Israel army admits mistake in attack on WCK
The army said the attack which killed seven aid workers ‘should not have occurred’
Gaza City, Palestine - The Israeli army admitted on Friday that an attack on the World Central Kitchen in the Gaza Strip that killed seven aid workers ‘should not have occurred’.
The army acknowledged an investigation of the attack that ‘those who approved the strike were convinced that they were targeting armed Hamas operatives and not WCK employees’.
“The event occurred on April 1, 2024, during an operation to transfer humanitarian aid from the WCK to the Gaza Strip,” it said in a statement.
It added that ‘the investigation found that the forces identified a gunman on one of the aid trucks, following which they identified an additional gunman’.
“After the vehicles left the warehouse where the aid had been unloaded, one of the commanders mistakenly assumed that the gunmen were located inside the accompanying vehicles and that these were Hamas fighters,” it said.
The army claimed investigation results showed its forces ‘did not identify the vehicles in question as being associated with World Central Kitchen’.
Three vehicles belonging to the World Central Kitchen were clearly marked with logos and signs on their roofs indicating their identity, according to witnesses and images circulated after they were targeted by Israeli aircraft late on Monday.
“Following a misidentification by the forces, the forces targeted the three WCK vehicles based on the misclassification of the event and misidentification of the vehicles as having Hamas operatives inside them, with the resulting strike leading to the deaths of seven innocent humanitarian aid workers,” according to the Israeli army.
The army admitted that ‘the strikes on the three vehicles were carried out in serious violation of the commands and Israeli army Standard Operating Procedures’. It claimed that ‘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 noted that ‘after being presented with, and considering the investigation’s findings, the Israeli army Chief of the General Staff decided that the following command measures will be taken: the brigade fire 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 be dismissed from his position’.
“Additionally, the brigade commander and the 162nd Division commander will be formally reprimanded. The IDF Chief of Staff decided to formally reprimand the commander of the Southern Command for his overall responsibility for the incident,” it said.
Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-gvir opposed holding the officers responsible for the killings accountable and called for their support.
The leader of the far-right Jewish Party described the decision as ‘abandoning soldiers in the midst of war, and a serious mistake indicating weakness’.
“Even if there were mistakes in identifying the identity, in war, soldiers should be supported, not brought before a court-martial,” he added on X. The army targeted the convoy in the city of Deir al-balah in the middle of the Gaza Strip, resulting in the deaths of seven foreign employees holding Australian, Polish, British, American, Canadian, and Palestinian nationalities.
Army ‘retrieves’ body of hostage
Meanwhile, the Israeli army on Saturday said that it retrieved the body of a hostage during an operation in the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
In a statement, the Israeli army said that ‘the body of the late hostage Elad Katzir, who according to intelligence information was killed in captivity … was retrieved from Khan Younis’.
Katzir was taken hostage alongside his mother, who was later released on November 24, 2023 as part of a hostage deal between Hamas and Israel, the statement said.
Hamas captured at least 239 hostages. Some of the hostages were exchanged with Israel during a temporary humanitarian pause that lasted seven days in early December.