The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced Friday that it had concluded its probe into the deaths of seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen, noting the reasons for the mistake and holding several officers accountable.
The IDF had fired on the convoy in the sincere but mistaken belief that it contained Hamas gunmen, after one gunman had been identified atop one of the vehicles earlier in the night, but before the convoy had entered a local warehouse. The WCK logo, painted atop the vehicles, was not visible at night to the infrared cameras used by drones.
Still, the IDF fired two officers and reprimanded several others for what it said were violations of regulations.
In a statement, the IDF said (translated from Hebrew by the author, with assistance from Google Translate):
Yesterday (Thursday), the investigation of the difficult incident in which seven workers of the humanitarian organization WCK were killed in the Gaza Strip as a result of the fire of our forces was completed. The investigation was carried out by the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s investigation mechanism led by Major General Yoav Har-Even, and was presented to the Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi.
The event took place on April 1, 2024, during an operation to transfer humanitarian aid of the WCK organization to the Gaza Strip. The investigation shows that the IDF forces identified one gunman on one of the aid trucks, and later believed that there was another gunman.
After the vehicles left the warehouse where the aid was unloaded, one of the commanders mistakenly believed that the armed men were in the escort vehicles and that they were Hamas terrorists. The forces did not identify the vehicles in question as being associated with the WCK organization.
Following a misidentification, the forces attacked the three WCK vehicles, based on the misunderstanding that there were Hamas operatives in them, thus resulting in the death of seven innocent humanitarian aid operatives. The attack on the three vehicles was carried out in serious violation of the relevant orders and instructions.
The conclusions of the investigation show that the incident could have been prevented, and at the same time, those who approved the attack were convinced that they were attacking armed Hamas operatives and not WCK operatives. The damage to the aid vehicles is a serious mistake, which resulted from a serious failure, as a result of wrong identification, a mistake in decision-making and an attack contrary to the orders and instructions to open fire.
After the findings of the investigation were presented, and following the dire consequences of the incident, the Chief of Staff decided to take the following command steps: against the brigade support commander, an officer with the rank of major, removal procedures will be taken. Removal procedures will be taken against the brigade commander, an officer with the rank of colonel in the reserves.
In addition, processes of command reprimand will be taken against the brigade commander and the commander of division 162. Also, the Chief of Staff decided to reprimand the commander of the Southern Command for his overall responsibility for the incident.
The IDF takes seriously the serious incident that claimed the lives of seven innocent, uninvolved humanitarian aid personnel. We express our deep sorrow for the loss, and share in the grief of the families and the WCK organization. We attach the utmost importance to the vital humanitarian activities of the international aid organizations, and we will continue to work to coordinate and assist their activities, while ensuring their safety and safeguarding their lives. The laws of war and the avoidance of harm to innocents. The IDF will learn the lessons of the incident, and will assimilate the necessary lessons for future events.
The reprimand to the head of the IDF’s Southern Command, General Yaron Finkelman, is a serious measure and a possible blow to military morale. Finkelman has been an inspirational figure to Israeli soldiers and the public since the start of the war, when he broadcast an uplifting message to soldiers who were about to head into battle in Gaza.
The IDF will also require humanitarian aid vehicles to use special stickers that are visible to infrared cameras, the Times of Israel reports.
Global reaction to the WCK event continues to be strident. The WCK is demanding another, “indpendent” investigation, and the United Nations is hinting at war crimes prosecutions. Germany claims — contrary to all evidence — that Israel is restricting aid into Gaza and must stop doing so. And Poland’s deputy foreign minister actually that the WCK event has “no precedent in the history of the civilized world,” ignoring Poland’s recent history.
No U.S. officials were held accountable for an American drone strike in Afghanistan in 2021 that killed ten innocent people, including an aid worker and seven of his children. The Pentagon dodged questions about that on Thursday.
In a separate probe, the IDF also found that it had inadvertently killed an Israeli hostage on October 7 when it fired upon a vehicle of terrorists returning to the Gaza Strip from Israel. The Israeli hostage was one of the passengers.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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