World Central Kitchen says Palestinian staff member killed in Gaza

(Reuters) -The World Central Kitchen (WCK), a U.S.-based, non-governmental organisation, said on Thursday that a Palestinian staff member had been killed in Gaza.

The WCK identified the person as Nadi Sallout and said it believed he was killed while off duty on Wednesday near Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza. The WCK said it was still seeking further details.

The Israeli military said it did not know of any such incident, adding it had been in contact with WCK.

"Thus far the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) is unaware of any incident in which an employee of the organization was harmed during his work in recent days," it said.

In a post on X, WCK described Sallout as "an integral member of our warehouse team from the early days of our response in Rafah and a humanitarian at his very core".

On April 1, three Israeli air strikes hit a convoy of aid vehicles travelling through Gaza, killing seven WCK staff, including citizens of the United States, Australia, Britain and Poland. The incident drew international outrage.

Israel said at the time that it had not deliberately targeted the aid workers and expressed sorrow for their killing.

(Reporting by Hatem Maher; Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Editing by Kim Coghill and Gareth Jones)