Posted on 04/05/24
| News Source: Times of Israel
Two senior officers were to be dismissed and several other top commanders in the Israel Defense Forces were formally censured for their involvement in a deadly drone strike against a group of aid workers with the World Central Kitchen organization in the central Gaza Strip earlier this week, the military said Friday.
The investigation into the incident late Monday, which left seven humanitarian workers dead, was carried out by the General Staff Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism, an independent military body responsible for investigating unusual incidents amid the war.
The probe found that the strike was ordered against the convoy of WCK vehicles after officers suspected they carried a Hamas gunman, despite a low level of confidence, and against army regulations. The officers did not identify the vehicles as belonging to WCK when the strike was ordered, according to the investigation.
The findings were presented to IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi on Thursday by the head of the mechanism, Maj. Gen. (res.) Yoav Har-Even, as well as to WCK and ambassadors of countries whose citizens were killed in the strike.
Halevi ordered the removal of Col. (res.) Nochi Mendel — the chief of staff of the Nahal Infantry Brigade amid the war — and the brigade’s firepower coordination officer, who holds the rank of major, over their involvement in ordering the strike.
Additionally, Halevi reprimanded the commander of the Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman, for his “overall responsibility for the incident,” as well as the commander of the 162nd Division, Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen, and the commander of the Nahal Brigade, Col. Yair Zukerman.