Warsaw wants 'explanations' from Israel after Polish aid worker killed

Food aid organisation World Central Kitchen which feeds communities affected by conflict said seven members of its team were killed while working in Gaza.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said Tuesday he had asked the Israeli ambassador in Warsaw for "urgent explanations" after a strike killed a Pole and six other aid workers in Gaza.

Palestinians look at a vehicle where employees from the World Central Kitchen (WCK), including foreigners, were killed in an Israeli airstrike. (Reuters)

Food aid organisation World Central Kitchen which feeds communities affected by conflict, including in the hunger-stricken Gaza Strip, said seven members of its team were killed while working in Gaza.

"I personally asked the Israeli ambassador Yacov Livne for urgent explanations," Sikorsi said on social media, adding that he had offered "condolences to the family of our brave volunteer".

Sikorski said Poland would open its own inquiry into the aid worker's death.

The US-based charity said its team was travelling in a "de-conflicted" area in a convoy of "two armoured cars branded with the WCK logo and a soft skin vehicle" at the time of the strike.

"Poland does not agree to the lack of compliance with international humanitarian law and of the protection of civilians, including humanitarian workers," the Polish foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

It did not provide the name of the Polish citizen who died.

World Central Kitchen announced Tuesday it was pausing operations after the strike that it said killed volunteers "from Australia, Poland, United Kingdom, a dual citizen of the US and Canada, and Palestine".