GAZA: At least five employees of the World Central Kitchen (WCK) non-governmental organisation, including foreigners, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza, the Gaza government media office said, Reuters reports.

Those killed in the incident in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah included citizens of Poland, Australia and Britain, as well as one Palestinian, a spokesperson for the media office said.

“We are aware of reports that members of the World Central Kitchen team have been killed in an IDF attack while working to support our humanitarian food delivery efforts in Gaza,” WCK posted on X. “This is a tragedy. Humanitarian aid workers and civilians should NEVER be a target. EVER.”

In a statement, the Islamist group Hamas said the attack aimed to “terrorise” workers of international humanitarian agencies and deter them from pursuing their missions.

Commenting on the reports, the Israeli military said it was conducting a thorough review at the highest levels to understand the circumstances of what it called a tragic incident.

“The IDF makes extensive efforts to enable the safe delivery of humanitarian aid, and has been working closely with WCK in their vital efforts to provide food and humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza,” the military statement said.

Food aid organisation World Central Kitchen said an Israeli strike killed seven of its workers in the Gaza Strip, AFP reports.

“World Central Kitchen is devastated to confirm seven members of our team have been killed in an IDF strike in Gaza,” the US-based charity said in a statement, adding that those killed were “from Australia, Poland, United Kingdom, a dual citizen of the US and Canada and Palestine. “

Professor Ben Saul, UN special rapporteur on protecting human rights while countering terrorism, said Israel’s reported killing of the World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza could be a violation of international humanitarian law and a war crime.

“It’s a human tragedy. But, of course, it could well be a violation of international humanitarian law, under which Israel has a duty not to deliberately target humanitarian relief workers or their convoys or their relief consignments,” Saul told Al Jazeera.

“[Israel] also has a wider duty to ensure the safety of humanitarian workers in a conflict zone; to ensure their freedom of movement and to coordinate with them so that these kinds of tragedies never happen,” he said.

“Under international humanitarian law, if there is a deliberate targeting of any civilian, including humanitarian relief workers, that’s a war crime. If there is a targeting of a military objective, which causes excessive civilian casualties in the area, that would be a war crime. Or if it is an indiscriminate attack,” he added.

“Obviously, given the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the free passage of humanitarian relief is absolutely essential and just last week the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to open more land crossings, precisely because over a million Palestinians in Gaza are currently facing catastrophic levels of hunger, according to the United Nations.”