'He wanted to provide,' wife of Canadian aid worker killed in Gaza says

Fallout from IDF airstrike that killed aid workers Evan Solomon discusses the political fallout following the deadly airstrike that killed aid workers in Gaza.

The wife of a U.S.-Canadian aid worker who was killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza this week says her husband was a man who strived for peace.

Jacob Flickinger, a 33-year-old Canadian Armed Forces veteran who grew up in Quebec's Beauce region, was one of seven people killed after a strike on a World Central Kitchen convoy on April 1.

"We feel devastated that we have lost this man that is so loving and so well intentioned in everything he was doing," Flickinger's wife, Sandy Leclerc, said in an interview with CTV National News on Friday. "It is a hard loss for all the family."

According to his loved ones, Flickinger had been in Gaza volunteering for the World Central Kitchen since early March, attempting to provide food relief to a region that is facing potential famine with resources quickly dwindling.

The Israeli government reports that it has sent in 270,000 tons of food into Gaza since the war started, but officials with the UN have warned that famine is imminent within the war-ravaged enclave.

Leclerc says that helping people was her husband's "essence."

"He wanted to provide, help, support with his background in the Canadian Army Force and throughout all of his deployment," she said. "I feel like it was just a part of him."

Leclerc mentioned that Flickinger "was always helping his friends, connecting with new people," saying her husband was a man of service, one whose death carries a deeper message within the chaos of war.

"We need to bring more peace into the picture," she said. "And this is a need that needs to be addressed very quickly because people are losing their lives trying to help. And people are hungry. They're in the street having practically no family left."

On Friday, a retired Israeli general investigated the attack on the aid workers and published findings which blamed the Israel Defense Forces' strike on a breach of policy and a misinterpretation of grainy drone-camera footage, which falsely led soldiers to believe that someone in the convoy was armed.

Flickinger was the father of an 18-month-old boy, Jasper. Leclerc says she will teach her son about his dad.

"I will show him how his dad lived as a hero," she said.