An Australian humanitarian worker has been killed in an airstrike in Gaza.
Melbourne-born Lalzawmi “Zomi” Frankcom, along with three other international aid workers and a Palestinian driver, was killed in Central Gaza while working with the World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity.
Video footage posted to social media showed the bodies of the five dead at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah.
Staff showed the passports of three of the dead – British, Australian and Polish. The nationality of the fourth aid worker was not immediately known. All of the workers killed were wearing protective gear with the charity’s logo on it.
The group were travelling through Nothern Gaza, into Central Gaza when their vehicle was targeted in an airstrike, Mahmoud Thabet, a Palestinian Red Crescent paramedic, told the Associated Press.
Thabet was part of a team who took the bodies to the hospital.
The WCK aid workers had been distributing aid supplies to civilians in the north that day and were returning to Rafah when the airstrike hit them.
Three aid ships had arrived from Cyprus on Monday, carrying 400 tons of food and supplies.
The charity had organised the aid drop in conjunction with the United Arab Emirates, while the IDF was involved in coordinating the shipment’s delivery.
It is unclear why the vehicle was targeted, and the source of the strike has not been confirmed.
She successfully completed a course at Harvard University focusing on Humanitarian Response to Conflict and Disaster in 2021.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said they were working urgently to confirm the news.
“The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is urgently seeking to confirm reports that an Australian aid worker has died in Gaza,” the spokesperson said.
“These reports are very distressing.
“We have been clear on the need for civilian lives to be protected in this conflict.
“We have been very clear that we expect humanitarian workers in Gaza to have safe and unimpeded access to do their lifesaving work.”
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