Israeli Strikes on Aid Convoy Prompts Condemnation and an Apology From Netanyahu
Aaron Boxerman Adam Rasgon Matthew Mpoke Bigg Cassandra Vinograd Ben Shpigel Erica L. Green Gaya Gupta Farnaz Fassihi Eric Schmitt Victoria Kim
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “deeply regrets” the strikes that killed seven aid workers with World Central Kitchen in Gaza.
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“Our hearts go out to their families and to their home countries,” Mr. Netanyahu said of the dead aid workers.

The World Central Kitchen workers were traveling in clearly marked cars when they came under fire. The workers included citizens of the United States, Poland, Australia and three from Britain.

The Israeli military acknowledged it was responsible for the strike on the convoy in a video posted to social media on Wednesday morning, calling it “a grave mistake.” Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the Israeli military chief of staff, said that an independent body would investigate the killings.

World Central Kitchen, which has become an important player in delivering supplies to a territory in the midst of a humanitarian crisis, said on Tuesday it was suspending its operations in the region. A second aid agency, American Near East Refugee Aid, said it too was suspending its operations in Gaza.

In a statement on Tuesday night, President Biden said he was “outraged and heartbroken” by the aid workers’ deaths and criticized Israel for not doing enough to protect aid workers and civilians.

“This is a major reason why distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza has been so difficult,” he said.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said the U.S. government had spoken to the Israeli authorities about the strike and urged a swift and impartial investigation. He offered praise for the aid workers.

“These people are heroes,” Mr. Blinken said. “They run into the fire, not away from it. They show the best of what humanity really has to offer when the going gets tough. They have to be protected.”

And David Cameron, the British foreign secretary, called the killings “completely unacceptable” and said, “Israel must urgently explain how this happened and make major changes to ensure the safety of aid workers.”

The war in the Gaza Strip has proved exceptionally dangerous for aid workers. At least 196 have been killed there since the fighting began on Oct. 7, according to the United Nations, citing a figure from March 20.

World Central Kitchen said in a statement that its team had been hit after unloading food at a warehouse in central Gaza and leaving in two armored cars and another vehicle. The group said the convoy was hit despite having coordinated its movements with the Israeli military.

A spokesman for Israel’s military, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said that Israel’s military “has been working closely with the World Central Kitchen to assist them in fulfilling their noble mission of helping bring food and humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.” The group had come to the aid of Israel after the attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, he said, describing it as being on the “front lines of humanity.”

Graphic video footage that circulated after the strike showed several bodies, some in protective gear with World Central Kitchen patches.

Reporting was contributed by Cassandra Vinograd , Damien Cave , Aric Toler , Anushka Patil , Daniel Victor , Victoria Kim and Natasha Frost .

Here’s what we know.

The convoy of three vehicles had just left a food warehouse.

The World Central Kitchen staff members were leaving a warehouse in Deir al Balah, a city in the central Gaza Strip, when their convoy — two armored cars and a third vehicle — came under fire late Monday, the organization said in a statement.

The Israeli military had been informed of the aid workers’ movements, the charity said. Aid workers had just unloaded more than 100 tons of food brought to Gaza by sea at the warehouse, according to the group.

Videos and photos verified by The New York Times suggest the convoy was hit multiple times. The imagery shows three destroyed white vehicles, with the northernmost and southernmost vehicles nearly a mile and a half apart.

The World Central Kitchen logo could be seen on items inside the charred interiors of the northernmost and southernmost cars. The car in the middle was left with a gaping hole in its roof, which was clearly marked with the group’s logo. All three vehicles, though far apart from each other, were on or near the Al-Rashid coastal road.

It remained unclear on Tuesday morning what sort of munition struck the cars and whether those explosives were launched from the ground, a warplane or a drone.

Six foreign citizens and a Palestinian were killed.

World Central Kitchen said one of those killed was a dual citizen of the United States and Canada, while the others were from Australia, Britain, Gaza and Poland. In a post with the victims’ names and ages on the group’s website, its chief executive, Erin Gore, said “We are reeling from our loss.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia identified one of the victims as Zomi Frankcom, an Australian citizen and a senior manager at World Central Kitchen. “The tributes flowing for Lalzawmi ‘Zomi’ Frankcom tell the story of a life dedicated to the service of others, including her fellow Australians during natural disasters,” Penny Wong, the country’s foreign minister, said on social media.

Damian Sobol, an aid worker from the southeastern Polish city of Przemysl, died in the attack, according to the city’s mayor, Wojciech Bakun. “There are no words to describe what people who knew this fantastic guy feel at this moment,” he said in a post on social media.

David Cameron, the British foreign secretary, said on social media that three of the aid workers who were killed were British citizens. The BBC reported their names: John Chapman, James Henderson and James Kirby. Local British media outlets described Mr. Chapman and Mr. Henderson as former Royal Marines who later turned to volunteer work.

Jacob Flickinger, who also died in the attack, was a 33-year-old dual citizen of the United States and Canada, according to the World Central Kitchen, and worked on the group’s relief team.

Palestinian medics retrieved the bodies of the seven victims and took them to a hospital in Deir al Balah, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society. The bodies of the foreigners were to be taken out of Gaza into Egypt, the group said.

Saif Abu Taha, a 25-year-old Gazan working as a driver and translator for World Central Kitchen, also died in the attack. Mr. Abu Taha was an enterprising young man who worked in his father’s business and spoke good English, his brother Shadi said.

Mr. Abu Taha and other World Central Kitchen workers were thrilled to have the opportunity to unload the desperately needed food aid. “They were so excited, like they were going to a wedding,” his brother said. It was the last time he saw him.

Mr. Cameron said on social media that “it is essential that humanitarian workers are protected and able to carry out their work.” He called on Israel “to immediately investigate and provide a full, transparent explanation of what happened.”

At least 196 aid workers were killed in Gaza and the West Bank between October 2023 and late March, according to Jamie McGoldrick, a senior U.N. relief official. “This is not an isolated incident,” he said, later adding: “There is no safe place left in Gaza.”

The prime minister appeared to take responsibility for the ‘unintentional’ attack.

In a video statement on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel referred to a “tragic case of our forces unintentionally harming innocent people in the Gaza Strip.” Mr. Netanyahu did not name World Central Kitchen in his remarks.

But an Israeli official familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the strike was still under investigation, clarified that the prime minister was referring to the strike.

“It happens in war, we are fully examining this, we are in contact with the governments, and we will do everything so that this thing does not happen again,” Mr. Netanyahu said.

An Israeli military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an internal investigation, said the military had concluded it was responsible for the strike on the convoy. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the Israeli military chief of staff, is expected to review findings of an initial inquiry into the incident on Tuesday evening, the official said.

A spokesman for Israel’s military, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the investigation had been referred to the Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism, a military body tasked with investigating accusations and looking into the circumstances behind battlefield episodes. “We will be opening a probe to examine this serious incident further,” he said. “This will help us reduce the risk of such an event from occurring again.”

The Israeli military said the mechanism was an “independent, professional and expert body.” Human rights groups have generally been critical of the Israeli military’s ability to transparently investigate itself, charging that inquiries are often long and rarely lead to indictments.

The World Central Kitchen aid ship is headed back to Cyprus.

At the time of the strike, workers had unloaded 100 tons of aid from the Jennifer, a World Central Kitchen vessel that had left the Cypriot port of Larnaca last weekend and arrived in Gaza on Monday. Another 240 tons were to be unloaded on Tuesday, according to Theodoros Gotsis, a spokesman for the Cypriot foreign ministry.

Mr. Gotsis said that the Jennifer instead left Gaza to sail back to Larnaca on Tuesday. He added that several more tons of aid were waiting at warehouses in Larnaca, but that it was not clear when and whether a mission to deliver them would take place.

Patrick Kingsley , Rawan Sheikh Ahmad , Gabby Sobelman , Matina Stevis-Gridneff , Lauren Leatherby , Nader Ibrahim and Kim Severson contributed reporting to this article.

“We must not accept violence from any side, we must not accept ignoring police instructions and breaking barriers as we saw last night in Jerusalem,” he wrote on X. “A protest is legitimate, the pain is also understandable, but the law and the rules of the game must be respected.”

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Jerusalem since Sunday, when a planned four-day antigovernment protest began outside Israel’s Parliament, the Knesset. Many protesters have camped out in tents outside the Knesset, where the demonstrations have swelled each evening.

The protest and an authorized march started peacefully on Tuesday night but then turned into what the Israeli police force called an unbridled “riot.” It said in a statement that hundreds of people had tried to break through barriers near Mr. Netanyahu’s house but were blocked by police officers.

Dozens of people caused disorder in the street afterward, the police said, forcing officers to deploy riot control measures. Five people were arrested and one officer was injured in the melee, the police force added.

Photographs of the scene showed that the police used water cannons to disperse protesters, many of whom carried Israeli flags.

There was no immediate comment about the latest protest from Mr. Netanyahu, who earlier on Tuesday was released from the hospital where he had been recovering from surgery to treat a hernia.

Many of the protesters accuse Mr. Netanyahu of prioritizing his political survival over the broader interests of the Israeli people and hold him responsible for his government’s failure to prevent the Oct. 7 attack led by Hamas. He also has been accused of not doing enough to bring home the hostages held by Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza.

Posters bearing the names and faces of the hostages have been ever-present at the protests, along with signs and banners reading “Bring Them Home.”

Many Israelis have refrained from protesting the government during the war. While this week’s protests have been some of the most significant demonstrations against Mr. Netanyahu’s government since the war began, the crowds have appeared smaller than those at the demonstrations last year at the peak of a wave of antigovernment protests, which the prime minister’s coalition survived.

Gabby Sobelman contributed reporting.

“It was a mistake that followed a misidentification, at night, during the war, in a very complex condition,” he said, adding, “It shouldn’t have happened.”

General Halevi’s mea culpa was a change in tone from that of Israel’s military, which throughout the war has largely rejected criticism of its conduct by arguing that it was doing what was necessary to defeat Hamas. It came as many of Israel’s closest allies voiced indignation and demanded explanations for the attack.

The seven workers, traveling in a convoy, were with World Central Kitchen, a charity that was helping to feed hungry Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

In a sharply worded statement, Mr. Biden said that Israel had not done enough to protect civilians and noted that the deaths were not a “stand-alone incident.” He said the conflict “has been one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed.”

The president’s blunt criticism of an ally highlighted his growing impatience with Israel’s conduct of the war and increasing tensions with its leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as the death toll in Gaza has climbed, according to Gazan health authorities, past 32,000.Mr. Biden is scheduled to speak with Mr. Netanyahu on Thursday, according to a senior administration official. That official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said that Mr. Biden’s anger and frustration had hit a peak in recent weeks.

David Cameron, the British foreign secretary, called the workers’ deaths “completely unacceptable,” saying in a statement that “Israel must urgently explain how this happened and make major changes to ensure the safety of aid workers.”

The World Central Kitchen workers — a Palestinian, an Australian, a Pole, three Britons and a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen — were traveling in clearly marked cars after leaving a warehouse in Deir al Balah, in central Gaza, when their convoy came under fire late Monday, the organization said in a statement. The Israeli military had been informed of the workers’ movements, the charity said.

The bodies of the six foreigners were driven to Egypt on Wednesday and from there were to be flown to their home countries.

The killings drew condemnation from countries around the world, including those of the people killed, and prompted aid agencies to reassess their operations in Gaza. World Central Kitchen, which was founded by the renowned chef José Andrés, said on Tuesday that it was suspending its operations in Gaza.

Throughout the war, Palestinians and relief organizations have accused Israel of bombing indiscriminately, heedless of civilian casualties — claims Israel has consistently denied. The killing of aid workers from countries that have backed Israel could add fuel to rising international anger over the way it has conducted the war.

General Halevi said that an independent body would investigate the killings and that the military would learn from the conclusions and share the findings with World Central Kitchen.

“Israel is at war with Hamas, not with the people of Gaza,” General Halevi said. “We are sorry for the unintentional harm to the members of the W.C.K. We share in the grief of the families, as well as the entire World Central Kitchen organization, from the bottom of our hearts.”

The remarks from General Halevi and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said on social media that Israel “deeply regrets the tragic incident,” came within 24 hours of the strike.

In December, it took several days for the Israeli military to acknowledge that it had carried out two airstrikes in the central Gaza Strip that health officials in the enclave said had killed dozens of civilians.

Katie Rogers contributed reporting.

Mr. Biden noted that the deaths were not a “stand-alone incident,” and that the “conflict has been one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed.”

The president’s blunt criticism of an ally highlighted his growing impatience with Israel’s conduct of the war and increasing tensions with its leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as the death toll in Gaza has climbed, according to Gazan health authorities, past 32,000.

That figure includes more than 200 aid workers since the fighting began on Oct. 7, a White House spokesman said on Tuesday. World Central Kitchen announced that it would pause its aid operations after the killings, a move that stands to exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which is on the brink of famine.

“This is a major reason why distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza has been so difficult — because Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians,” Mr. Biden said. “Incidents like yesterday’s simply should not happen. Israel has also not done enough to protect civilians.”

Mr. Biden said he had spoken with José Andrés, the renowned chef who founded World Central Kitchen, which has helped respond to some of the biggest humanitarian crises around the globe since its creation in 2010. “They were providing food to hungry civilians in the middle of a war,” Mr. Biden said of the workers. “They were brave and selfless. Their deaths are a tragedy.”

Israel acknowledged that its military was responsible for the deadly strikes on the aid convoy, calling it “a grave mistake.” On Tuesday, Mr. Netanyahu said on social media that Israel “deeply regrets the tragic incident.”

Mr. Biden said Israel’s investigation into why the aid workers’ vehicles were hit by airstrikes must be “swift, it must bring accountability, and its findings must be made public.”

Mr. Biden, who has strongly supported Israel’s right to retaliate for the Oct. 7 Hamas-led terrorist attacks, which killed an estimated 1,200 people according to Israeli authorities, also expressed frustration with Israel’s failure to allow the delivery of more aid to Gaza. He noted that a team was currently in Cairo continuing to push for an immediate cease-fire and deal to release hostages held by Hamas.

“The United States has repeatedly urged Israel to deconflict their military operations against Hamas with humanitarian operations, in order to avoid civilian casualties,” Mr. Biden said. “The United States will continue to do all we can to deliver humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza, through all available means.”

They are the latest casualties in the growing toll of aid workers killed in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, and they are among more than a dozen workers who have been killed while doing their jobs.

Gaza has been the deadliest place for aid workers since the Oct. 7 attacks. According to the Aid Worker Security Database, a compilation of data on attacks funded by the United States Agency for International Development, 203 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since the war started. All were Palestinian, except for six of the World Central Kitchen workers most recently killed, who were citizens of Australia, the United States, Canada, Poland and Britain. As of Monday, 176 workers from UNRWA, the U.N. agency dedicated to Palestinians, have been killed, according to the group.

Aid worker deaths since 1997

In Gaza and West Bank

In other countries and territories

250 deaths

All 161 deaths of Palestinian aid

workers in 2023 were after Oct. 7

200

150

100

50

2000

2005

2010

2015

2020

2024

In Gaza and West Bank

In other countries and territories

250 deaths

All 161 deaths of Palestinian aid

workers in 2023 were after Oct. 7

200

150

100

50

2000

2005

2010

2015

2020

2024

After Oct. 7, 161 aid workers were killed in Gaza in the last weeks of 2023. That total is larger than all aid worker deaths worldwide in every year since 1997, when the aid worker database started collecting figures.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel “deeply regrets” the attack on the World Central Kitchen convoy, a rare acknowledgment of an attack that killed aid workers, and the Israeli military said it was investigating the incident. Humanitarian personnel are protected by international law.

Saif Abu Taha, the sole Palestinian traveling with the convoy, had volunteered with World Central Kitchen when it set up operations in Gaza, said his older brother Shadi; the group said it later hired him. At 25, Saif was an enterprising young man who “wanted to do something for others,” his brother said, adding that he worked in their father’s business and spoke good English.

Shadi recalled seeing his brother depart on Monday for work with other members of the World Central Kitchen team. The workers “were so excited, like they were going to a wedding,” he said, intending to go to the jetty in northern Gaza and unload the desperately needed food aid.

He never saw his brother again, he said.

Lalzawmi Frankcom, 43, who was known as Zomi, was the Australian worker who was killed on Monday. She began volunteering for the World Central Kitchen in 2018 and was hired the next year, according to her former partner, Josh Phelps.

Their last text exchange was on Sunday, just before she and the aid convoy set out from central Gaza. He sent her some photos from their time together delivering food on a reservation in South Dakota. She sent back a heart emoji.

A day later, he found out that she had been killed.

“Anywhere she needed to go, she was willing to go,” he said. “She was following her dreams to make a life around the world.”

Damian Sobol of Poland was described as “the Michael Jordan of humanitarian work” by a former colleague, Noah Sims, a chef in North Georgia who has been at the site of several World Central Kitchen disaster relief efforts.

They first met while feeding refugees in the southeastern Polish city of Przemysl, Mr. Sobol’s hometown and where he had been studying hospitality.

“Anything I ever needed, Damian could get it done,” Mr. Sims said.

According to the World Central Kitchen, three British citizens were also killed in the attack: John Chapman, 57; James Henderson, 33; and James Kirby, 47. All three of the men were part of the organization’s security team. Local British media outlets described Mr. Chapman and Mr. Henderson as former Royal Marines who later turned to volunteer work.

In a statement, Mr. Chapman’s family called him an “incredible father, husband, son and brother.”

“He was loved by many and will forever be a hero,” it said.

The seventh worker, Jacob Flickinger, was a 33-year-old dual citizen of the United States and Canada, according to the World Central Kitchen, and worked on the group’s relief team.

Kim Severson and Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting.

A correction was made on

April 2, 2024

:

An earlier version of this article misstated the age of Saif Abu Taha, one of the World Central Kitchen workers who was killed on Monday. He was 25, not 26.

How we handle corrections

“Any miscalculation could lead to broader conflict in an already volatile region, with devastating consequences for civilians who are already seeing unprecedented suffering,” Khaled Khiari, the U.N. assistant secretary general, told the Council.

Russia, a close ally of Iran, had called for the meeting to discuss Israel’s attack, after Iran’s mission to the U.N. submitted a letter to the world body arguing that the airstrikes had violated international law. The attacks killed seven members of Iran’s Quds forces, including three generals.

Iran and Syria both attended the meeting and addressed the Council. Israel, which did not attend the meeting, has said that the target was not a diplomatic one because it had been used frequently by Iran’s military commanders and personnel in Syria.

Robert A. Wood, the U.S. representative at the meeting, told the Council that Washington had communicated to Iran that it was not involved in the attack and had no prior knowledge of it. Mr. Wood did not directly criticize Israel, saying instead that the United States was concerned about Iran and its proxy militia’s use of Syrian territory to attack Israeli targets and American bases.

“Any confirmed attack on property that was in fact a diplomatic facility would be of concern to the United States,” Mr. Wood said. “Diplomatic missions and their property, as well as official diplomatic residents, must be protected even in and especially in terms of armed conflict.”

Russia’s ambassador to the U.N., Vasily Nebenzya, said his country was extremely concerned by what he called Israel’s disregard of international rules, and described the attacks as “reckless actions.” Mr. Nebenzya also lashed out at the United States, Britain and France for their “verbal gymnastics” in applying double standards by refusing to directly criticize Israel.

“If it was your embassy that was attacked or your consulate in the region, would you respond in the same way?” Mr. Nebenzya said. “This is your rules-based order in all its glory.”

Geng Shuang, China’s deputy ambassador to the U.N, said Israel’s attack was “of an extremely vicious nature” and violated the sovereignty of both Syria and Iran. China is a key economic partner for Iran and helps the government stay afloat financially by buying its embargoed oil at a discount price.

Iran’s deputy ambassador to the U.N., Zahra Ershadi, said Iran had so far exercised “considerable restraint” but that there was a limit to its patience. Ms. Ershadi called for the Council to hold Israel accountable and take actions against it.

Syria’s ambassador to the U.N., Koussay Aldahhak, said the Iranian diplomatic compound was in a densely populated civilian area in Damascus and near buildings that house diplomatic missions, banks, other international agencies, such as the World Food Program, a private hospital and faculty of Damascus University.

“This vital area is crossed by thousands of civilians on daily basis,” Mr. Aldahhak said. “Some of those civilians have suffered severe injuries.”

Ralph Goff, a former senior C.I.A. official who served in the Middle East, called Israel’s strike “incredibly reckless.”

“It will only result in escalation by Iran and its proxies, which is very dangerous” to American troops in the region who could be targeted in retaliatory strikes by Tehran’s proxies, Mr. Goff said.

Indeed, after the Israeli strike in Damascus, Syria’s capital, American troops based in southeastern Syria knocked down an attack drone, a Defense Department official said. It was unclear if the drone was aimed at the U.S. forces, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational details. If it were, it would be the first attack by Iran-backed militias against American troops in Iraq or Syria in nearly two months. No injuries or damage were reported.

The official said there had been no further attacks overnight, but that Pentagon officials were monitoring the situation closely.

Mr. Goff said the deadly strike in Syria fit Israel’s “longer-term strategy of degrading” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its Quds Force unit, and “punishing them for ongoing plots to kill or kidnap Israeli Jews around the world.”

In the yearslong shadow war between Iran and Israel, Syria has been key terrain for Israel as it works to degrade Iran’s ability to move advanced weaponry by land and air closer to Israel’s borders.

“The strike yesterday is a significant escalation and risks tipping an already volatile, unstable region into full-scale war,” said Dana Stroul, formerly the Pentagon’s top Middle East policy official who is now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “This is the Israeli version of the U.S. strike on Qassim Suleimani,” she said, referring to the former longtime leader of the Quds Force, who was killed by an American drone strike near the Baghdad airport in 2020.

Ms. Stroul said assessing the post-Suleimani era is instructive because the command and control of the Quds Force was degraded.

“We have seen Iran-backed militia groups take decisions into their own hands under the leadership of Qaani, as well the rise of rival power centers in Iran,” Ms. Stroul said, referring to Gen. Ismail Qaani, the current Quds Force commander. “This has led to a more diffuse, but not less lethal, Quds Force-led network abroad. But Iran’s core strategy never changed. Tehran will continue to invest in its terrorist network abroad in order to keep the fight away from its own borders.”

More broadly, Ms. Stroul said, the message is that Islamic Revolutionary Guards “operatives and leaders are not safe anywhere.”

She continued: “It should have strategic effect on how the Quds Force operates abroad and should erode any semblance of invincibility or deniability that this terrorist organization only brings instability and violence to the places it seeks to operate.”

Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., a retired four-star general and former leader of the Pentagon’s Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East, said the deaths of the senior Quds Force officers was “a blow.”

“Their long-term, carefully developed relationships will be lost,” he said.

Ms. Stroul said the strike would further inflame Tehran. “The question is, will Iran respond in a manner that de-escalates the situation, or will it climb further up the escalation ladder?” she said.

Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman, sought on Tuesday to tamp down fears of escalation, saying that the United States had no involvement in the airstrike and did not know about it ahead of time.

Ms. Singh said at a news conference that the message had also been conveyed directly to Iran. “Tensions being high in the region, we wanted to make it very clear in private channels that the U.S. had no involvement in the strike in Damascus.”

General McKenzie said he expected Iran would retaliate in some way, but he downplayed fears of a major escalation of hostilities between Israel and Iran.

“Iran’s options to hit Israel are very, very limited,” General McKenzie said. “And the Israelis aren’t going to back down.”

On Tuesday, the group said it would pause its operations in Gaza and the region after it said seven of its workers were killed in an airstrike. The organization said the Israeli military was behind the attack.

The suspension will deprive the increasingly famished population of Gaza of a stream of humanitarian food aid, at a time when practically every source of provisions is critical for staving off what experts have been warning for weeks is an imminent famine.

The group says it operates 68 “community kitchens” in Gaza, and has sent in more than 1,700 trucks loaded with food and cooking equipment so far in nearly six months of war.

World Central Kitchen is a relatively new aid provider in Gaza, where people have been heavily reliant on humanitarian assistance for decades because of a long-running Israeli blockade. But the group has garnered notice by making bold moves. In March, it became the first entity to deliver aid by sea to the enclave in nearly two decades by building a makeshift jetty fashioned out of rubble.

The first aid ship that arrived in mid-March delivered 200 tons of rice, flour and lentils, along with canned tuna, chicken and beef, according to the group. A second, larger shipment departed from Cyprus on Saturday.

After aid was unloaded from the ship, it was distributed in Gaza by truck, according to the group, which said that it coordinated its efforts with the Israeli military. The workers killed this week were leaving an aid warehouse in central Gaza, the group said.

“Distribution is the Achilles’ heel of any disaster response,” Mr. Andrés wrote in 2020 in an Opinion piece for The New York Times about responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

Initiatives to send aid into Gaza via its Mediterranean coast were born of frustrations among aid agencies that supplies by land were being held up by Israeli inspections at border crossings. World Central Kitchen has said an average of 10 of its trucks were being let into Gaza out of the nearly 20 it was sending daily to a crossing in Rafah, in southern Gaza, and that on some days, none were getting through.

The nonprofit group has grown rapidly in recent years, with more than $500 million in contributions and grants in 2022, a fourfold increase from the previous year, the most recent years for which figures are available. As of 2022, the organization said it had 94 employees.

It supplied food in Puerto Rico in the days after Hurricane Maria swept through, dispatched volunteers to quake-stricken Morocco and distributed meals in Ukraine in the midst of the Russian invasion.

In Ukraine, a restaurant operated by World Central Kitchen in Kharkiv, near the country’s border with Russia, was hit by a missile less than two months into the war, wounding four staff members, according to the group’s chief executive at the time.

In a statement, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, vowed that Israel would be “punished by the hands of our brave men.”

President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran said the attack was an “inhumane assault in brazen violation of international law,” in comments reported by Tasnim, a semiofficial news agency. He added that it would not go unanswered, but gave no details of how Iran might respond.

Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, said in an earlier post on the social media site X that Iran had summoned the Swiss ambassador after midnight local time and asked that an important message be delivered to Washington: that as Israel’s ally, the “U.S. must answer” for Israel’s actions. Switzerland acts as the United States’ representative in the absence of diplomatic relations between Tehran and Washington.

The spokesman for the leadership of Iran’s Parliament, Seyyed Nezamoldin Mousavi, told Iranian state media that “an appropriate response is a national request by the people of Iran.”

In Washington, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, Adrienne Watson, said that “the United States had no involvement in the strike” and “did not know about it ahead of time.”

A U.S. official, who requested anonymity to discuss private communication, said that the statement had been communicated directly to Iran.

In several cities across Iran, including the capital, Tehran, as well as Tabriz and Isfahan, large crowds gathered waving Palestinian and Iranian flags and demanding revenge. “Death to Israel” and “Death to America,” chanted the crowds in Iran, fists in the air, warning that if Mr. Khamenei declared jihad against Israel, then “no army can hold us back.”

The strikes in Damascus on Monday coincided with two major holidays in Iran, a religious Shia holiday commemorating the killing of Imam Ali, the son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad and Shia Islam’s founder; and a national day of nature, celebrated by going outdoors on the 13th day of Norouz, the Iranian New Year.

Some opponents of the government gathered in parks in northern Tehran at night to carry on with the nature celebrations, which include picnics, dancing and singing, until security forces dispersed them, videos on social media and on BBC Persian showed.

The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday afternoon to discuss Israel’s attack. Russia, a close ally of Iran, requested the meeting.

Iran’s U.N. ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, said in a letter to the world body that the attack on diplomatic buildings was a violation of international law and the U.N. charter, and was a threat to the peace and stability of the region.

It remained unclear what steps Iran would take in response to Israel’s strikes: Whether it would target Israel directly in a military attack, risking a broader war with Israel and the United States, or if it would continue with its strategy of fighting through the militants it supports in the region.

Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia militia backed by Iran, said in a statement, according to Iran state media, that “without doubt, this crime will not go without punishment and revenge against the enemy.”

Eric Schmitt contributed reporting.

But the latest deaths have raised new alarms. World Central Kitchen paused its operations there on Tuesday, saying it had coordinated the movements of the convoy that was struck with the Israeli military. The military said it was investigating the episode.

As they assessed their future plans, aid groups urged the Israeli authorities to adhere to the international laws that protect humanitarian workers.

“Everybody feels endangered now,” said Michael Capponi, the founder of Global Empowerment Mission, a nonprofit aid group distributing tents, sleeping bags, medical equipment and food to Palestinians in Gaza.

Mr. Capponi said he was reconsidering his plans to travel to Gaza next week. Some staff members, who had been communicating daily with the World Central Kitchen workers who died, “basically want to pack up and go home now,” he said, though there were no firm plans for them to leave.

“There need to be guarantees to the international N.G.O. community that we are safe doing this work that we do, which is critical,” Mr. Capponi added. He said it was unacceptable that aid workers were killed even after going through the United Nations’ “deconfliction” process, which is supposed to protect humanitarian workers by informing the military about their activities.

Tess Ingram, a UNICEF spokeswoman temporarily based in Gaza, said the notification system that was meant to keep workers safe was not functioning, leaving them vulnerable.

“It underscores what life is like here in Gaza, not just for aid workers but for everybody,” she said. “There’s nowhere safe, even when you do everything right.”

She added that the strike had broader implications for humanitarian groups’ ability to provide food aid. World Central Kitchen was not only feeding Gazans directly, it was also supplying hospitals with meals as well, she said.

Ms. Ingram said she hoped that the strike would “push the world to recognize that what is happening here is not OK.”

Aseel Baidoun, a spokeswoman for Medical Aid for Palestinians, a British group, said her organization was concerned about the safety of its next medical mission to Gaza, slated for later this week. Several members of an aid team were injured in an Israeli strike in January, the group said.

“We thought that armored cars and deconfliction processes would actually protect doctors,” said Ms. Baidoun, who is based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. “But now we don’t know how to protect our missions and our colleagues.”

Save the Children, which distributes food, water, medical supplies and toiletries in Gaza, also urged the parties of the conflict to adhere to the international laws protecting humanitarian workers. The group said a local staff member was killed in an Israeli airstrike in December.

“The news of the attack is horrific — it’s a nightmare come true for us,” said Soraya Ali, a spokeswoman for the group. “We know unfortunately that Gaza right now is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a humanitarian worker.”

Instead, the strike is a vivid demonstration of the regional nature of the conflict as Israel tries to diminish and deter Iran’s allies and surrogates that threaten Israel’s security from every direction.

It is often called “the war between the wars,” with Israel and Iran as the main adversaries, sparring in the shadows of the more evident hostilities around the region.

The Iranian officials who were killed Monday had been deeply engaged for decades in arming and guiding proxy forces in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen as part of Iran’s clearly stated effort to destabilize and even destroy the Jewish state.

For Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who presumably approved such a sensitive attack, the successful elimination of such key Iranian military figures is a political coup. It comes at a time when demonstrations calling for his resignation have increased in intensity, as the war against Hamas drags on and Israeli hostages remain in Gaza.

Displaying its ability to infiltrate Iranian intelligence, Israel is trying to hit the operational part of Iran’s regional proxies, its so-called Axis of Resistance to Israel, aiming to disrupt and deter them, even as the war in Gaza continues.

Since the war began in October, Israel has begun to target key Iranian officials responsible for relations with its proxies, not just the advanced weapons Tehran delivers, said Ali Vaez, Iran project director for the International Crisis Group.

But no matter how many experienced generals Israel eliminates, “no one is irreplaceable in the Iranian system,” he said. “Iran knows this is a perilous game and there is a price tag attached.”

Some worry that price may be borne by Israeli allies. Ralph Goff, a former senior C.I.A. official who served in the Middle East, called Israel’s strike “incredibly reckless,” adding that “the Israelis are writing checks that U.S. CentCom forces will have to cash,” referring to the U.S. military’s Central Command.

“It will only result in escalation by Iran and its proxies, which is very dangerous” to U.S. forces in the region who could be targeted in retaliatory strikes by Tehran’s proxies, Mr. Goff said.

Mr. Netanyahu has emphasized for years that Israel’s main enemy is Iran and the strike could help him “rehabilitate his reputation as ‘Mr. Security,’” said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House. Even so, it may not be enough, she said, with Israel bogged down in Gaza, Hamas so far unbeaten and Iran and its proxies undiminished.

Iran has vowed retaliation and revenge for what it called an unprecedented attack, but, since Oct. 7, “Iran has been clear that it does not want a regional war,” Ms. Vakil said. “It sees this conflict with Israel playing out over a longer time frame.”

U.S. officials do not believe that Iran initiated the Hamas attack or was even informed about it in advance. Yet Iran still sees Gaza as “a victory for them, because it isolates Israel and puts it on the defensive in the region and the world,” said Suzanne Maloney, director of the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution.

The ongoing war and its civilian toll make it “almost inconceivable to create a vision of the Mideast that Israel and the U.S. and the Saudis were hoping to engineer before Oct. 7,” she said, one of regional recognition of Israel by Arab nations opposed to Iran’s growing influence.

Still, Ms. Vakil said, “this strike will be difficult for Iran to ignore,” since “it is a direct attack on its territory,” an embassy building, and killed three senior commanders of Iran’s Quds Force, the external military and intelligence service of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Iran said the Israeli strike killed an Iranian general, Mohammad Reza Zahedi, along with his deputy, a third general and at least four other people, reportedly including senior officials of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an Iranian affiliate that is also fighting in Gaza.

The killing of General Zahedi, who was said to be in charge of Iran’s military relationship with Syria and Lebanon, is widely considered the most important assassination of an Iranian leader in years.

Yaakov Amidror, a former Israeli national security adviser, called the death of General Zahedi “an enormous blow to Iran’s immediate capabilities in the region.” He had helped oversee Iran’s attempt to build a “ring of fire” around Israel via its militant proxies while keeping Tehran’s involvement at arm’s length, Mr. Amidror said.

But how and when Iran chooses to retaliate will further raise the stakes. The most obvious recent example is its response to the assassination four years ago by the United States of Qassim Suleimani, the commander of the Quds Force. Then, Iran launched a major missile attack against an American base in Iraq, but only after warning of the attack in advance. There were no immediate U.S. casualties, though more than 100 military personnel suffered traumatic brain injuries, the Pentagon later said.

An anxious Iran, on high military alert, also shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet, killing 176 people, believing it to be an enemy plane.

“But one of the lessons from Suleimani is that even if you take out someone critical, the network and the redundancy Iran has established with the groups survives quite well,” Ms. Maloney said.

Recently Iran has tried to de-escalate the tensions in its relationship with the United States after a January drone attack on a U.S. military base on the Jordanian-Syrian border killed three American soldiers.

But Iran may be more willing to risk a military escalation with Israel.

It could make other choices — a major cyberattack on Israeli infrastructure or its military, a barrage of rockets from southern Lebanon, a similar assassination of an Israeli commander, an attack on an Israeli embassy abroad, or another sharp acceleration of its nuclear-enrichment program.

The last would be a kind of direct riposte to Mr. Netanyahu, who has long warned about the danger of a nuclear-armed Iran and vowed to prevent it from happening. (Iran has always insisted that its nuclear program is purely peaceful, even as it has enriched uranium to close to weapons grade.)

Or Iran could bide its time. Mr. Amidror, the former Israeli national security adviser, said he doubted the strike would lead to a broader escalation between Israel and Iran, such as an all-out war involving Hezbollah along Israel’s northern border.

“Their interests haven’t changed in the aftermath. They’ll look for revenge, but that’s something else entirely,” he said, and it does not have to be limited to the immediate region.

One previous example he cited was the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires by Islamic Jihad, which killed 29 people and came in response to Israel’s assassination of the Hezbollah leader Abbas al-Musawi.

Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting from Jerusalem and Eric Schmitt from Washington.

In one episode, several Palestinians were killed or injured after an airstrike on the Al-Bashir Mosque in Deir al Balah overnight Monday into Tuesday, according to Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency. The Israeli military subsequently said there had been no airstrike in the area at the time.

An Israeli airstrike on Sunday afternoon hit a group of tents outside the Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, killing at least two people and injuring more than a dozen others, said Khalil al-Daqran, the hospital’s spokesman. The identities and affiliations of those killed in the strike were unclear.

The Israeli military said in a statement that the strike on Sunday had hit a command center belonging to Islamic Jihad, one of the militant Palestinian groups battling Israeli forces in Gaza. It said the precision strike in the hospital courtyard did not damage the hospital and was meant to target terrorists and minimize “harm to uninvolved civilians.” Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals for military purposes, and in November found a stone and concrete tunnel shaft below the grounds of Al-Shifa hospital. Hamas has denied using hospitals for such purposes.

But Palestinian media, including Wafa, said multiple journalists were injured in the blast on Sunday.

Majdi Fathi, 43, a freelance photographer, told The New York Times he was in a nearby tent when the strike injured several fellow journalists.

“It was a very violent explosion,” Mr. Fathi, who has worked for the BBC and NurPhoto, said in an interview. “It was so powerful that I was thrown to the ground.”

He said he suffered cuts on his body and his ears were ringing after the blast.

On Monday, Mr. Netanyahu said it was time for the Qatar-based network, one of the most widely viewed sources of television news in the Arab world, to stop broadcasting in Israel, although he did not specify when that would happen.

“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 activity,” Mr. Netanyahu posted on X, while recovering from hernia surgery.

Al Jazeera called Netanyahu’s comments “lies that incite against the safety of our journalists around the world.”

“The network stresses that this latest measure comes as part of a series of systematic Israeli attacks to silence Al Jazeera,” it said in a statement, adding that the new law would not “deter us from continuing our bold and professional coverage.”

Under the new law, if the prime minister deems a foreign media outlet to “concretely undermine” Israel’s national security, the government can temporarily close its offices, confiscate its equipment, remove it from Israeli cable and satellite television providers and block access to any of the channel’s online platforms hosted on servers in Israel or owned by Israeli entities.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedoms around the world, criticized the new law, saying that it “contributes to a climate of self-censorship and hostility toward the press.”

The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, when asked about the law during a news briefing in Washington, said that “a move like this is concerning.”

“We believe in the freedom of the press,” she said. “It is critical.”

The new law comes at a critical time in Israel’s relations with Qatar, which has been hosting cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. The Qatari government, which helps fund Al Jazeera, did not immediately comment.

Anushka Patil contributed reporting.