The Israeli Defense Forces have completed their investigation into the attack on the World Central Kitchen gum convoy that killed seven mission personnel.
The investigation found that IDF forces identified a gunman in one of the humanitarian convoyʼs trucks and then spotted another. After the vehicles left the warehouse where the aid was being unloaded, one of the commanders mistakenly assumed that the armed men were inside the escort vehicles and that they were probably Hamas terrorists.
The force has not identified the vehicles in question as being linked to WCK. So they targeted three humanitarian aid vehicles.
"According to the conclusions of the investigation, the incident should not have happened. Those who approved the strike were convinced that the target was armed Hamas operatives, not WCK operatives. Hitting the aid vehicles is a serious error that goes against standard operating procedures," the statement said.
The Army believes there was not enough data to consider the World Central Kitchen cars a legitimate target and open fire on them.
It was the decision to launch the second and third strikes against the column that violated the "operational order."
The fire support commander of the brigade in the rank of major and the chief of staff of the brigade in the rank of colonel were decided to be dismissed, and the brigade commander, the commander of the 162nd division and the commander of the Southern Command will be reprimanded.
- It became known about the attack on WCK humanitarian convoy in the morning of April 2. Seven employees of the organization were killed in it — they were returning from a warehouse in the city of Deir al-Balah, where they unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid.
- World leaders strongly condemned the attack on the volunteers. IDF admitted that they had accidentally hit a humanitarian convoy and called it "a mistake resulting from mistaken identification."