Gaza airstrike kills 7 US food charity workers, Israel fires 2 police officers

Following an investigation into the incident, the Israeli military fired two officers and formally reprimanded senior commanders. Gaza airstrike kills seven aid workers The military said it discovered serious errors and breaches of procedure this week.

An investigation found that Israeli forces mistakenly believed they were attacking Hamas gunmen and failed to follow standard procedure when drones hit three World Central Kitchen Aid vehicles late Monday night.

“The attack on the rescue vehicle was a serious mistake caused by misidentification, poor decision-making and an attack that violated standard operating procedures,” the military said in a statement on Friday.

The killings of seven aid workers this week, including British, Australian and Polish citizens, a US-Canadian dual national and a Palestinian colleague, sparked global outrage.

In a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden threatened to change U.S. policy toward Israel unless harm to civilians in Gaza, which had been dependent on aid before the war, was reduced. Hunger has spread since fighting began six months ago.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday that Washington is carefully reviewing the Israeli investigation and will look very carefully at the steps Israel is taking.

“It is very important that Israel takes full responsibility for this incident. It is also important that it appears to be taking steps to hold those responsible accountable. More importantly, steps are being taken to ensure that something like this never happens again,” Blinken told reporters in Brussels.

After the findings were released, World Central Kitchen called for the establishment of an independent committee to investigate the incident. “Without systemic change, there will be more military defeats, more apologies and more grieving families,” a statement from WCK said.

The Israeli military (IDF) has acknowledged that seven WCK employees were killed in the airstrike, but the unusually swift investigation underscored the impact the incident had on world opinion.

Jose Andres, the founder of World Central Kitchen, said this week that the seven workers were struck “systematically and one after another” as they scrambled to seek shelter after their vehicles were hit in succession. Car after car” were targeted.

The military said it had fired a brigade chief of staff with the rank of colonel and a brigade fire support officer with the rank of major, and formally reprimanded senior officers, including the Southern Command commander.

The case has also been handed over to the Military Advocate General’s Office for consideration of a possible criminal investigation, the military said.

Bag mistaken for rifle

The raid was the second of four planned missions under WCK management to deliver about 200 tons of food to Gaza last month as part of an effort to increase the amount of aid entering Gaza, which is besieged by Israel.

The military said armed suspects climbed into at least one truck late Monday as an aid convoy with light vehicles was traveling along Gaza’s coastal road to a logistics point.

The military showed reporters drone footage of a man firing a rifle on top of a truck, which a spokesman said prompted the military to try and contact the WCK coordinator without success.

After the convoy arrived at the hangar and unloaded the trucks, the three WCK vehicles left the site shortly after 11pm (2100 GMT), heading south along the coast road. However, the Israeli commanders could not see their identifying markings in the dark and did not recognize that they belonged to the WCK.

Former Maj. Gen. Yoav Har-Even, who is leading the investigation, said troops mistakenly believed the vehicles were seized by Hamas militants and took action.

As the car left the hangar, one of the men entering the vehicle was holding a bag, which the operator viewing the drone footage believed was a rifle.

“The mindset was that the humanitarian mission was over and they were tracking a Hamas vehicle carrying a suspected gunman, at least one suspected gunman, who they mistakenly believed was in one of the three vehicles,” he told the briefing .

“They hit that car and then they saw someone get out of the car and get into the second car and that’s when they decided to hit the second car. Then two people got out of the second car and got into the third car and that’s when That’s when they hit a second vehicle.” A third vehicle. “

He said the attacks violated the IDF’s standard operating procedures.

The military has pledged to address the problem of rooftop signs not being visible in the dark as part of wider lessons learned from the disaster.