The seven World Central Kitchen aid workers killed by Israeli airstrikes represented the “best of humanity”, Jose Andres, the celebrity chef who founded the organisation, told mourners who gathered on Thursday to honour the dead.
They risked everything “to feed people they did not know and will never meet”, he said.
Speaking at the memorial service at Washington National Cathedral, Mr Andres said there was no excuse for the killings and he called for an investigation.
He appeared to struggle at times to maintain his composure, his words focused on the lives and contributions of the aid workers as he pleaded for greater compassion.
“The seven souls we mourn today were there so that hungry people could eat,” said Mr Andres, reading aloud their names. “Their examples should inspire us to do better, to be better.”
The workers were killed on April 1 when munitions fired from Israeli armed drones ripped through vehicles in their convoy as they left one of World Central Kitchen’s warehouses.
They were Palestinian Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha; Britons John Chapman, James Kirby and James Henderson; dual US-Canadian citizen Jacob Flickinger; Australian Lalzawmi Frankcom and Polish citizen Damiam Sobol.
Hanging on the altar behind Mr Andres were flags of the humanitarian workers’ home countries, alongside the red, green, black and white Palestinian flag.
More than 500 mourners sat in pews below the cathedral’s soaring stained glass windows.
Mr Andres spoke in depth about each one and their contributions to the work of feeding people suffering through disaster and deprivation, human-made and natural, around the world.
He said Mr Chapman was “brave, selfless and strong” and had the ability to make people around him feel “loved and protected”.
He said Mr Flickinger was a problem-solver, “exactly what you need” in the chaos of a disaster zone, and Ms Frankcom gave “joy to others even more than she gave food”.
He said Mr Henderson had taught first aid in Ukraine and was an avid rugby player. He said Mr Kirby, known to friends as Kirbs, was driven to help people in need. And he said a town in Turkey had named a street after Mr Sobol, in honour of his work there after an earthquake.
He noted that Mr Abutaha’s family was unable to attend the memorial, and he read from a message sent by his brother that called the aid workers “heroes” and urged World Central Kitchen to continue its work in Gaza and across the globe, “carrying on the spirit of the fallen, and the resilience of the Palestinian people”.
Mr Andres spoke emotionally about the organisation’s mission and why aid workers do what they do.
“We stand next to communities as they feed themselves, nourish themselves, heal themselves. People don’t want our pity. They want our respect. Our only way to show respect is facing the mayhem alongside them,” he said. “We remind them by showing up that they are not alone in the darkness.”
After an unusually swift Israeli investigation, Israel said the military officials involved in the attack had violated policy by acting based on a single grainy photo that one officer had contended, incorrectly, showed one of the seven workers was armed. The Israeli military dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others.
“I know we all have many unanswered questions about what happened and why. There is no excuse for these killings,” Mr Andres told mourners, demanding an investigation. “The official explanation is not good enough.”
The aid workers, whose trip had been co-ordinated with Israeli officials, are among more than 220 humanitarian workers killed in the Israel-Hamas war that began on October 7th, according to the United Nations. That includes at least 30 killed in the line of duty.
The international prominence and popularity of Mr Andres and his non-profit work galvanised widespread outrage over the killings of the group’s workers.
The deaths intensified demands from the administration and others that Israel’s military change how it operates in Hamas-controlled Gaza to spare aid workers and Palestinian civilians in the territory who are facing a humanitarian crisis and desperately need aid from relief organizations as the UN warns of looming famine.
World Central Kitchen, along with several other humanitarian aid agencies, temporarily suspended work in the territory after the attack.
“We haven’t given up,” World Central Kitchen spokeswoman Linda Roth said last week. “We are in funeral mode right now.”
Douglas Emhoff, husband of US vice president Kamala Harris, and Kurt Campbell, the US deputy secretary of state, were among those at the event, joined by diplomats from more than 30 countries, along with representatives from the state department and the US Agency for International Development.
US president Joe Biden sent a letter that was read privately to the families before the service, the White House said.
