Paris candle-lit vigil commemorates Australian aid worker killed in Israeli attack

​​LONDON

A candle-lit vigil for one of seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers killed earlier this week in an Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip was held Saturday in Paris.

Dozens of Parisians paid respects to Zomi Franckom, 43, from Australia who had been in Gaza for 175 days -- providing support to the WCK to distribute 42 million meals under relentless Israeli bombings.

Jasmin Kozowy-Mouflard, founder of Instant Aid, a charity that partners with WCK, said what the Israeli military did was wrong and it “should be held accountable” for the deaths of the aid workers.

She told Anadolu that she met Franckom when she was in Paris and said, “Aid workers should be protected no matter what” because “this is about humanity.”

“When you attack an aid worker that's just trying to do good in the world, you are sending a message that you don't believe in that, and that, for me, is crossing a boundary,” she said.

“We stand united in solidarity with World Central Kitchen and so today is commemorating the loss of seven incredible heroes that were just trying to provide good in the world. I'm incredibly saddened by the loss,” she added.

Franckom’s death, as well as that of her colleagues, triggered an international wave of grief and outrage, with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, calling the attack on the convoy that was clearly marked as belonging to the World Central Kitchen, "completely unacceptable."

Israel targeted the convoy in Deir al-Balah in the middle of Gaza, whose occupants held Australian, Polish, British, American, Canadian and Palestinian nationalities.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack in early October by the Palestinian group, Hamas, killed less than 1,200 people.

More than 33,000 Palestinians have since been killed and 75,577 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which last week asked it to do more to prevent famine in Gaza.

The Israeli army admitted Friday that an attack on the convoy “should not have occurred.”

It acknowledged an investigation into the attack showed that “those who approved the strike were convinced that they were targeting armed Hamas operatives and not WCK employees.”

“The event occurred on April 1, 2024, during an operation to transfer humanitarian aid from the WCK to the Gaza Strip,” it said in a statement.

Frankcom’s family lent support to an inquiry into whether Israeli soldiers involved in her death should face war crimes charges.