Tel Aviv, Israel – Israel said Friday it was targeting a “Hamas gunman” when it killed in Gaza seven aid workers whose deaths caused an international outcry, with its military admitting a series of “grave mistakes” and violations of its own rules of engagement.
The victims — an Australian, Britons, a North American, a Palestinian and a Pole — were killed in three air strikes over four minutes by an Israeli drone as they ran for their lives between their three vehicles, the military said.
The drone team who killed them made an “operational misjudgement of the situation” after spotting a suspected Hamas gunman shooting from the top of one of the aid trucks they were escorting, an internal Israeli military inquiry found.
The two brigade officers who ordered the strikes, a colonel and a major, have been fired.
Senior Israeli officers showed reporters clips from drone footage of what they said was a “Hamas operative” joining the US-based World Central Kitchen (WCK) convoy.
Although the roofs of the three aid workers’ vehicles were emblazoned with large WCK logos, retired Israeli general Yoav Har-Even, who is leading the investigation, said the drone’s camera could not see them in the dark.
“This was a key factor in the chain of events,” he said.
The aid group has said its team was travelling in a “de-conflicted” area in a convoy of “two armoured cars branded with the WCK logo and a soft skin vehicle” at the time of the strike.
“Despite coordinating movements with the (Israeli army), the convoy was hit as it was leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse, where the team had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route,” WCK said.
The army said aid was moved at night to avoid the potential of deadly stampedes by hungry Gazans.
The aid workers’ deaths “outraged” US President Joe Biden who demanded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu order steps toward an “immediate ceasefire” in a tense telephone call late Thursday.
Israel later said it would allow “temporary” aid deliveries into northern Gaza, where the United Nations has warned of imminent famine.