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07-04-2024
JERUSALEM/ GAZA CITY: An aid organization has called for an independent investigation into the killing of seven of its workers by Israeli drone strikes in Gaza.
It comes after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said “grave mistakes” led to the fatal targeting of staff from charity World Central Kitchen (WCK).
An Israeli military inquiry led to two senior officers being dismissed.
However, the CEO of the aid group said the Israeli military “cannot credibly investigate its own failure in Gaza”.
In a statement, Erin Gore continued: “[The IDF’s] apologies for the outrageous killing of our colleagues represent cold comfort. It’s cold comfort for the victims’ families and WCK’s global family.”
He said Israel must take “concrete steps” to ensure the safety of aid workers operating on the ground in Gaza, where several organizations have suspended operations in light of the deaths.
In the space of four minutes on 1 April, the seven aid workers were killed when three missiles destroyed their cars one by one as they engaged in humanitarian work.
The charity’s team had been authorized by the Israeli military to help transfer aid supplies from the coast to a warehouse, but a series of mistakes and miscommunications on the part of the IDF resulted in them being mistaken for Hamas operatives and targeted.
The IDF said a “number of armed gunmen” were in the vicinity of the convoy, but drone operators wrongly tracked cars carrying aid workers.
The army apologized after admitting its soldiers did not follow protocols and were not given crucial information about the pre-approved aid mission.
As well as the dismissal of a colonel and a major, three IDF commanders have been formally reprimanded and the drone unit responsible has been suspended.
Israel is under pressure from key Western partners to publish the full findings of its investigation, which have not been made public.
UK Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron said British officials were “carefully reviewing the initial findings” and called the dismissal of two officers a “first step”.
In a post on X, he said: “These findings must be published in full and followed up with a wholly independent review to ensure utmost transparency and accountability.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had received the Israeli report and was “reviewing it very carefully”. He said the US will be “looking to see not just what steps are being taken, but the results that follow from them”.
Additional material from the investigation including video footage purporting to show a Hamas gunman on top of an aid lorry was shown to journalists in a private briefing ahead of the IDF’s public apology, but only a summary of the findings has been made publicly available.
The Israeli investigation was carried out via a pre-existing disciplinary procedure which deals with allegations of military misconduct, and was overseen by a reservist major general.
IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari described the report as being carried out by a “professional, independent body that is outside of the chain of command”. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
