(NewsNation) — A top United Nations relief official doesn’t want to believe the Israeli strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen workers was deliberate.
“It is war. It is not neat, clean like a Tom Clancy movie,” says Bill Deere, a director at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
He says that in war, mistakes get made, but “seemingly … a lot of mistakes are being made this time.”
An Israeli government official told “NewsNation Now” the attack was a “mistake of misidentification” that occurred at night during “complex” battle conditions.
Deere says that’s tough to buy since no aid group travels spontaneously.
“Everything in Gaza has to be closely coordinated with the Israeli military authorities. And it’s more than just putting ‘U.N.’ on the top of the truck,” he said.
He calls the attack the result of a “systematic breakdown in the coordination system.”
World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres has no use for the word “mistake.”
“This was not just a bad luck situation where, ‘Oops, we dropped a bomb in the wrong place,'” he told Reuters. He said the WCK vehicles were clearly marked, and “it’s very clear who we are and what we do.”
There have been some deliberate attacks on aid facilities. Israel said it was targeting a Hamas commander when its planes hit a UNRWA food distribution center in southern Gaza last month. Deere says two of his colleagues were killed and several others injured.
Mistakes or not, Deere senses a major change in how the Israeli military is operating.
“The track record in previous conflicts has been very good. But something’s changed here because these incidents keep happening. There is nowhere safe in Gaza right now, and that includes for humanitarian aid workers,” he said.