World Central Kitchen founder Chef José Andrés skeptical about IDF account of strike that killed 7 aid workers

WASHINGTON – World Central Kitchen founding chef José Andrés on Sunday questioned Israel’s claims last week that its army targeted the convoy of charity workers after wrongly assuming Hamas terrorists were there. found, telling ABC News that the conflict has become “a war against humanity itself.”

The Israeli military on Friday released the results of its preliminary investigation into strikes that killed seven WCK workers during a humanitarian aid transfer operation in Gaza, saying a military commander “wrongly assumed that armed men (from Hamas) were inside the vehicles accompanying them. »

“The forces did not identify the vehicles in question as being associated with the WCK,” the Israeli army said.

“Following an identification error by the forces, the forces targeted the three WCK vehicles based on a misclassification of the event and an error in identifying the vehicles as having members on board. of Hamas, the resulting strike resulted in the deaths of seven innocent aid workers. »

“The strikes against the three vehicles were carried out in serious violation of IDF commands and standard operating procedures,” he added.

The Israeli military further claimed that it could not see the WCK logo emblazoned on the top of the trucks, but Andres told ABC’s Martha Raddatz that he was reluctant to believe the Israeli military’s claims. that his forces did not know that the vehicles belonged to WCK.

“Every time something happens, we cannot involve Hamas in the equation,” Andres said, rejecting claims of error. “I think the IDF knows better than anyone that it can be a better army. »

He nevertheless said he was willing to review the footage of the strike to see if his claims were true.

“Obviously, I would like to see high quality of video, high quality of images. I’m sure those logos were probably visible,” he said. “They were white cars; this logo is very colorful. Even in the dark of night, I guarantee I could be seen.

“There are far too many cases of deaths of humanitarian workers, many civilians – women, children – whose only thing they did was try to get close to a place where they were giving them food. flour or bread,” he added.

Speaking exactly six months after Hamas’ brutal killing of more than 1,000 Israeli civilians on October 7, Andres said strikes affecting civilians and aid workers in Gaza “have gone on for far too long.”

“This is no longer about the seven men and women of World Central Kitchen,” he said. “We’ve been targeting anything that seems (like Hamas) for six months.”

“It doesn’t look like a war on terror, it doesn’t look like a war to defend Israel anymore. In reality, at this point, it seems to be a war against humanity itself,” he added.