Legal expert defends IDF rejection of World Central Kitchen strike investigation - interview
Last week, the IDF probe admitted that its surveillance officials misidentified the WCK security officials as Hamas.
On April 1, 2024, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) mistakenly killed seven international food aid workers from World Central Kitchen (WCK). The IDF's Chief Military Prosecutor admitted that surveillance officials had misidentified the WCK security personnel as Hamas operatives. Despite recognizing the gravity of this error, the prosecutor determined that the commanders' decisions did not raise reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct.
Consequently, the IDF decided not to initiate a criminal investigation. In response, the foreign ministers of the UK, Australia, and Canada released a joint statement expressing shame at the decision not to pursue criminal charges. Dr. Brian L. Cox, a retired US military lawyer and senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Canada, provided an analysis of the case.
Cox stated that it makes sense for Israel not to pursue criminal charges since they had conducted a thorough assessment based on all available evidence and concluded that the incident was not a war crime. From an International Humanitarian Law (IHL) perspective, the case is straightforward: if the personnel involved genuinely believed they were attacking Hamas fighters and not WCK humanitarian workers, it is not a war crime.
Cox emphasized that while militaries can be held accountable for violations of use of force policy, in this case, it was not egregious. He also noted that the IDF did remove several officers from their positions and reprimand others, which would have been the same outcome if the incident had been carried out by a member of the UK, Australian, or Canadian military.
Written by urgent.news from Jerusalem Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
