The nearest presen, the 33-year-old twin U.S.-Canadian citizen used to be lifeless, one of seven World Central Kitchen workers killed by means of Israeli airstrikes on the aid group’s convoy.
“He was a good man,” his father stated. “He was doing what he loved and just wanted to serve and help others.”
Jacob Flickinger used to be born and spent maximum of his adolescence in Saint-Georges, a mini town in Quebec, the son of a Canadian mom and an American father.
Flickinger spent just about a decade within the Canadian Armed Forces and did a excursion of responsibility in Afghanistan, the place he served in Kandahar, his father stated.
Upcoming retirement the army in 2019, he met his spouse, Sandy Leclerc, they usually had a toddler boy. The couple moved to Costa Rica, the place Flickinger started construction a trade as a health professor.
To aid his public, he began on the lookout for alternative alternatives. His first stint with International Central Kitchen used to be terminating November, when he spent a generation in Mexico within the aftermath of a significant typhoon.
When a chum informed him concerning the WCK mobilization in Gaza, he volunteered to aid distribute meals shipments arriving by means of sea. The paintings mixed the abilities he discovered within the army and his need to aid, his father stated.
“Women and children are starving to death, it’s all over the news every day,” stated John Flickinger, 67. “He felt he could make a small difference.”
Jacob’s dying seems to mark the primary date an American has been killed in Gaza by means of the Israel Protection Forces for the reason that battle started on Oct. 7, next the Hamas assault on Israel. Just about 33,000 society had been killed in Gaza, in keeping with the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between warring parties and civilians. It says the vast majority of the lifeless are ladies and youngsters.
A minimum of 21 U.S. voters serving within the IDF have also been killed in Gaza.
John described his son as a faithful good friend, any individual who whilst a boy used to be susceptible to give protection to the susceptible and arise as much as aggressors. To aid Jacob’s spouse and 18-month-old son, John and a chum of Jacob’s introduced a fundraiser.
“I want his story to be told,” John stated thru tears. In battle, “the people that suffer are the mothers, the fathers, the sons, the daughters, the survivors of what is insanity.”
Amanda Coletta in Toronto contributed to this record.
