Countries that lost citizens in aid convoy attack reject Israel Defense Forces report

Alone among the countries that lost citizens in the Is‐ raeli drone strike on an aid convoy on April 1, Canada has yet to indicate whether it considers the matter closed following an Israeli investigation that declared it to be a "grave mistake."

Jacob Flickinger, a Canadi‐ an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, was killed along with all six other mem‐ bers of the World Central Kitchen relief team when their three vehicles were pur‐ sued along a Gaza seafront road and struck in succession by an Israeli drone or drones.

The day after the attack, Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly used her account on X (for‐ merly Twitter) to call for "a full investigation."

"(Canada) expects full ac‐ countability for these killings & we will convey this to the Israeli government directly," she wrote.

Two days later, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ap‐ peared to reject the explana‐ tion offered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Ne‐ tanyahu, who called the drone strike a "tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people in the Gaza Strip" and added that "this happens in wartime."

"No, it doesn't just happen," Trudeau said three days after the attack. "We need a fully open, trans‐ parent, independent and rapid investigation into what happened."

That investigation, he said, must lead to "full ac‐ countability."

The White House turns the screws

Israel also heard from U.S. President Joe Biden.

Although he was born, lived and served in Canada, Flickinger was also American through his father. World Central Kitchen is a Washing‐ ton-based charity founded and directed by Jose Andres, a personal friend of Biden who serves as co-chair of the president's Council on Food, Fitness and Nutrition.

The killings led to a phone call between Biden and Ne‐ tanyahu in which the presi‐ dent took a much tougher line than he has in the past and put continued U.S. arms supplies for Israel in doubt for the first time.

The unprecedented Amer‐ ican pressure for answers about the strike led to a swift Israel Defense Forces investi‐ gation under IDF reserve ma‐ jor-general Yoav Har-Even.

Har-Even is also CEO and president of Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, maker of the Spike missile identified by some military analysts as the weapon likely used to kill the aid workers.

Less than four days after the drone strike, Israel re‐ ported back.

Dismissed colonel signed letter objecting to food aid

The report described "a grave mistake stemming from a serious failure due to a mistaken identification, er‐ rors in decision-making, and an attack contrary to the Standard Operating Proce‐ dures."

A reserve colonel and a major were dismissed from their posts, and three more senior officers were repri‐ manded.

The most senior officer dismissed is Col. (Res) Nochi Mandel, chief of staff for the Nahal Infantry Brigade. The U.K.'s Daily Telegraph re‐ ported Wednesday that Man‐ del is a West Bank settler who had signed an open let‐ ter calling on Israel to block aid supplies to Gaza.

Israel's Channel 11 News reported Monday that prose‐ cutors with the Military Advo‐ cate General's Corps had not yet decided whether there would be a criminal investi‐ gation. If there is one, it will be conducted by IDF military police.

Four of the five Western governments that lost citi‐ zens in the strike - Australia, Poland, the U.S, and the U.K. - have indicated since then that they're not satisfied with Israel's response.

Only Canada has not yet offered any public signal about where it stands since the IDF's investigation was released on April 5.

Australia: 'There hasn't been an adequate explana‐ tion'

"We don't find the expla‐ nations to be satisfactory to this point," Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday, after his government received an Is‐ raeli briefing on the incident that killed 43-year-old Aus‐ tralian aid team leader "Zo‐ mi" Frankcom.

"One car was hit, then an‐ other car was hit, then a third car was hit," he said. "We need proper accountability, we need full transparency about these circumstances.

"We believe at this point that there hasn't been an ad‐ equate explanation for how this has occurred."

Albanese appointed Air Chief Marshal (ret) Mark Bin‐ skin, former top commander of Australia's armed forces, as a special adviser to ask questions of the Israeli inves‐ tigation.

"The special adviser will provide advice to the Aus‐ tralian government regarding any further representations or actions that could be taken to ensure a full and transparent investigation and to hold those responsible to account," said Australian For‐ eign Minister Penny Wong.

But it's far from clear that Israel will give Binskin the an‐ swers he seeks.

The Jerusalem Post this week cited "multiple IDF and Defence Ministry sources" in a report stating that "Israel has doubled down in reject‐ ing a substantive foreign probe."

Polish officials call murder

Poland, which lost citizen Damian Soból in the strike, has also been pushing for those answers.

Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk and President Andrzej Duda - political rivals who agree on few issues found common ground in de‐ manding that Israel go fur‐ ther.

The district prosecutor's office in Soból's hometown of Przemyśl said that it had "ini‐ tiated an investigation into the homicide of Polish citizen Damian Soból on the night of 1-2 April 2024 in Gaza as a re‐ sult of an attack by the Israeli Armed Forces using explo‐ sives."

Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Szejna told reporters on April 5 that Poland wants its prosecutors to participate "in the entire criminal and disciplinary pro‐ cedure against the soldiers responsible for this murder." it

A second deputy foreign minister, Wladyslaw Bar‐ toszewski, reiterated that message on Friday, saying Is‐ rael's report and the dis‐ missals and reprimands that followed were "inadequate." Polish prosecutors "have classified it as a murder," he said, and Poland expects Is‐ rael's "full cooperation" in a murder investigation.

Speaker of Poland's par‐ liament Szymon Hołownia, an important figure in Tusk's government, went even fur‐ ther.

"If someone shoots civil‐ ians in war, it is a war crime, very precisely described in in‐ ternational law," he said. "Poland should demand not only compensation for the family of the Pole who died in the attack, but also prose‐ cution of this war crime."

U.S., U.K. add voices to chorus

British Foreign Minister David Cameron described the Is‐ raeli report and dismissals "as a first step" but said Britain expects more.

"These findings must be published in full and followed up with a wholly indepen‐ dent review to ensure the ut‐ most transparency and ac‐ countability," he said.

The U.S. government, by contrast, said little after the Israeli report was released on April 5 - until Thursday, when it spoke through a UN Secu‐ rity Council statement that called for "a full, transparent and comprehensive investi‐ gation into the incident, that is fully publicized."

The Security Council also released an estimate of the number of aid workers killed in the Israel-Hamas war that's even higher than previ‐ ous reports.

"These horrific attacks brought the number of hu‐ manitarian personnel killed in Gaza during the ongoing conflict to at least 224, more than three times as many hu‐ manitarian aid workers killed in any single conflict recorded in a single year," the UN body said.

Canada remains quiet

Global Affairs Canada has not responded to multiple re‐ quests from CBC News for clarity on whether Canada is still pursuing further investi‐ gations, or if it's prepared to let the matter rest.

The government also has not said whether it wishes to involve its own investigators in any probe, or have direct access to the IDF soldiers in‐ volved - something that's al‐ ready emerging as a potenti‐ al point of contention be‐ tween Israel, Australia and Poland.

"I'm disappointed," said NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson. "I think [Joly] should be a lot more active on this, particularly considering that these are humanitarians, that it's a conflict in which more hu‐ manitarians have lost their lives, and this is a Canadian. This should be seizing her in‐ terest.

"When the foreign affairs minister doesn't comment, the message that she's send‐ ing is that she's either not paying attention or she's not interested in ensuring that this is investigated thorough‐ ly."

McPherson said her defin‐ ition of an "independent" in‐ vestigation is one that does‐ n't depend on the IDF. "I have no faith in the IDF's ability to investigate itself," she said.

"To make it truly indepen‐ dent, and provide a result that gives confidence to peo‐ ple around the world, I don't think the Israeli government should be involved in that in‐ vestigation.

"At this moment in time, when trust is so broken and relationships are so dam‐ aged, when there has been so much misinformation spread by both sides in this conflict, I think it's impossible to say that an investigation done with the IDF or even the Israeli government would be seen as credible by many ac‐ tors around the world. It's just not possible right now and I don't know if it ever was."