The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out an airstrike on a humanitarian aid convoy in Gaza, claiming it targeted “armed assailants” attempting to hijack the convoy. However, the charity responsible for organizing the aid, the US-based NGO Anera, stated that the individuals killed were employees of the transport company facilitating the convoy.
The convoy, organized by Anera, was delivering medical supplies and fuel to an Emirati-run hospital in Rafah on Thursday evening. Its route had been pre-approved and coordinated with the IDF under a deconfliction process designed to protect aid vehicles from attacks.
“This is a shocking incident,” said Sandra Rasheed, Anera’s Palestine country director. “The convoy, coordinated and approved by Israeli authorities, included an Anera employee who was fortunately unharmed. Tragically, several individuals working for the transportation company we partnered with were killed; they were in the lead vehicle of the convoy.”
Unconfirmed reports from Gaza indicated that five people were killed in the airstrike.
The IDF confirmed that the convoy’s route had been coordinated with their forces but alleged that “during the convoy’s movement, armed assailants seized control of the lead vehicle, a Jeep, and began directing it.” The IDF claimed that after confirming a precise strike could be conducted, they targeted the vehicle carrying the assailants, ensuring no harm to the remaining vehicles in the convoy, which continued to its destination.
Anera acknowledged that the convoy successfully reached the hospital but clarified that only one person on board was an Anera employee, with the others employed by the unnamed transport company involved.
“We are urgently seeking further details about what happened,” Rasheed added.
The airstrike on Anera’s convoy came hours after Israeli soldiers fired on a World Food Programme (WFP) vehicle clearly marked with UN insignia as it approached an IDF checkpoint at Wadi Gaza. The armored vehicle, which was traveling with another WFP vehicle, was struck by at least ten bullets, though no one inside was injured. Following the incident, the WFP temporarily suspended its operations in Gaza.
Cindy McCain, head of the WFP, condemned the shooting, calling it “totally unacceptable.” She added, “As last night’s events show, the current deconfliction system is failing and this cannot go on any longer.”
This latest incident follows an earlier IDF airstrike on April 1, when seven aid workers were killed in a drone attack on a convoy run by World Central Kitchen. The IDF later admitted “grave errors” in that attack, firing two officers after acknowledging that the planned convoy route had not been communicated to operational units. An investigation claimed that an officer mistakenly believed he saw a gunman on a truck’s roof from grainy surveillance footage, though no evidence of a gunman was found.
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