US CHARITY WORLD Central Kitchen said it is “pausing operations in Gaza at this time” after an Israeli air strike hit a vehicle carrying its workers.

The Israeli military confirmed that a Palestinian employee of WCK was killed in a strike, accusing the worker of being a “terrorist” who “infiltrated Israel and took part in the murderous 7 October massacre” last year.

WCK in a statement said it “had no knowledge that any individual in the vehicle had alleged ties to the 7 October Hamas attack”, and did not confirm any deaths.

Earlier today, Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told the AFP news agency that five people were killed, including “three employees of World Central Kitchen”, in the strike in the main southern city of Khan Younis.

“All three men worked for WCK and they were hit while driving in a WCK jeep in Khan Younis,” Bassal said, adding that the vehicle had been “marked with its logo clearly visible”.

Palestinians crowd to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen amid shortages of food supplies in the southern Gaza Strip, Khan Younis Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

WCK confirmed a strike had hit its workers, but added: “At this time, we are working with incomplete information and are urgently seeking more details.”

The Israeli army statement said representatives from the unit responsible for overseeing humanitarian needs in Gaza had “demanded senior officials from the international community and the WCK administration to clarify the issue and order an urgent examination regarding the hiring of workers who took part in the 7 October massacre”.

It also said its strike in Khan Younis had hit “a civilian unmarked vehicle and its movement on the route was not coordinated for transporting of aid”.

In April, an Israeli strike killed seven WCK staff – an Australian, three Britons, a North American, a Palestinian and a Pole.

Israel said it had been targeting a “Hamas gunman” in that strike, but the military admitted a series of “grave mistakes” and violations of its own rules of engagement.

The UN said last week that 333 aid workers had been killed since the start of the war in October of last year, 243 of them employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed 44,382 people in Gaza, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry.