The mortality rate of Gazans, journalists, medical staff and aid workers have been egregiously high since Israel’s military started its latest operation after the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.
The regularity of killings, largely by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), negates the claim that this is not a policy that should forego the rigours of international humanitarian law.
The killing by IDF drones of seven staff, working for World Central Kitchen, on April 1, 2024, is an illustration.
Members of the charity — three Britons, a dual US-Canadian national, a Pole, an Australian and a Palestinian — had unloaded humanitarian food supplies from Cyprus intended for residents in Gaza.
Their convoy, with the WCK logo prominently displayed on the vehicles, was travelling in a designated “deconflicted” zone, when it was attacked by three missiles fired from a Hermes 450 drone.
The charity had been coordinating its movements with the IDF.
On August 19, the IDF announced that “no reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct that would justify opening a criminal investigation or the taking of additional measures against any of those involved in the incident”. The case was closed.
The IDF spokesperson lauded the role of the spurious General Staff Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism (FFAM) with its conducting of “factual assessments of exceptional operational incidents, while using a range of tools and methodologies”.
Some 150 incidents had been reviewed by the FFAM since October 2023 and those behind the WCK deaths were seen as not requiring further legal scrutiny.
The IDF libelled the WCK workers, saying it had “identified a gunman on a truck in the humanitarian aid convoy while it was on route to a warehouse for the unloading of the aid”.
The IDF troops also “identified vehicles surrounding the trucks in a manner that, in their assessment, and based on accumulated operational experience, corresponded to a scenario in which the Hamas terrorist organization had taken control of the convoy”.
It said while there had been “serious failures in the process that led to the assessment that Hamas operatives were travelling in the vehicles”, the commanders’ decisions raised no “reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct”; there were sufficient, extenuating “suspicious indicators”.
Their conclusion is that misidentifying humanitarians, misapplying alleged experiences gathered in battle and committing calculated murder is par for the course. Blatant errors – if they can be called that – are pardonable.
The military prosecutors’ refusal to start criminal proceedings provoked a note of anger from Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
She said Australia was “outraged” at the decision not to pursue matters, noting the fate of Zomi Frankcom. The decision had been made despite the IDF’s admission that its “strikes on Zomi and her colleagues’ vehicles were the result of serious failures to follow IDF procedures, mistaken identification and errors in decision making”.
The timing of the IDF’s announcement — on World Humanitarian Day — suggested either concerted callousness or black humour.
A joint statement on August 21 by the foreign ministries of Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom denounced the decision not to consider the case further as “shameful”. Gone were the guarded qualifications expressed in 2024: “The World Central Kitchen attack is one of countless incidents in Gaza where there has been no accountability”.
Last year, despite the ceasefire in Gaza, 186 humanitarian workers were killed.
The Polish foreign ministry expressed their dismay, given the loss of their national, Damian Soból. “Partnership requires respect,” said foreign minister Radosław Sikorski. “The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, as well as the failure of accountability for IDF’s excessive use of force are undermining public support in even pro-Israel nations.”
WCK said it fundamentally disagreed with the decision, saying it was “inconsistent with the truth and deeply offensive”.
It said the IDF had known that its workers were “unarmed and posing a threat to nobody. It had full visual clarity on our clearly marked humanitarian vehicles during the extended, multiple airstrikes. It knew our team’s movements, identities and activities in advance.”
WCK added that the IDF’s military investigation had conflated “different timelines and events” while muddying the narrative. “We continue to demand an independent commission to investigate the airstrikes because the IDF cannot credibly investigate its own conduct.”
The Israeli Military Police has decided, instead, to focus on two other cases: The killing of 6-year-old Hind Rajab, along with six of her family members and two medics in Gaza City in January 2024; and the slaying of 15 rescue workers, as part of a convoy of emergency vehicles and ambulances in Rafah in March last year.
[Binoy Kampmark currently lectures at RMIT University.]