JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s investigation into the deaths of seven aid workers killed in an airstrike in Gaza this week has led to the dismissal of two officers and the formal admonition of high-ranking commanders, according to an Israeli statement. The Israeli army released Friday, while the United Nations Human Rights Office indicated that these facts may constitute war crimes.
The investigation results show that Israeli forces wrongly believed they were attacking Hamas fighters when they hit three vehicles of World Central Kitchen (WCK), an NGO that provides meals to people in need, while indicating that the usual procedures had not been followed.
“The strike on the aid vehicles is a serious mistake resulting from a serious failure due to misidentification, errors in decision-making and an attack contrary to standard operating procedures,” the Israeli military said in a press release published Friday.
The army also indicated that it had dismissed from their posts a brigade chief of staff with the rank of colonel and a brigade fire support officer with the rank of major, and that it had issued reprimands formal communications to senior officers, including the general at the head of Southern Command.
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“Attacking people or objects involved in humanitarian assistance may constitute a war crime,” Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the United Nations Human Rights Office, said on Friday, calling for an end to the impunity.
“The Israeli airstrikes that killed staff at World Central Kitchen highlight the horrific conditions under which aid workers operate in Gaza,” said Jeremy Laurence, adding that the suspension of the delivery and distribution of aid by NGOs increased the “already real risk of more deaths from famine and disease on a larger scale.”
(Reporting by James Mackenzie and Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber, French version Augustin Turpin)
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