Seven aid workers killed in an airstrike in Gaza were marked as targets under an Israeli military practice of establishing guilt by association. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
A top Israeli military prosecutor announced last month that he would not pursue criminal proceedings for the April 2024 incident in which drones fired missiles at three clearly marked World Central Kitchen (WCK) cars soon after they had escorted a food aid delivery to Gaza. Three British humanitarian workers along with an Australian, a Palestinian, a Pole and a dual US-Canadian national were killed.
The official Israel Defense Forces (IDF) version of events pointed to specific mistakes made by a handful of officers. The victims of the strike were also blamed for hiring armed guards to protect a food aid convoy and for allegedly "deviating" from their agreed route.
However, interviews with senior Israeli officers involved in the incident or familiar with the official Israel investigation suggest it glossed over the role played in the killings by a common IDF practice used to designate targets, which endangers aid workers and civilians in general, especially when combined with the army's open-ended mission to end Hamas's civil control in Gaza.
More than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military in the three years of the Gaza war. The army's own internal data suggests more than three-quarters of the dead have been civilians.
The reserve colonel who ordered the strikes, Nochi Mendel, said the WCK workers became potential targets after they had a brief encounter, lasting just minutes, with armed guards assumed to be from Hamas (an assumption later shown to be groundless). He deemed them to have "mixed together" with alleged Hamas militants, where mixing together was defined as being "near them, talking, playing, hanging out and so on". Asked whether the presence of armed men made the entire convoy a target, Mendel replied: "Certainly." He concluded: "They were not innocent because they were connected to Hamas."
Mendel was referring to a general policy of haflala, "incrimination", which gives commanders in the field wide discretion on designating someone as a "terrorist", including those "incriminated" by association. The manner in which haflala is to be applied in a given sector is often conveyed in a commander's mission brief delivered verbally to other officers.
He said his unit had been commended by the army hierarchy for its involvement in several strikes on what were deemed to be Hamas attempted commandeering of aid. "They applauded us and were pleased with our action," he said. The difference in the WCK incident was that foreign nationals were killed, he said. "That's the whole difference. Not a substantive difference."
When the WCK convoy was destroyed, it was nowhere near Israeli troops. Several Israeli officers familiar with the incident said the strikes were not ordered on the basis of an imminent threat to Israeli lives, but to fulfil the mission to thwart Hamas attempts to control aid deliveries.
The IDF was approached for comment on the issues raised by the airstrikes and subsequent investigations but had not responded three days after the request.
The WCK said the Israeli decision not to pursue criminal proceedings was "inconsistent with the full truth and deeply offensive". "At the time of the lethal attacks, our team in Gaza was unarmed and posing a threat to nobody," the WCK said. "The IDF had full visual clarity on our clearly marked humanitarian vehicles during the extended, multiple airstrikes. It knew our team's movements, identities and activities in advance."
Britain, Australia and Canada denounced the prosecutor's decision as "shameful", saying they would "continue to seek answers" on behalf of the slain aid workers. The UK opened an inquest in 2024 into the deaths of the three British team members: James Kirby, James Henderson and John Chapman.
Saifeddin Abutaha, a Palestinian, Australian Zomi Frankcom, Damian Sobol, a Pole, and a dual Canadian-US citizen, Jacob Flickinger, were the other victims. The UK inquest was adjourned pending the outcome of the Israeli investigation.
Mendel, who is the only officer of such high rank to have been dismissed for his actions in the Gaza war, has been portrayed in army command briefings as a rogue operator. Questions have been raised about a political motive. Mendel is a settler who is reported to have been one of the 130 signatories of a 20 January 2024 letter to the IDF calling for the flow of aid to Gaza to be restricted.
However, the way the Israeli army operates in Gaza – rules of engagement and military discipline – plays a significant role in explaining how this incident occurred. The Guardian investigation shows that this case was not an isolated mistake but a consequence of systemic practice.