IDF investigation reveals errors and violation of protocol, officers disciplined | EUROtoday

The assertion mentioned the assault was the results of “errors” and was “contrary” to army procedures, including that two officers could be dismissed and commanders reprimanded.

World Central Kitchen, in an announcement Friday, mentioned the findings had been an “important step forward” however that the IDF “cannot credibly investigate its own failure in Gaza.”

“We demand the creation of an independent commission to investigate the killings of our WCK colleagues,” it mentioned.

The assault on Monday highlighted the perils going through support employees navigating the world’s worst humanitarian disaster throughout Israel’s punishing army offensive in Gaza: More than 180 support employees have been killed, in response to the United Nations.

The deaths of the WCK workers and volunteers — six of them overseas nationals, together with one American — have prompted a reckoning relating to Israel’s army techniques in a approach that strikes which have killed Palestinian civilians haven’t.

The IDF assertion mentioned a commander “mistakenly” assumed that Hamas gunmen had been current within the convoy’s automobiles and that Israeli forces additionally did not determine the automobiles as belonging to the WCK.

“The investigation’s findings indicate that the incident should not have occurred,” the assertion mentioned. “The strike on the aid vehicles is a grave mistake stemming from a serious failure due to a mistaken identification, errors in decision-making, and an attack contrary to the Standard Operating Procedures.”

In a separate briefing for reporters Thursday, the IDF mentioned the largest mistake was that the operators of the unmanned aerial car monitoring the convoy weren’t made conscious of the help convoy’s coordination plan.

And though WCK automobiles are marked with the group’s emblem and identify on their roofs, that emblem was not seen to the cameras monitoring the car at night time, mentioned Yoav Har-Even, head of the IDF fact-finding and evaluation mechanism. He known as {that a} key issue within the failure.

The IDF mentioned three procedural guidelines had been violated: The official coordination plan was not communicated from the highest to the bottom; the airstrike targets had been confirmed solely by seeing an armed man, which it mentioned was an inadequate normal; and the capturing continued from one car to a different when the operator noticed folks working from the primary car after it was struck.

According to accounts of the assault, after the primary car was hit, passengers fled to the remaining two automobiles, which then moved on earlier than every was hit, one after the opposite.

In the wake of the assault, President Biden informed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States, Israel’s strongest worldwide backer, must reassess its coverage towards Israel’s operation in Gaza until steps had been taken to guard support employees and deal with the humanitarian scenario within the enclave. The warning marked a uncommon second when the United States prompt that help for Israel is likely to be one thing apart from unconditional.

Israel afterward introduced steps to facilitate extra support deliveries — particularly to the north of Gaza, which worldwide organizations have mentioned is liable to famine — by reopening the Erez crossing into Gaza and utilizing Israel’s Ashdod port for support deliveries.

The WCK, in its assertion, mentioned the IDF acknowledged that the help group’s groups complied with all correct communications procedures. The Israeli army’s personal video of the assault, it added, “fails to show any cause to fire on our personnel convoy, which carried no weapons and posed no threat.” Edited footage was proven to reporters Thursday, but it surely didn’t present the second the convoy was struck. The video has not been launched publicly.

“Without systemic change, there will be more military failures, more apologies and more grieving families,” the WCK assertion added. “The root cause of the unjustified rocket fire on our convoy is the severe lack of food in Gaza. Israel needs to dramatically increase the volume of food and medicine traveling by land if it is serious about supporting humanitarian aid.”

“It’s not enough to simply try to avoid further humanitarian deaths, which have now approached close to 200,” WCK founder José Andrés mentioned within the assertion. “All civilians need to be protected, and all innocent people in Gaza need to be fed and safe. And all hostages must be released.”

The group’s CEO, Erin Gore, mentioned the IDF’s “apologies for the outrageous killing of our colleagues represent cold comfort.” The group mentioned its operations, which had been paused after the assault, stay suspended.

Yasmeen Abutaleb contributed to this report.