Chef José Andrés speaks out after 7 World Central Kitchen staffers killed by Israeli air strike

WASHINGTON -- World Central Kitchen founder Chef José Andrés spoke out after seven of the humanitarian organization's staffers were killed by an Israeli air strike.

The renowned chef and restaurateur said that his group was in communication with Israeli armed forces and said humanitarian workers and civilians should never pay the consequences of war, adding that it's a basic principle of humanity.

"This it seems is a war against humanity itself. And you can never win that war. Because humanity eventually will always prevail," Andrés said in an interview with Reuters.

Andrés said the World Central Kitchen charity group had clear communication with the Israeli military, which he said knew his aid workers' movements.

"This was not just a bad luck situation where 'oops' we dropped the bomb in the wrong place," Andrés said.

He rejected Israeli and U.S. assertions that the strike was not deliberate.

"Initially, I would say categorically no," Andrés said when asked if he accepted that explanation. "Even if we were not in coordination with the Israel Defense Forces, no democratic country and no military can be targeting civilians and humanitarians," Andrés said.

MORE: Who were the World Central Kitchen workers killed in Israel's strike in Gaza?

"The U.S. must do more to tell Prime Minister Netanyahu this war needs to end now," he said, adding that he spoke to President Biden on Tuesday.

In a statement, Biden said he was "outraged and heartbroken by the deaths of seven humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen, including one American, in Gaza yesterday. They were providing food to hungry civilians in the middle of a war. They were brave and selfless. Their deaths are a tragedy."

"Israel has pledged to conduct a thorough investigation into why the aid workers' vehicles were hit by airstrikes. That investigation must be swift, it must bring accountability, and its findings must be made public," the president's statement said.

Netanyahu said in a statement Tuesday that "Israel deeply regrets the tragic incident" and the IDF will conduct a "swift and transparent investigation" with the findings made public.

Andrés called for a "neutral" investigation of the incident.

"Even if we were not in coordination with the [IDF], no democratic country and no military can be targeting civilians and humanitarians," he told Reuters.

The deaths of the World Central Kitchen workers threatened to set back efforts by the U.S. and other countries to open a maritime corridor for aid from Cyprus to help ease the desperate conditions in northern Gaza. The loss also prompted multiple charities to suspend food deliveries to Palestinians on the brink of starvation.

This comes as the president is expected to speak to Netanyahu on Thursday.

The hit on the charity's convoy also highlighted what critics have called Israel's indiscriminate bombing and lack of regard for civilian casualties in Gaza.

Netanyahu's foreign policy adviser, Ophir Falk, pushed back against claims that the attack on the WCK-branded vehicles was intentional.

"That's absurd," Falk told ABC News on Wednesday. "The last thing we would want in the world is to endanger civilian lives."

Falk said the seven workers died due to "friendly fire in the middle of the night" and called the deaths a "tragic event."

"This war is a complex war," he said. "The incident happened in the middle of the night. It should not have happened. And we'll do everything possible that it doesn't happen again."

He said "we understand the outcry" from the international community over the deaths and noted that "a number of IDF soldiers" and three Israeli hostages died due to friendly fire during the war.

New images of the heavily damaged convoy show the workers traveling in clearly marked World Central Kitchen vehicles.

Israel's military chief Herzi Halevi said in a video statement late Tuesday that the airstrike was a "grave mistake" and was "not carried out with the intention of harming WCK aid workers."

The victims were of multiple nationalities, with the youngest being 25-year-old Palestinian Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha.

Three were from the U.K.: John Chapman, 57; James "Jim" Henderson, 33; and James Kirby, 47.

The victims also included Damian Sobol, 35, of Poland; Jacob Flickinger, 33, a dual U.S. and Canadian citizen; and Lalzawmi "Zomi" Frankcom, 43, of Australia.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Tuesday there is no evidence IDF deliberately targeted the workers while strongly condemning the attack.

"We were outraged to learn of an IDF strike that killed a number of civilian humanitarian workers yesterday from the World Central Kitchen, which has been relentless and working to get food to those who are hungry in Gaza, and quite frankly, around the world," Kirby said.

WCK, a nongovernmental organization, has been operating in Gaza for months and has said it's served more than 33 million meals since the start of the conflict. The group said it plans to pause its operations in the region following the attack.

The group said Wednesday that it has not yet determined when it will resume operations in Gaza.

According to a report in March by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), famine is "imminent" in northern Gaza, as the entire population of the strip experiences high levels of food insecurity amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

ABC News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.