The killing of seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen may mark a turning point in support for Israel and for long frustrated efforts to bring relief to Palestinians on the brink of starvation.
But while the IDF investigation suggests this was an isolated “grave mistake,” the mounting toll faced by aid agencies throughout the war points instead to what they say are systemic failings in the IDF’s approach to protecting humanitarian workers in the Gaza Strip. According to the United Nations, a total of 224 humanitarian aid workers have been killed since the start of the war.
Monday’s strike has inflamed global outrage that has coalesced into international pressure, forcing Israel to open new points of entry for humanitarian aid.
Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have issued rare expressions of contrition at the killings, and the IDF said Friday that it had removed two senior officers from their posts after a probe found the targeting of the aid convoy with three successive missile strikes to be in violation of IDF protocol.
In a briefing on Friday, the IDF said WCK had coordinated its movements with Israeli authorities correctly, but the officers committed three errors. First, they either didn’t see or did not read a message identifying the convoy. They then decided to fire at the vehicle with insufficient cause, saying that one of the soldiers had identified someone entering one of the vehicles carrying what he thought was a gun but was instead likely a bag. The third mistake, the IDF said, was that it continued to strike, not just the first car, but the second and the third.
“The essential problem is not who made the mistakes,” António Guterres, the United Nations’ Secretary-General said on Friday in response to the IDF’s investigation, “It is the military strategy and procedures in place that allow for those mistakes to multiply time and time again.”
Unlike the killing of the WCK staff members, who…
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