeds. you know a few people in a few towns. when you're talking about. 300,000 meals in a morning you're. talking about something that begins it. would seem to rival the scope and the. reach of the groups that we tend to. think of as the most important in the. disaster relief World AB absolutely and.

the meals there are lots and lots and. lots of meals but also World Central. Kitchen hires local Cooks they'll hire. food truck operators who obviously have. no work and pay them to go out and. deliver the meals they'll pay local. Cooks to come in and cook that's what. they do with a lot of their donations. which is very different than other Aid. organizations and this then helps the. local economy he's trying to buy as much. local food as he can that keeps the. economy going in the time of a disaster. so that's a piece of his operation that. is a little different than traditional.

Aid operations so walk us up to October. 7th when Hamas attacked Israel what does. Chef Jose Andreas and the world kitchen. do well he had had such impact in. Ukraine and I think the organization. itself thought that they had the. infrastructure to now take food into. another war zone Gaza of course was. nothing like Ukraine but World Central. Kitchen shows up they're Nimble they.

start to connect with local chefs right. now they have about 60 kitchens in the. areas around Gaza and they've hired. about 400 Palestinians to help do that. but getting the food into Gaza became. the difficulty how do you actually get. the food into the Gaza Strip large. amounts of food that require trucks. you're going to realize getting food. into Gaza right now requires going. through Israeli checkpoints right and. that slows the operation down you might. get eight trucks a day in and that is.

such a small amount of food and this has. been incredibly difficult for any Aid. operations so World Central Kitchen. playing on the experience that they had. in a war zone and working with. government entities and trying to. coordinate permissions they took that. experience from Ukraine and were trying. to apply it in the Gaza Strip now they. had worked for a long time with Israeli. officials they wanted to make sure that. they could get their food in and they. decided that the best way to do it would.

be to take food off of ships get it in a. warehouse and then get that food into. Gaza it took a long time to pull those. permissions through but they were able. to get the permissions they needed and. set this system up so they could move. the food fairly quickly into North Gaza. and once they get those permissions how. big a player do they become in Gaza. World Central Kitchen became a kind of a. fulcrum point for getting food Aid in to.

Gaza in a way that a larger and more. established humanitarian Aid operations. couldn't in part because they were small. and Nimble in their way so the amount of. food they were moving maybe wasn't you. know as large as some of the more. established humanitarian Aid. organizations but they had so much. Goodwill they had so much logistical. knowledge they were working with local. Palestinians who knew the Food Systems.

and who understood how to get things in. and out so they were able to find a way. to use a humanitarian. Corridor to have permissions from the. Israeli government to be able to move. this food back and forth and that's. always been the secret to World Central. Kitchen is incredibly Nimble so just. like in Puerto Rico they seem to win. over just about everybody and do the. seemingly impossible right and World. Central Kitchen says they delivered 43. million meals to Gins since the start of.

the war and I don't think there was any. other group that could have pulled this. off hey this is zie in she we're at the. J kitchen um and we've got the me on. plus um tell us a little bit. about and then this Caravan this fairly. efficient Caravan of armored vehicles. labeled with World Central Kitchen logo. on the roof on the sides the idea was.

they head on this humanitarian quarter. they head on this road the seven people. who went all invest three of whom are. security people from Great Britain you. have another world Central Kitchen. employee who has handled operations in. Asia in Central America she's quite a. veteran of the world Central Kitchen. operation and you have a young man who. someone told me was like the Michael. Jordan of humanitarian Aid who hooked up. with World Central Kitchen in Poland he.

was a Hospitality student and had just. become an indispensable make it happen. guy mhm and you have a Palestinian gu 25. a driver so this is the the. team they have all the clearances they. have the well-marked. vehicles it seemed like a very simple. surgical kind of. operation and of course now as we know. it was anything but. that.

[Music]. after the break my colleague Adam rascon. on what happened to the world Central. kitchen workers in that. Caravan we'll be right. [Music]. back.

So Adam what ends up happening to this. Convoy that our colleague Kim serson. just described from World Central. Kitchen so what we know is that members. of the world Central Kitchen had been at. a warehouse in darl Bella in the central. Gaza Strip they had just unloaded about. a 100 tons of food Aid that had been. brought via a maritime route to the the. coast of the Gaza Strip when they. Departed the warehouse they were in.

three cars two of the cars were armored. cars and one was a softskin car. according to the. organization when the cars reached the. coastal Road known as El Rasheed Street. they started to make their way south and. what do we know about how much the world. Central Kitchen would have told the. Israeli military about their plans to be. on this road yeah so the world Central. Kitchen said that its movements were.

coordinated and in military speak or in. technical speak people often refer to. this as. deconfliction so basically this process. is something that not only the world. Central Kitchen but the UN. telecommunications companies going out. to repair you know damaged. telecommunications infrastructure others. would use where they. basically provide the Israeli military. with information about the people who. are traveling their ID numbers their.

names the license plate numbers of the. cars they'll be traveling in they'll. sort of explain you know where their. destination is and the general process. is that the Israelis will then come back. to them and say you're approved to. travel from this time and you can take. this specific route and do we know if. that happened if the IDF said you're. approved use this route on this night so. we heard from the world Central Kitchen.

that they did receive this approval the. military hasn't come out and said that. it wasn't approved so I think it's fair. to assume that their movements were. coordinated and and DEC conflicted okay. so what happens as this seemingly. pre-approved and coordinated Convoy trip. is making this leg of the journey they. started to make their way south towards. Rafa and the three cars suddenly.

came under. Fire the Israeli Army unleashes powerful. and devastating strikes on the three. cars in the. Convoy most likely from a. drone the strikes rip through the cars. killing everyone. inside shortly thereafter ambulances. from the Palestine red crescent are. dispatched the location they retrieve. the Dead.

bodies they bring those bodies to a. hospital and at the hospital the bodies. are laid out and journalists start to. report to the world that indeed five. members of the world Central Kitchen. staff have been. killed and the Palestine red crescent. teams were continuing to search for. other bodies and eventually brought back. two more bodies to the hospital for a. total of seven people killed in these.

air. strikes and when the sun comes up what. does it end up looking like the scene of. these struck trucks from this Convoy so. early in the morning when the sun comes. up a number of Palestinian journalists. headed out to the coastal Road and. started taking pictures and videos and I. received a series of videos from one of.

the reporters that I was in touch with. essentially showing three cars all. heavily damaged one had a world Central. Kitchen logo on top of it with a gaping. hole in the middle of the roof a second. car was completely charred you could. barely recognize the structure of the. car the inside of it had had been. completely chared in the front smashed. and do we know if the strike on this.

Convoy was the only strike happening in. this area in other words is it possible. this Convoy was caught in some kind of a. crossfire or in the middle of a. firefight or or does it appear that this. was quite narrow and was the Israeli. Army targeting these specific Vehicles. whether or not they realized who was in. it we don't have any other indication. that there was another strike on that. road around that time what that just of. course is that this Convoy was targeted.

now whether Israeli officials knew who. was in it whether they were Aid workers. seems like a yet unresolved question but. it does feel very clear that the trucks. in this Convoy were deliberately struck. yes I do think the trucks in this Convoy. were deliberately struck what is the. reaction to these air strikes on this. Convoy and to the death of these Aid. workers well one of the First Reactions. is is from the world Central kitchen's.

founder Jose Andreas Chef Jose Andreas. who founded World Central Kitchen. calling them angels He said he was. heartbroken and grieving and adding the. Israeli government needs to stop this. indiscriminate killing and then he. accused Israel of using food as a weapon. what I know is that we were targeted. deliberately nonstop until everybody was. dead in this Convoy and he just seemed.

devastated and and quite angry and so. what is the reaction from not just World. Central Kitchen but from the rest of the. world to this air strike there's frankly. Fury and outrage the White House says it. is outraged by an Israeli air strike. that killed seven Aid workers in Gaza. including one American President Biden. who has been becoming increasingly. critical of Israel's approach to this. war he came out and said that he was. outraged and heartbroken certainly.

sharper in tone than we have heard in. the past he says Israel has not done. enough to protect Aid workers trying to. deliver desperately needed help to. civilians incidents like yesterday's. simply should not happen Israel also has. not and we're seeing similar outrage. from foreign governments the British. foreign secretary David Cameron uh the. Dreadful events of the last two days are. a moment when we should mourn the loss. of these Brave humanitarian workers. including said that the air strikes were.

completely unacceptable and he called on. Israel to explain how this happened and. to make changes to ensure that Aid. workers could be safe so amid all this. what does Israel have to say about the. attack about how it happened about why. it happened the response from Israel. this time was much different compared to. other controversial air strikes on the. Gaza Strip often when were're reporting. on these issues we'll hear from the army.

that they're investigating a given. incident it will take days if not weeks. to receive updates on where that. investigation stands there are instances. where Israel does take responsibility. for harming civilians but it's often. rare this time the Prime. Minister Benjamin Netanyahu comes out. with a video. message.

saying that Israel had. unintentionally harmed innocent. civilians and that was the first. indication or public indication that. Israel was going to take responsibility. for what had happened the IDF works. together closely with the world Central. Kitchen and greatly appreciates the. important work that they do we later. heard from the military's Chief of Staff. hervy issued a video video statement in. English I want to be very clear the.

strike was not carried out with the. intention of harming wck Aid workers it. was a mistake that followed a. misidentification and he said this. mistake had come after a. misidentification he said it was in the. middle of a war in a very complex. condition but this incident was a grave. mistake we are sorry for the.

unintentional harm to the members of. wck he was clear that this shouldn't. have happened I want to talk about that. statement because it seems to suggest. that word. misidentification that the Israeli Army. believed that somebody else was in this. Convoy that it wasn't a bunch of Aid. workers that's possible although it's. extremely vague and cryptic language.

that genuinely is difficult to. understand and it's a question that Us. in the Jerusalem Bureau have been asking. ourselves I'm curious if the Israeli. government has said anything in all of. its statements so far about whether it. notice these markings on these three. cars in the Convoy because that I think. for so many people stands out as making. misidentification hard to understand it. seems like perhaps a random pickup truck.

could be misidentified as perhaps a. vehicle being used by a Hamas Militan. but a group of world Central Kitchen. trucks with their name all over it. driving down a known Aid Corridor that. becomes harder to understand as. misidentification yeah it's an important. question and at this moment we don't. know exactly what the Israeli. reconnaissance drones could see and. whether or not they were able to see in. the darkness of the night the markings.

of the world Central Kitchen on the cars. but what is clear is that when the cars. were found in the morning right there. was the big emblazened logo of the world. Central Kitchen mhm I'm curious how you. think about the speed with which. Israel came out and said it was in the. wrong here because as you said that's. not how Israel typically reacts to many. of these situations and that makes me.

think that it might have something to do. with the nature of the aid group that. was the target of these air strikes the. world Central Kitchen and its story I. think it does have to do with this. particular group this is a group that's. led by a celebrity chef very. high-profile who is gone run around the. world to conflict zones disaster areas.

to provide food Aid and I also think it. has to do with the people who were. killed most of who were Western foreign. aid. workers frankly I don't think we would. be having this conversation if a group. of Palestinian Aid workers had been. killed nor perhaps would you be having. the. reaction that we have had so far from. the Israeli government. I would agree with that Adam at the end.

of the day what is going to be the. Fallout from all of this for the people. of Gaza how do we think that this attack. on world Central Kitchen is going to. impact how food medicine Aid is. distributed there so the world Central. Kitchen has said that it's suspending. its operations across Gaza because it. essentially seems that they don't feel. they can safely operate there right.

now in several ships that carried aid. for the organization which were sort of. just on the coast those ships ended up. turning back to Cyprus carrying more. than 200 tons of Aid so Aid That was. supposed to reach the people of Gaza is. now leaving Gaza because of this attack. yes and it's also had a chilling effect. another Aid group named anera has also. suspended its operations in.

Gaza and it seems that there is concern. among. humanitarians that other Aid groups. could follow. mhm so in a place where people are. already suffering from severe hunger. poor sanitation the spread of dangerous. disease this is only going to make the. humanitarian situation which is already. dire even worse. [Music].

well Adam thank you very much we. appreciate it thanks so much for having. me we'll be right. [Music]. back here's what else you need to. another day the magnitude 7.4 earthquake. that struck Taiwan on Wednesday has. killed nine people injured more than. 1,000 and touched off several.

landslides it was taiwan's strongest. quake in the past 25 years but in a. blessing for the Island's biggest cities. its epicenter was off the Island's East. Coast relatively far from population. centers like. Taipei and the first patient to receive. a kidney transplanted from a genetically. modified Pig has fared so well that he. was discharged from a Massachusetts.

Hospital on Wednesday just 2 weeks after. surgery two previous transplants from. genetically modified pigs both failed. doctors say the success of the latest. surgery represents a major moment in. medicine that if replicated could usher. in a new era of organ. transplantation today's episode was. produced by Lindsay gar. Olivia Nat and Carlos PRI with help from.

AA chv it was edited by Mark George with. help from Paige cow contains original. music by Marian Lozano and Dan Powell. and was engineered by Chris Wood our. theme music is by Jim brunberg and Ben. Lanser of. [Music]. wonderly. [Music].

that's it for the daily I'm Michael. Boro see you. [Music]. tomorrow.