US charity group says Israel struck its aid convoy, killing 4 Palestinians

A leading U.S. charity group for humanitarian aid deliveries said Friday that one of its convoys was hit in an Israeli strike, killing four Palestinians.

Anera, a U.S. nonprofit focused on helping Palestinian refugees in the Middle East, said an Israeli strike hit the lead vehicle carrying food and fuel to the Emirati Red Crescent Hospital Thursday in Gaza.

The convoy, which departed Kerem Shalom in Israel, had been cleared for transport, the group said in a statement. But four Palestinian community members had offered to step in and drive the vehicle, expressing concerns the route was unsafe and at risk of looting.

The four members, who were killed, were not cleared by Israel, according to Anera, and the Israeli military claimed the lead car was carrying weapons.

The charity group said the strike was carried out without prior warning. No Anera staff members were injured, and despite the attack, the aid convoy delivered its supplies.

Anera President and CEO Sean Carroll said “this is a case of partners on the ground endeavoring to deliver aid successfully.”

“This should not come at the cost of people’s lives,” he said in a statement.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told The Hill in a statement that armed individuals joined the car while troops were monitoring the situation.

“We stress, that the presence of armed individuals was not coordinated, and they were not part of the pre-coordinated convoy,” the IDF said. “After ruling out potential harm to the trucks, as well as a clear identification of weapons, a strike was carried out targeting the armed individuals.”

Israeli fire also struck a World Food Programme (WFP) truck Tuesday, heavily damaging it with bullets in several areas.

The WFP, which temporarily suspended staff movement in Gaza following the incident, said an aid convoy was cleared with the Israeli military but was still fired upon when moving through a security checkpoint.

More than 280 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October, according to the United Nations, one of the deadliest combat zones for the humanitarian workers.

Israel has come under pressure from the U.S. to protect aid workers, especially after an April strike killed seven workers with the U.S. charity group World Central Kitchen.

Robert Wood, alternative representative of the U.S. for special political affairs in the United Nations, said at a U.N. Security Council meeting Thursday that Israel is investigating the WFP strike, which preliminary findings indicate were related to miscommunication.

Wood said the U.S. has “urged them to immediately rectify the issues within their system that allowed this to happen.”

“Yet the simple fact is, almost 11 months into this confident, incidents such as [this] remain all too common,” he said. “These incidents should not happen.”

Updated at 5:55 p.m. EDT.