Australians furious over Zomi Frankcom's death, Anthony Albanese tells Netanyahu

Following the deaths of six coworkers and an Australian aid worker, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese conveyed his "anger and concern" to his Israeli counterpart.

Anthony Albanese tells Benjamin Netanyahu Australians are 'outraged' by Zomi Frankcom's death and want a 'thorough' probe.

Zomi Frankcom, a 44-year-old Melbourne native, perished in the ongoing conflict in Gaza along with her coworkers when an Israeli military strike destroyed the charity car she was riding in.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed an IDF air strike killed Australian aid worker Lalzawmi "Zomi" Frankcom and six others in Gaza.After the Israeli strike, Ms. Frankcom's charity, World Central Kitchen (WCK), halted providing life-saving assistance to Palestinians who were in danger of starvation.

Penny Wong, the foreign minister, said she had "expressed the outrage of the nation" to her Israeli counterpart.

“The deaths of Zomi Frankcom and her colleagues are outrageous and unacceptable. They only make more urgent our call for the Netanyahu Government to comply with the demands of the international community.” Wond said.

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Earlier, World Central Kitchen is devastated to confirm seven members of our team have been killed in an IDF strike in Gaza.

The WCK team was traveling in a deconflicted zone in two armored cars branded with the WCK logo and a soft skin vehicle.

Despite coordinating movements with the IDF, the convoy was hit as it was leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse, where the team had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route.

“This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable,” said World Central Kitchen CEO Erin Gore.

The seven killed are from Australia, Poland, United Kingdom, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada, and Palestine.

“I am heartbroken and appalled that we—World Central Kitchen and the world—lost beautiful lives today because of a targeted attack by the IDF. The love they had for feeding people, the determination they embodied to show that humanity rises above all, and the impact they made in countless lives will forever be remembered and cherished,” said Erin.

The IDF says it is “carrying out an in-depth examination at the highest levels to understand the circumstances of this tragic incident.”

World Central Kitchen is pausing our operations immediately in the region. We will be making decisions about the future of our work soon.

The killing of seven aid workers from the NGO World Central Kitchen in Israeli military airstrikes in central Gaza has been strongly condemned by senior UN humanitarian officials who on Tuesday reiterated repeated concerns that "there is no safe space left in Gaza.

"This is not an isolated incident," said Jamie McGoldrick, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). "As of 20 March, at least 196 humanitarians had been killed in the OPT since October 2023. This is nearly three times the death toll recorded in any single conflict in a year."

Mr. McGoldrick repeated appeals to "all parties to the conflict, including the Government of Israel", to respect international humanitarian law, which prohibits the targeting of humanitarian personnel. 

"The role of aid workers is to alleviate the suffering of people in crisis. Their safety, along with that of the civilians they serve, must be guaranteed," he said.

The senior UN official's comments came after World Central Kitchen reported that an Israeli airstrike was responsible for the deaths of its aid workers in Deir Al-Balah. Following those reports and images of the non-governmental organisation (NGO) vehicle showing a large hole in its roof, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths expressed his outrage at the attack and described the victims are “heroes, killed while trying to feed starving people”.

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