WASHINGTON — A memorial at Washington’s National Cathedral on Thursday will commemorate the seven World Central Kitchen aid workers killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza earlier this month.
José Andrés, the celebrity chef and philanthropist behind the Washington-based disaster relief group World Central Kitchen, is expected to speak at the celebration of life service, and famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma will perform, organizers said.
The Biden administration said Thursday that Douglas Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell would be among the senior administration officials.
The aid workers were killed on April 1 when a succession of Israeli armed drones tore through vehicles in their convoy as they left one of World Central Kitchen’s warehouses for a food delivery mission. Those who died were Palestinian Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha; Britons John Chapman, James Kirby and James Henderson; dual US-Canadian citizen Jacob Flickinger; Australian Lalzawmi Frankcom; and Polish citizen Damiam Sobol.
After an unusually quick investigation, Israel said the military officials involved in the strike had violated policy by acting on a single grainy photo that one officer had claimed — falsely — showed one of the seven workers was armed. The Israeli army has fired two officers and reprimanded three others.
According to the United Nations, the aid workers, whose travel was coordinated with Israeli officials, are among more than 220 humanitarian workers killed in the six-month war between Israel and Hamas. That includes at least 30 deaths while on duty.
The international fame and popularity of Andres and his nonprofit organization sparked widespread outrage over the killings of World Central Kitchen workers. The killings reinforced demands from the Biden administration and others that the Israeli military change the way it operates in Gaza to spare aid workers and Palestinian civilians in general, who are facing a humanitarian crisis and urgently need help from aid agencies , now that the UN warns of an impending famine.
World Central Kitchen, along with several other humanitarian aid organizations, suspended operations in Gaza following the attack. “We haven’t given up,” World Central Kitchen spokesperson Linda Roth said last week. “We are in funeral mode right now.”
Religious leaders from different faiths will participate in the services on Thursday. Funerals previously took place in the workers’ homelands.
___
AP writer Menelaos Hadjicostis in Nicosia, Cyprus, contributed to this report.