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Israeli army says it dismissed 2 officers over aid convoy strike
The Israeli military says it has dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others for their roles in drone strikes in Gaza that killed seven aid workers on a food-delivery mission, saying they had mishandled critical information and violated the army’s rules of engagement.
The findings of a retired general’s investigation into the Monday killings marked an embarrassing admission by Israel, which faces growing accusations from key allies, including the United States, of not doing enough to protect Gaza’s civilians from its war with Hamas.
“It’s a tragedy,” the military’s spokesman Daniel Hagari, told reporters. “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 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,” read a statement by the army.
“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.
Contrary to Standard Operating Procedures? Yet it happens again and again and again.
- A support commander, an officer with the rank of major, will be dismissed from his position
- The brigade chief of staff, an officer with the rank of colonel in reserve, will also be dismissed
- The brigade commander and the 162nd Division commander will be formally reprimanded
- The Israeli army’s chief of staff decided to formally reprimand the commander of the Southern Command for his overall responsibility for the incident
Dismissed, I'm sure the families of the victims will be satisfied with that...
WCK calls for independent inquiry into staff killings
The World Central Kitchen (WCK) has said the Israeli army’s investigation is an “important step forward” but called for an independent commission to probe the killings of its staff.
The Israeli army “cannot credibly investigate its own failure in Gaza”, the charity said in a statement.
“It is also clear from their preliminary investigation that the [Israeli army] has deployed deadly force without regard to its own protocols, chain of command and rules of engagement,” it added, referring to the Israeli army.
WCK also called for the establishment of an independent investigation into Monday’s deadly accident.
“The [Israeli army] has acknowledged that our teams followed all proper communications procedures. The I[Israeli army’s] own video fails to show any cause to fire on our personnel convoy, which carried no weapons and posed no threat,” it said.
“Without systemic change, there will be more military failures, more apologies and more grieving families.”
Israeli apologies for outrageous killing of colleagues a cold comfort: WCK head
We also have the first comments from WCK CEO Erin Gore and founder Jose Andres.
Gore:
- “Their apologies for the outrageous killing of our colleagues represent cold comfort.”
- “It’s cold comfort for the victims’ families and WCK’s global family.”
- “Israel needs to take concrete steps to assure the safety of humanitarian aid workers. Our operations remain suspended.”
Andres:
- “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.”
Report on aid convoy killings doesn’t say if legal action will be taken
This response, I think, is Israel hoping it is drawing a line under the incident. What we’re not seeing in the report is whether there are going to be any legal prosecutions against the [dismissed military officials.]
That might come in the future, but it’s certainly not contained in the report. What we’re getting is dismissals and military reprimands. But that’s not necessarily justice for the family and friends of the people who died.
Poland calls for Israeli soldiers to face criminal inquiry for Gaza aid convoy attack
Poland is demanding criminal action be brought against the Israeli soldiers responsible for what it called the “murder” of seven aid workers, including a Polish national, in Gaza.
“We want [Polish] prosecutors to be added and implicated in the explanations and in the entire criminal and disciplinary procedure for the soldiers responsible for this … murder,” Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Szejna said.
First time Israel admits unlawful killing
It is worth mentioning that, prior to this, there have not been any admissions of unlawful killings by the Israelis, especially when it comes to the deaths of Palestinians in the besieged Palestinian territories.
But in this instance, specifically, the Israeli army said that their investigation found that procedures were not met, and protocols were not followed.
This comes after there was an investigation in one Israeli newspaper that cited military officials who said that, essentially, military commanders and officers on the ground act however they see fit and often disregard any sort of protocol when it comes to strikes like this.
But the reality is that all of these movements for the aid workers who have been killed were all with the Israeli army. They knew about their whereabouts, there was a lot of coordination, they were in areas that were supposed to be deemed safe according to the Israeli army.
