The Israeli military has killed three workers with the World Central Kitchen (WCK) and at least two other people in an air strike on a vehicle in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, in what was the third deadly attack on the aid group this year.

The US-based charity, which runs community kitchens in Gaza, said it had paused its operations in Gaza after the attack on Saturday.

“We are heartbroken to share that a vehicle carrying World Central Kitchen colleagues was hit by an Israeli air strike in Gaza,” WCK said in a statement.

“At this time, we are working with incomplete information and are urgently seeking more details.”

The Israeli military claimed that it was targeting a “terrorist” who had participated in the October 7 attacks on Israel and was employed by the WCK.

“The terrorist had been under intelligence surveillance for a long time and was targeted based on reliable intelligence information about his location in real time,” Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a post on X.

However, the WCK said it had “no knowledge that any individual in the vehicle had alleged ties to the October 7 Hamas attack”.

Earlier on Saturday, Palestinian Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told the AFP news agency that the bodies of “at least five dead were transported [to hospital], including the three employees of World Central Kitchen” following the attack.

“All three men worked for WCK and they were hit while driving in a WCK four-wheel drive vehicle in Khan Younis,” Basal said, adding that the vehicle had been “marked with its logo clearly visible”.

The Israeli army did not mention the other victims of the attack, or its effect on getting food to the starving population of Gaza who rely on the Washington-based charity’s services.

Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said the attack would have grave implications for the provision of aid in Gaza.

“So, it’s beyond attacking Palestinians, Palestinian workers, aid organisations. It’s attacking all sources of aid, and all sources of community kitchens, and those who have been working tirelessly to prevent starvation in Gaza,” she said.

A man holds a cap next to a vehicle in which WCK employees were killed [Stringer/Reuters]

The Israeli military has repeatedly targeted aid workers since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023.

A series of Israeli air attacks hit a convoy of the WCK in April, killing seven of its aid workers. Another staff member was killed in an Israeli attack in July.

The Israeli military claimed that those attacks were “mistakes” and that it dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others for their role.

But an investigation by Al Jazeera’s Sanad verification agency using open-source information, witness testimonies and images from the site found the attacks were intentional.

Israel has also killed a record number of United Nations personnel in its war on Gaza.

Antoine Renard, the World Food Programme (WFP) Palestine representative, told Al Jazeera that aid organisations face extreme difficulties in delivering basic goods in Gaza.

“One of the biggest challenges the World Food Programme is facing is, over the last three months, we’ve been without capacity to provide assistance to 1.1 million people,” said Renard on Saturday.

“We’ve been facing clear shortages of the assistance we’re supposed to provide … In November, we’ve only been able to reach 815,000 people. The vast majority of these have received only one-third of the rations they’re supposed to receive.”

Dozens killed across Gaza

Overall, at least 32 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the enclave overnight and into Saturday, Gaza medics said.

That included at least three killed in an Israeli bombardment of a group of Palestinians in northern Gaza’s Jabalia city, and another killed in a drone attack near the Halimah al-Saadiyah School in the same area.

At least 44,382 people have been killed in more than 13 months of war on Gaza, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry, which said on Saturday that at least 105,142 more have been wounded and thousands remain missing.

Meanwhile, Hamas, whose fighters continue to report battles with Israeli soldiers in Gaza, in a statement condemned the use of internationally prohibited weapons by Israel which have been documented by doctors and others to make the bodies of victims “evaporate” after impact.

The group also released a video purportedly showing one of dozens of Israeli captives who continue to be held in the enclave saying “time is running out” and pleading for US President-elect Donald Trump to secure his release from captivity.

Last week, the group had reported one captive was killed and another was seriously wounded in the north as a result of Israeli attacks.