Watch José’s Full Statement

Full Transcript

My name is José Andrés, and I want to talk to you about something that is still very painful for me: World Central Kitchen, and the families that lost their loved ones in 2024.

On that date, we lost 7 friends, 7 heroes in Gaza. They were killed by an Israeli airstrike trying to feed hungry people they did not know. There was never any excuse for killing them. There will never be any excuse for killing them or any other humanitarian.

The IDF said at the time it was a grave mistake. They fired the officers involved and said it was a breach of their own procedures. We asked for an investigation and we’ve been patiently waiting for it.

They knew there was no excuse. They knew everything about our operations in Gaza in real time. In fact, there were clear orders not to fire on our people. Now, one of the officers involved says he isn’t sorry for what happened. He said we are not a neutral organization.

Really? Let me be very clear, to him and to the whole world. We are humanitarians. We are friends of humanity. We believe that food is a universal human right.

That’s why for more than two years, we’ve been supporting communities in Israel, showing up whenever they need us. We’ve fed families who could not live in their homes in Gaza, in the south, in the north, everywhere, and also in Lebanon. We’ve fed the families of hostages after their loved ones were finally released. In Gaza, where families are still living in tents with no water and power in the summer heat, we continue to cook and deliver hundreds of thousands of meals every single day.

We feed families on both sides of the border fence because we are on the side of humanity, on the side of feeding people. I know there are many Israelis and Palestinians who agree with us. There are many humanitarians on both sides. But enough with the outrageous smears. Enough with excuses.

Enough with the shifting of blame. From the start, we have demanded truth, truth and justice for our friends and their families. We want an independent investigation with all the video and audio released in public so the world can know the truth, because we continue to grieve for our friends. We will never forget them or stop fighting for them.

We will never accept the death of humanitarian workers in Gaza or Ukraine or anywhere else in the world, and we will never stop feeding wherever there is a fight. So hungry people can eat.