The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others for their role in a series of drone strikes on April 1 that resulted in the deaths of seven humanitarian aid workers in the embattled Gaza Strip.
The IDF announced the punitive actions in a press statement Friday after the Israeli military concluded an internal investigation of its deadly strike. The investigation, led by IDF Maj. Gen. (res.) Yoav Har-Even concluded IDF members had reason to believe there were gunmen on the World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid convoy that was struck, but that the decision to conduct the strikes didn’t follow Israeli military standards.
“Those who approved the strike were convinced that they were targeting armed Hamas operatives and not WCK employees. The strike on the aid vehicles is a grave mistake stemming from a serious failure due to mistaken identification, errors in decision-making, and an attack contrary to the Standard Operating Procedures,” the IDF said.
The IDF statement did not name the officers it punished in connection with the April 1 strike. The Israeli military said one of the dismissed officers was a major serving as the fire support commander of an unidentified brigade, and another dismissed officer was a colonel serving as a brigade chief of staff.
The Israeli military said the commander of the brigade was reprimanded, as was the commander of its parent unit, the 162nd Division. The IDF’s chief of staff also decided to reprimand the commander of Israel’s Southern Command, according to the IDF statement.
“The IDF takes seriously the grave incident that claimed the lives of seven innocent humanitarian aid workers. We express our deep sorrow for the loss and send our condolences to the families and the WCK organization,” the IDF said. “We consider the vital humanitarian activity of international aid organizations to be of utmost importance, and we will continue to work to coordinate and assist their activities while ensuring their safety and safeguarding their lives.”
Officers ‘Mistakenly Assumed’ Gunmen Were on Aid Convoy: IDF
The IDF said its investigation determined the forces responsible for the April 1 strike had “identified a gunman” on one of the WCK aid trucks that was targeted, and later “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 terrorists,” the IDF said. “The forces did not identify the vehicles in question as being associated with WCK. 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.”
WCK is a non-profit organization, founded by Spanish American celebrity chef José Andrés, that provides food relief to areas of conflict and natural disaster around the world. The organization has been operating in the Gaza Strip following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel, and Israel’s subsequent military campaign to find and eliminate Hamas elements in the Gaza territory.
“The IDF has acknowledged its responsibility and its fatal errors in the deadly attack on our convoy in Gaza. It is also taking disciplinary action against those in command and committed to other reforms. These are important steps forward,” the organization said in response to the IDF’s announcement on Friday. “However it is also clear from their preliminary investigation that the IDF has deployed deadly force without regard to its own protocols, chain of command and rules of engagement.”
WCK has said it had coordinated with the Israeli military regarding its movements before the April 1 strikes. The organization said its vehicles were marked, and the IDF knew the convoy’s itinerary, route, and intended humanitarian mission.
“The IDF has acknowledged that our teams followed all proper communications procedures. The IDF’s own video fails to show any cause to fire on our personnel convoy, which carried no weapons and posed no threat.”
WCK also called for the creation of an independent commission to investigate the strikes, stating, “The IDF cannot credibly investigate its own failure in Gaza.”
NTD News reached out for additional comments from WCK, including about conflicting claims of armed individuals on their aid convoy, but did not receive a response by publication time.
Among the WCK workers killed in the April 1 strikes were three British nationals, an Australian national, a Polish national, a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip, and a dual Canadian-American citizen named Jacob Flickinger.