VIDEO: Friends remember Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom, who was killed in Gaza
REBEKA DOETSCH: Zomi was an absolute ray of sunshine, full of warmth, full of kindness, very generous, very funny, vibrant.
ADAM HARVEY, REPORTER: As globe-trotting Aussie expats working in the aid world, Rebeka Doetsch and Zomi Frankcom forged a quick bond.
REBEKA DOETSCH: She was very ambitious and motivated and often inspired me to do things differently as well and she was just a ball of fun to be around.
ADAM HARVEY: Their friendship migrated with their jobs from New York to Bangkok - Zomi’s base for missions to global trouble spots.
REBEKA DOETSCH: Her mother was from northern India, from a small community there and I think growing up seeing the differences between how she was being raised in Australia, and how her family, her extended family was living in India sort of inspired her to want to help people.
She would help anyone, anywhere.
ADAM HARVEY: Her work with food charity World Central Kitchen took her from Asia to north Africa.
ZOMI FRANKCOM: We are here in Cairo, Egypt.
ADAM HARVEY: And finally, the Middle East.
ZOMI FRANKCOM: We have just completed a successful drop of more meals into the north of Gaza.
REBEKA DOETSCH: She shared with us that she was in Gaza at the end of last week and she shared the sort of process in getting oriented there. So she sent us messages of the PPE collection and a picture of her in front of a welcome to Palestine sign.
ADAM HARVEY: Rebeka Doetsch says Zomi understood the dangers. Just days ago texting about an explosion she’d heard probably artillery fire from a tank about 800 metres away.
REBEKA DOETSCH: And she had also shared with other friends she had this sick feeling in her stomach with the noise going on around her.
But again, it was kind of secondary to the mission of what they were trying to achieve there.
ZOMI FRANKCOM: This is the beautiful fragrant aromatic rice that will be served today from Deir al-Balah kitchen. Thank you.
ADAM HARVEY: And then, the worst possible news.
OMAR ALDIRAWI (translated): They are the WCK employees, they have just brought the aid from the sea. They are all dead!
ADAM HARVEY: Zomi and six others were killed: two foreign aid workers, three members of their security team and a local driver, 25-year-old Saif Issam Abu Taha.
FAMILY MEMBER: Saif! Oh God, Saif.
ADAM HARVEY: Saif’s family yesterday gathered in Gaza to mourn.
DR ZIAD ABU TAHA, COUSIN (translated): He wanted to volunteer, to provide relief to the Palestinian people, and didn't want to stay at home.
ADAM HARVEY: This is what the family has been told about Saif's final mission.
ZIAD ABU TAHA: He was supposed to go in a convoy of four cars … to Gaza Harbor to unload cargo.
When the convoy came back … the last car was hit by a missile from a drone, then another missile hit the car in the middle, and the final missile struck the car my cousin Saif was in.
ADAM HARVEY: Israel has apologised and launched an investigation.
HERZI HALEVI, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES CHIEF: It was a mistake that followed a misidentification at night during the war in a very complex conditions.
It shouldn't have happened.
ADAM HARVEY: The attack has sparked an international outcry.
JOHN KIRBY, US NATIONAL SECURITY COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER: We were outraged to learn of an IDF strike that killed a number of civilian humanitarian workers yesterday from the World Central Kitchen.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: This is completely unacceptable. Prime Minister Netanyahu has committed to full transparency about how this tragedy could possibly have occurred.
ANTONIO GUTIERREZ, UN SECRETARY GENERAL: This is unconscionable, but it is an inevitable result of the way the war is being conducted. It demonstrates yet again the urgent need for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
ADAM HARVEY: A day after the attack, the wreckage of the convoy remained on the street in northern Gaza showing marked vehicles hit directly, including a strike that pierced the World Central Kitchen logo on the roof of one car.
The charity says the convoys movements had been coordinated with the IDF.
Aid agencies operating in Gaza say Israel has hit humanitarian convoys and workers even when their movements and coordinates were shared with the military.
JULIETTE TOUMA, UN RELIEF AND WORKS AGENCY: On three different occasions, on our way in or out of the north of the Gaza Strip, UNRWA convoys have indeed been hit, including on the 5th of February by the Israeli Navy and on the two other incidents, the convoys were shot at on the way back after we delivered humanitarian assistance in the north.
ADAM HARVEY: The Palestinian Red Crescent Society, which operates emergency services in Gaza, says its ambulances have also been struck.
NEBAL FARSAKH, PALESTINE RED CRESCENT SOCIETY: We have experienced our teams being targeted, despite coordination has been made by the Israelis, through UN agencies or even the Red Cross. That's happened in many occasions since the beginning of the war on Gaza.
ADAM HARVEY: The Red Crescent say 15 of its workers have been killed while on duty in Gaza since October 7.
The UN agency there says, so far, 176 of its staff have died.
JULIETTE TOUMA: It is an indicator that no one is safe in Gaza. No place is safe. It's happening way too often. The Israeli forces have crossed all lines, the red lines included.
NEBAL FARSAKH: What happened is unacceptable. The international humanitarian law is clear. Humanitarians, aid workers and health care workers should be protected and respected.
REPORTER: What does Israel say to claims that Israel targets ambulances and humanitarian aid convoys?
DAVID MENCER, ISRAELI GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN: So it is frankly obscene to say that Israel does anything of the kind. We have worked very, very hard to get more aid into Gaza.
As I mentioned before, 70 food trucks before this war, more than 200 today, an average of about 150 every single day. So the idea that, that we are targeting aid convoys is nothing short of nonsense.
ADAM HARVEY: The tens of thousands of casualties in this six-month conflict do not diminish the loss of aid workers like Zomi Frankcom.
NEBAL FARSAKH: Those workers, humanitarians and aid workers who come from across the world just to save people's life, they are true heroes. They are humanity heroes.
ZIAD ABU TAHA (translated): I heard about her a lot from my cousin. The whole family loved her, I swear to God.
She was a lady who left her home and country and came to Palestine to provide relief and support to the Palestinian people. She came here to help people.
ADAM HARVEY: Rebeka Doetsch can’t quite believe her friend is gone.
REBEKA DOETSCH: We were just messaging on Friday that she was due back in Bangkok this Sunday for her visa renewal.
ADAM HARVEY: She’s been consoling herself with reminders of the good times - of a life well-lived.
REBEKA DOETSCH: She was cut out for a life overseas and a life helping people and she lives for the adventure.
Tributes and praise have flowed for Australian Zomi Frankcom, the Australian aid worker killed by an Israeli military air strike in Gaza, along with seven others. The Israeli military says the strike was a 'grave mistake' and a 'misidentification'.
Just days before the attack, Zomi had tried to ease friends' concerns about her working in the war zone. Adam Harvey reports.