CAIRO (AP) — Two basic mistakes; According to the Israeli military. First, officers missed a message detailing the vehicles in the convoy. Witnesses then saw someone get into one of the cars carrying something that appeared to be a weapon, possibly a bag. Officials said the result was a series of deadly Israeli drone strikes. 7 aid workers On a dark Gaza road.
The Israeli military provided an explanation for the deadly attack. world central kitchen The convoy made a tragic mistake. That explanation raises the following questions: If so, how often did Israel make such mistakes? Offensive at 6 months old What about Gaza?
Human rights groups and aid workers say Monday night's mistake was by no means unusual. They argue that the broader problem is not a violation of the military's rules of engagement, but the rules themselves.
Israel's move to destroy Hamas October 7th attackRights groups and aid workers say the military appears to have given itself wide discretion to decide what to target and how many civilian deaths to tolerate as “collateral damage.” There is.
More than 33,000 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks, about two-thirds of them women and children. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The number does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Israel said it was targeting Hamas fighters and infrastructure and trying to minimize civilian deaths. The government blames extremists for the large number of civilian casualties, saying they are active among the population. Israel says each attack is evaluated by legal experts, but does not publish rules of engagement.
Other strikes
It is impossible to know how many times out of the thousands of attacks carried out by Israel, as well as shelling and gunfire during ground operations, targets have been incorrectly identified. Almost daily, they attack buildings housing Palestinian families, killing men, women, and children, without explanation of their targets or independent accountability for the proportionality of their attacks.
Sarit Michaeli, a spokesperson for the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, said the World Central Kitchen strike attracted global attention simply because foreigners were killed.
“The idea that this is a special case, a rare example, is an insult to the intelligence of everyone who has been following the situation,” she said.
He said a broader inquiry into the rules of engagement was needed, adding: “Relevant questions are not being asked because the inquiry only deals with specific incidents rather than broad policy.”
Israeli military chief spokesman Daniel Hagari acknowledged that “mistakes have been made over the past six months.”
“We are doing everything we can to avoid harming innocent civilians,” he told reporters. “It's difficult for Hamas to operate in plain clothes…does it matter, is it complicated for us? Yes. Does it matter? No, we need to do more to differentiate ourselves. you need to do.”
However, the military has not specified how this will be achieved.
Brigadier General Benny Gall, who was participating in the investigation into the World Central Kitchen strike, was asked whether further questions should be asked before the strike was authorized.
“This was not our standard,” he said. “The norm is to ask more questions, get more information, cross-cut more sources. And that wasn't the case.”
white flags
Palestinian witnesses have repeatedly reported people, including women and children, being shot dead or injured by Israeli forces while carrying luggage. white flag.Some videos have been published Palestinians shot or killed On the other hand, it appears to pose little threat to the nearby Israeli military.
In March, the military admitted to shooting dead two Palestinians and wounding a third as they walked along the Gaza beach. Police said they opened fire after the men allegedly ignored warning shots. Reacting after news channel Al Jazeera aired footage of one of the men falling to the ground while walking in a vacant lot, before a bulldozer pushes their bodies onto trash-strewn sand. did. At least two of the three were reportedly waving white flags.
Aid groups also reported strikes against staff.
Palestine Medical Aid said a residential area south of Mwasi, which the military had designated as a safe zone, was attacked in January with what the United Nations determined was a 1,000-pound bomb. The group said several team members were injured and buildings were damaged.
The group said the Israeli military had given multiple explanations, denying involvement, saying it was attempting to attack nearby targets and claiming the missile fired by mistake. “The diversity of responses highlights the continued lack of transparency,” the group said.
The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières said in February that tanks shelled a home in Mwasi where its staff and their families were sheltering, killing the wife and daughter-in-law of one of its staff members.
Both groups said they had repeatedly notified the military of their positions and clearly marked buildings.
Israel rarely admits mistakes.
After strikes killed at least 106 people in December; magaji campThe military said buildings near the target may have also been hit, causing “unintended harm to additional uninvolved civilians.”He also admitted that a soldier was shot dead by mistake. Three Israeli hostages waving white flags After escaping from Hamas captivity in Gaza City.
'pattern'
In Israel's ground offensive, troops operate in urban environments, searching for Hamas fighters while surrounded by residents who hang out in their homes, move around, and try to escape or find food and medical care.
Some Israeli politicians and media outlets regularly declare that there are no innocents in Gaza. Several videos circulating online also feature soldiers talking about revenge for the October 7 Hamas attack that started the war.
Palestinians and other critics say that in such an atmosphere, soldiers on the ground appear free to decide whether to target someone as suspicious. Gaza residents and medical staff say they are feeling the consequences.
Tanya Hadji Hassan, a Palestinian Medical Aid doctor who just returned from two weeks in a hospital in Gaza, said her staff regularly treats children and elderly people shot by snipers. Ta.
“It's not an anomaly. In fact, it's a pattern,” she said at a press conference this week. “I don't think children in particular are specifically singled out as a target. The understanding and the conclusion you come to…is that everyone is a target.”
Chris Cobbsmith, a former British military and weapons expert who worked on surveillance and security missions in Gaza, said if there was a breakdown in communications during the World Central Kitchen attack, “as a professional military… , this is unacceptable.'' ”
“There seems to be a consistent pattern of completely reckless behavior,” said Cobb Smith, who helped Médecins Sans Frontières investigate the bombing.
Chris Lincoln-Jones, a former British intelligence officer who has worked in the defense industry, including with an Israeli drone manufacturer, said the investigation revealed unprofessional behavior and poor command and control. “They don't have proper battlespace management.”
Even if the gunman was inside the car with rescue workers, a strike would not be justified “unless the gunman is actually shooting at someone from the car,” he said.
“There's no way a NATO drone pilot would do something like that. If he did that, I would expect him to be prosecuted. He could even go to prison.”
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Associated Press writers Joseph Federman and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report.