(Tel Aviv) The Israeli army announced Friday that it had fired two officers and reprimanded three others for their role in drone strikes in Gaza that claimed the lives of seven aid workers delivering food.
The findings of a retired general’s investigation into Monday’s killings constitute an embarrassing admission by Israel, which has seen several of its main allies, including the United States, accuse it of failing to do so. do enough to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip during its war against Hamas.
The results of the investigation are likely to reignite skepticism about the Israeli military’s decision-making. Palestinians, humanitarian groups and human rights organizations have repeatedly accused Israeli forces of recklessly shooting civilians throughout the conflict – an accusation Israel denies.
“It’s a tragedy,” Israeli army spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari admitted to the media.
“This is a serious event for which we are responsible. This should not have happened and we will ensure that it does not happen again,” he assured.
Rear Admiral Hagari and other officials shared with reporters Thursday evening the results of the military investigation, which was unusually rapid and detailed.
Under Israeli military rules, its spokespeople said, targets must be visually identified as threats for multiple reasons before they can be hit.
However, the investigation determined that a colonel authorized the series of deadly drone strikes on the convoy following observations reported by a major – from grainy drone camera footage – that someone in the convoy was armed.
That observation turned out to be false, military officials admitted.
The army confirmed that the colonel and major involved had been fired, while three other officers had been reprimanded. The results of his investigation have been forwarded to the army attorney general, who will decide whether the officers or anyone else involved in the killings should be further punished or prosecuted.
The killings were condemned by Israel’s closest allies and sparked fresh criticism of its conduct in its nearly six-month-old war with Hamas.
Seven World Central Kitchen aid workers were killed in the airstrike, including Jacob Flickinger, who had dual Canadian and American citizenship and was a veteran of the Royal 22e Quebec Regiment.
Insufficient information
The investigation revealed two main areas of wrongdoing.
She blamed officers for failing to read messages alerting troops that cars, not aid trucks, would be transporting aid workers away from the warehouse where aid was being distributed. As a result, the targeted cars were misidentified as carrying activists.
The military also blamed the major who identified the target and the colonel who approved the strike for acting with insufficient information.
According to the army, the order to shoot was given after one of the passengers inside a car was identified as a shooter. The troops became suspicious because an armed man had been seen on the roof of one of the delivery trucks en route to the warehouse.
After the aid was dropped off at a warehouse, an officer thought he spotted an armed man in one of the cars. It turned out that the passenger was not carrying a weapon – he might have been carrying a bag instead.
The army refused to answer questions about whether similar violations of military rules had taken place earlier in the war – during which Palestinians, aid workers and international human rights groups have repeatedly accused the army of recklessly hitting civilians.
The investigation was led by Yoav Har-Even, a retired general.
The seven people killed were distributing food that had entered Gaza via a recently established sea corridor. World Central Kitchen said it coordinated its movements with the military and ensured vehicles had the organization’s logo on the roof.
More than 220 aid workers have been killed in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, according to the United Nations.