The parents of Jacob Flickinger, one of the seven humanitarian workers from the NGO World Central Kitchen killed Monday in Gaza in an Israeli strike, spoke to the media on Thursday about the journey of their son, who left for Gaza to “help people” .
“He hesitated to go, because he had just become a father, (…) but he felt the need,” John Flickinger, his father, told CBS.
Jacob Flickinger, a 33-year-old Canadian-American was killed along with several of his colleagues in an Israeli strike on Monday in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, sparking a wave of international criticism.
“He was quite confident that he could carry out his mission safely,” his father said in another BBC interview.
“They followed all the rules and procedures”
“They stayed outside the fighting, in areas controlled by the Israeli army. They followed all the rules and procedures, which are very strict, that Israel transmitted to them,” he added.
“The facts, as they are known and presented so far, seem to indicate that this was a deliberate targeting of a food aid convoy,” he said on CNN, demanding “ an independent investigation.
The Israeli military admitted a “serious mistake,” with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling the strike “unintentional” and “tragic.”
“We need answers,” Jacob Flickinger’s partner, Sandy Leclerc, proclaimed Thursday on ABC, referring to a “very vague” situation.
“I am devastated by the news,” she said, adding that she did not know how to explain his death to their 18-month-old son.
“He loved this job”
John Flickinger told the BBC that he himself had lost his father in a war, declaring, his voice choked with emotion: “I grew up without a father. And now it’s my grandson who will grow up without his father.”
Jacob Flickinger had been working for the American NGO since the beginning of March as a volunteer in Gaza, where he distributed food to Palestinians.
“He loved this job which allowed him to combine his talents: his military training, his taste for adventure and his desire to serve and help others,” his father told the BBC.
The dual national had already worked for the NGO before, during a mission in Mexico after Hurricane Otis.
Before that, “he had spent eleven years in the Canadian army,” his mother told CBS.
Since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, more than 200 humanitarian workers have died in Gaza, according to NGOs.