The World Food Program said Wednesday that it was forced to suspend the movement of its employees in Gaza after the Israeli military fired on one of the United Nations agency's teams as its clearly marked vehicle advanced toward an Israeli checkpoint in the Palestinian enclave.
The agency said in a statement that the WFP team was returning from a mission with two armored vehicles "after escorting a convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian cargo routed to Gaza's central area."
"Despite being clearly marked and receiving multiple clearances by Israeli authorities to approach, the vehicle was directly struck by gunfire as it was moving towards an Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) checkpoint," WFP said. "It sustained at least ten bullets: five on the driver's side, two on the passenger side, and three on other parts of the vehicle. None of the employees onboard were physically harmed."
While the WFP's statement doesn't explicitly attribute the gunfire to Israeli forces, U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters Wednesday that the food agency's vehicle was "struck 10 times by IDF gunfire, including with bullets targeting front windows."
Cindy McCain, WFP's executive director, said the attack was "totally unacceptable and the latest in a series of unnecessary security incidents that have endangered the lives of WFP's team in Gaza."
"As last night's events show, the current deconfliction system is failing and this cannot go on any longer," said McCain. "I call on the Israeli authorities and all parties to the conflict to act immediately to ensure the safety and security of all aid workers in Gaza."
The Israeli military's latest attack on aid workers in Gaza came as famine continued to spread across the strip, which Israel has strangled with a blockade that has restricted the flow of food and other necessities.
Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, characterized the WFP attack as part of "Israel's starvation strategy." Israeli forces have repeatedly targeted humanitarian workers in Gaza, making the enclave the most dangerous place in the world for aid agency employees.
Chef José Andrés, the founder of a nonprofit whose Gaza team came under deadly attack by Israeli forces earlier this year, expressed solidarity with the WFP in a social media post late Wednesday.
WFP did not say how long its pause on employee movement would stay in place, but any disruption to the agency's humanitarian operations could be disastrous for starving Palestinians.
In its statement Wednesday, the U.N. food agency said that Israel's "frequent and ongoing evacuation orders continue to uproot both families and food relief operations intended to support them."
"Last week, WFP lost access to its third and last operational warehouse in Gaza's middle area, while five of WFP's operated community kitchens had to be evacuated," the agency said. "This week, on Sunday 25 August, the evacuation orders impacted the main WFP operating hub in Deir al-Balah, forcing our team to relocate for the third time since the war started."
