The WCK tragedy
The unintentional killing of seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen (WCK) organization in Gaza on Monday was a horrible tragedy. It is one of the innumerable tragedies of the war in Gaza, a war callously triggered by Hamas’s invasion of Israel on October 7, its murder of 1,200 people, and its kidnapping of 240 hostages.
The tragedies of this war include the death of dozens of Gazans as they swarmed toward an aid convoy in February, the IDF’s accidental killing of three hostages seeking to escape in December, the friendly fire or military accidents which have led to some 15% of all IDF fatalities in Gaza, and the unintentional killing of Palestinian civilians used by Hamas as human shields – caught in the crossfire of a devastating urban war.
Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi was correct to quickly apologize for the WCK deaths, labeling the firing at the aid convoy a grave mistake caused by misidentification and pledging a swift and transparent investigation into what went wrong, and establishing a new Humanitarian Command Center under the IDF’s Southern Command to better coordinate between the work of the various aid organizations inside Gaza and with the IDF.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, too, was correct in saying that the unintentional harming of non-combatants “happens in war,” though – considering the attention this incident has generated around the world – he could have opted for more empathetic terminology.
Yes, these incidents do happen in the less-than-sterile conditions of battle. They have happened to every country that has ever engaged in warfare.
For instance, the US, during its war in Afghanistan in July 2008, accidentally struck a wedding party, believing those in the party to be insurgents. Forty-seven civilians, including the bride, were killed. In November of that year, another strike at a wedding in Afghanistan killed 37.
And these were not isolated incidents. As recently as 2021, a US drone shot and killed 10 civilians in Kabul – an aid worker and seven children– mistakenly believing they were terrorists.
As of May 2023, according to Brown University’s Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs, an estimated 432,903 civilians were killed in America’s post9/11 wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, and Pakistan.
It is with those numbers in mind that US President Joe Biden’s chastising of Israel on Tuesday over the WCK killings, rings somewhat disingenuous.
“Even more tragically, this is not a stand-alone incident. This conflict has been one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed,” Biden said, adding, “Israel has also not done enough to protect civilians.”
As if the US or any other country has in the past – or can in the future – do a better job avoiding civilian casualties under similar conditions.
There are two main problems with Biden’s statement. The first, as pointed out in a social media post by Jason Greenblatt, a former adviser to then-president Donald Trump on the Middle East, is that “saying that Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers and other civilians is simply untrue and reckless. It gives fuel to those who spread lies about Israel.”
The second is that the president does not once, in his 314-word statement, acknowledge Hamas’ responsibility for the entire situation. It is Hamas who attacked Israel; it is Hamas who is prolonging this war by not releasing the hostages and surrendering; Hamas terrorists are the ones who have both hidden behind and disguised themselves in the past as journalists, ambulance drivers, and humanitarian workers, thereby placing those genuinely acting in those capacities at risk.
All civilian casualties in Gaza, even those mistakenly caused by Israel, need to be laid at Hamas’ doorstep. Had Hamas not attacked on October 7, or had it released the hostages shortly thereafter and surrendered, none of this would be happening.
Israel will investigate and learn the lessons of this tragedy because this is what it does and because it’s right. It does not need to be prodded to do so. What Israel does need, however, is for the international community to rein in its hypocrisy and stop treating battle zones as crime scenes, something it only inexplicably seemingly does when the Jewish state is involved.