The Israeli military announced on Friday, April 5, 2024, that it has dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others for their roles in drone strikes in Gaza that killed seven World Central Kitchen workers.
The military said that the soldiers had mishandled critical information and violated the army’s rules of engagement.
A statement by the army noted, “The investigation’s findings indicate that the incident should not have occurred. Those who approved the strike were convinced that they were targeting armed Hamas operatives and not WCK employees.”
“The strike on the aid vehicles is a grave mistake stemming from a serious failure due to a mistaken identification, errors in decision-making, and an attack contrary to the Standard Operating Procedures,” it added.
“It’s a tragedy,” the military’s spokesman Daniel Hagari, told reporters.
He added, “It’s a serious event that we are responsible for and it shouldn’t have happened and we will make sure that it won’t happen again.”
The World Central Kitchen (WCK) remarked that the Israeli army’s investigation is an “important step forward” but called for an independent commission to probe the killings of its staff.
In a statement, the charity said that the Israeli army “cannot credibly investigate its own failure in Gaza.”
“It is also clear from their preliminary investigation that the IDF has deployed deadly force without regard to its own protocols, chain of command and rules of engagement.
“The IDF has acknowledged that our teams followed all proper communications procedures. The IDF’s own video fails to show any cause to fire on our personnel convoy, which carried no weapons and posed no threat.”
World Central Kitchen
It added, “Without systemic change, there will be more military failures, more apologies and more grieving families.”
WCK CEO, Erin Gore noted, “Their apologies for the outrageous killing of our colleagues represent cold comfort for the victims’ families and WCK’s global family.”
He added, “Israel needs to take concrete steps to assure the safety of humanitarian aid workers. Our operations remain suspended.”
WCK Founder, Jose Andres also said, “It’s not enough to simply try to avoid further humanitarian deaths, which have now approached close to 200.”
“All civilians need to be protected, and all innocent people in Gaza need to be fed and safe. And all hostages must be released,” Andres stressed.
UN Rights Body Adopts Resolution On Israel
Also on Friday, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution calling for Israel to be held accountable for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Gaza Strip.
Twenty-eight countries voted in favour and 13 abstained, while six voted against the resolution.
The resolution also demanded a halt to all arms sales to Israel, highlighting warnings of “genocide” in its war on Gaza.
The vote marked the first time the UN’s top rights body has taken a position on the nearly six-month war.
Following the vote, Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, accused the council of having “long abandoned the Israeli people and long defended Hamas.”
The U.S voted against the resolution because it did not contain a specific condemnation of Hamas for the October 7 attacks, nor “any reference to the terrorist nature of those actions.”
It did, however, say that its ally Israel had not done enough to mitigate harm to civilians.
Michele Taylor, U.S permanent representative to the council, stated, “The United States has repeatedly urged Israel to de-conflict military operations against Hamas with humanitarian operations, in order to avoid civilian casualties and to ensure humanitarian actors can carry out their essential mission in safety.”
“That has not happened, and in just six months, more humanitarians have been killed in this conflict than in any war of the modern era,” she added.
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