Chicago chef calls 7 World Central Kitchen workers killed in Gaza "heroes"
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Chicago chef honored the dedication and sacrifice of seven World Central Kitchen workers Tuesday, after they were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's armed forces "unintentionally" struck a convoy from the humanitarian group late Monday.
World Central Kitchen gets approval to go into areas whenever there is conflict, famine, and unrest. The workers had coordinated their movements with the Israeli Defense Forces. They were still hit and killed by Israeli fire in what Netanyahu called "a tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people."
The video of the blast clearly shows the logo of World Central Kitchen on caravan vehicles.
One worker, Zomi Francom of Australia, was making and delivering food for the same group as Chicago chef Tony Priolo, of Piccolo Sogno at 464 N. Halsted St. did back when the war in Ukraine began.
He and a group of Chicago chefs traveled to the Poland-Ukraine border working day and night to feed the starving.
"We knew that there's always a risk. We didn't feel threatened at all at any time," Priolo said. "On the border of Ukraine in a town called Przemyśl to go work - and some of these people, I believe, that passed away, were with us down there."
News of the workers' deaths kept Priolo up tossing and turning all night.
"In my opinion, they're heroes," Priolo said. "They went down on their own money, their own time. They organized everything on their own."
Priolo was asked what he made of the Israeli argument that the strike was accidental and the convoy was not targeted.
"I can't comment politically on any of that. I just know that they had signs in their trucks, and, 'World Central Kitchen, NGO's," he said. "It was a travesty."
Priolo said the World Central Kitchen convoy that was struck was a highway earmarked for safe passage.
He added that he would "absolutely" go to volunteer himself in Gaza "in a second" if his family would let him.
"You wake up in the morning and you just work your butt off," he said, "because you know your end goal is working to feed people - and as chefs, that's what we do. We cook and we feed people."
The founder of World Central Kitchen - celebrity chef José Andrés, who has restaurants in Chicago - called those who were killed his "sisters and brothers" and "angels."