The seven World Central Kitchen aid workers killed in an Israeli airstrike are being hailed as heroes amid mounting international outrage. The WCK workers—six foreign nationals and a Palestinian—are among 196 aid workers killed in Gaza since October, NPR reports.
- Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha: The 25-year-old Palestinian had worked as a driver and translator for WCK since the start of the year, the AP reports. Relatives say that before the war, he was a successful businessman, which helped the team coordinate with the Israeli side, and he had planned to get married.
- John Chapman: The 57-year-old and the other two British citizens killed in the attack were military veterans on a WCK security team. His family tells the BBC that they're "devastated" by the loss of an "incredible father, husband, son, and brother." "He died trying to help people and was subject to an inhumane act," they said.
- Jacob Flickinger: Flickinger, a 33-year-old dual US-Canadian citizen, spent more than 10 years in the Canadian military. His friend Jonathan Duguay tells the Globe and Mail that Flickinger was a "fantastic guy" and that he urged him to join WCK last fall. "We were both diagnosed with PTSD after Afghanistan," Duguay says. The aid work, he says, "changed my life, changed our lives. We used our military skills to bring solutions in chaos." Flickinger's father, John Flickinger, tells the Washington Post that his son asked him to tell his mother that he was in Cyprus, not Gaza, because he didn't want her to worry.