Food aid workers became the latest casualties in the Gaza war after seven staff of the World Central Kitchen have been killed in an alleged strike by Israeli forces in the town of Deir al-Balah.

“World Central Kitchen (WKC) is devastated to confirm seven members of our team have been killed in an IDF strike in Gaza,” the United States-based charity said in a statement on Tuesday, referring to the Israel Defense Force.

Monday’s strike on a convoy of WCK workers leaving a food aid warehouse in the town left an Australian, Polish, British, American-Canadian and Palestinian dead.

The WCK team had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route when they were attacked, according to the group.

It added that the movement of the team aboard armored cars in a “de-conflicted” area was being coordinated with the Israeli military.

The Israeli military said it was “conducting a thorough review at the highest levels to understand the circumstances of this tragic incident,” adding it had been “working closely with WCK” in the effort to provide aid to Palestinians.

United States National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the White House was “heartbroken and deeply troubled by the strike.”

“Humanitarian aid workers must be protected as they deliver aid that is desperately needed,” she wrote on X.

A United Nations-backed report warned on 19 March that half of Gazans were feeling “catastrophic” hunger and projected imminent famine in the territory’s north.

Since Hamas’ 7 October attacks triggered the war, Gaza has been under a near-complete blockade, with the UN accusing Israel of preventing deliveries of humanitarian aid.

Al Jazeera ban

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Monday to use a fresh national security law passed by parliament to ban news channel Al Jazeera from broadcasting in the country.

The law, passed on Monday by 70 votes to 10, grants top ministers the power to ban broadcasts by foreign channels deemed a national security threat and to shut their offices.

Netanyahu was quick to single out Qatar-based channel Al Jazeera, with which his government has a long-running feud that predates Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.

“The terrorist channel Al Jazeera will no longer broadcast from Israel. I intend to act immediately in accordance with the new law to stop the channel’s activities,” Netanyahu said on X, formerly Twitter.

The broadcaster slammed the ban as “part of a series of systematic Israeli attacks to silence Al Jazeera.”