Experts say Israel's explanation for the attack on the World Central Kitchen convoy raises serious legal questions, even if the attack was the result of a series of mistakes.
The Israeli military announced on Friday that a preliminary investigation had revealed a series of mistakes that led to the deaths of seven aid workers. The company accepted responsibility for the failure, saying there was “no excuse” and citing “misperceptions, poor decision-making and an attack that violated standard operating procedures.”
But the accounts of the incident that have emerged raise broader questions about the military's ability to identify civilians and the steps it takes to protect them, legal experts told The New York Times. . These include new concerns about whether Israel is complying with international law in its military operations and the war in Gaza more generally.
Law: Presume civilian status in cases of doubt and provide enhanced protection for humanitarian aid
The first and most fundamental principle of international humanitarian law is that civilians are not targets of military attack. The military must have procedures in place to distinguish between civilians and legitimate military targets.
“When there is a question about the status of a convoy or a person, they should be presumed to be civilians,” said Tom Dannenbaum, a professor at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and an expert on humanitarian law. “Therefore, attacking someone based on suspicion is itself a violation of international humanitarian law.”
Janina Dill, co-director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, said humanitarian aid workers and aid facilities need greater protection as they provide relief to civilians at risk. He said he had a right to it.
“First and foremost, these are civilian vehicles,” she said, referring to the World Central Kitchen convoy. “These are also vehicles involved in humanitarian operations and are therefore specially protected. The people on board these trucks should be presumed to be individuals engaged in humanitarian operations, which means that they means you are a protected person.”
Some of the World Central Kitchen vehicles took part in the relief convoy and were later observed leaving the food depot, according to an Israeli military account. It was believed that the plane was carrying extremists.
Some officers did not review the military's own documents on convoys to confirm that they included cars in addition to trucks. If they had done so, they would have known that the car had military approval.
Each vehicle had a World Central Kitchen logo, but the military said preliminary investigations showed that drone footage did not show the organization's logo in the dark, leading the drone operator to suspect aid workers were belonging to an armed group. It was announced that the person had been mistakenly identified as a member of the group. A group of Palestinians with guns. (The worker was probably carrying a bag.)
The Israeli soldiers involved decided to attack one car and then failed to presume civilian status to other people in that car who were not believed to be armed. .
Officials said the soldiers mistakenly believed all three vehicles were carrying militants and drove them in turn, even though survivors of the earlier airstrike had sought safety in the remaining vehicles. It is said that he was targeted. Officials said this did not meet the Israeli military's rules of engagement.
Having an appropriate conflict resolution process can be an element of military compliance with international humanitarian law. Deconflict is the process by which aid organizations notify the military of their planned movements and obtain permission to take specific routes, allowing humanitarian aid workers to operate in areas where fighting is taking place. Used in conflicts around the world.
Jamie McGoldrick, a senior U.N. relief official, said aid groups have been urging the Israeli military for months to open a direct route to Israeli soldiers operating in Gaza to avoid a deadly miscommunication. After the airstrike, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said he had ordered the establishment of a “joint situation room” between the military's Southern Command and aid groups.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Friday that the United States wants “better systems for conflict resolution and coordination so that humanitarian workers, the people who provide aid, can safely and reliably provide assistance.” Stated.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron also called for “reform of Israel's dispute resolution mechanism” in a statement on Friday.
“The use of pre-arranged deconflict routes and the insignia of humanitarian organizations is intended to avoid false targeting and add weight to the presumption of civilian status,” Dannenbaum said.
He pointed out that reckless attacks that ignore whether the target is a civilian are a war crime based on customary international law. (However, in order to be prosecuted at the International Criminal Court, crimes must intentionally target civilians, rather than simply recklessly harming them.)
“Taken together, these regulations and the description of the events in this incident strongly point to a violation of international humanitarian law and provide clear grounds for investigating this as a war crime.”
Questions about military etiquette
Dill said the Israeli military's explanation of how the military violated protocols raises broader concerns about the procedures the military uses to identify military targets and authorize attacks. He said there was.
“If you have a clearly marked humanitarian aid vehicle, and it has told the IDF its route and the IDF has designated it as safe, it still If the vehicle is mistaken for a military target, it is a very safe inference that the precautions against attack are insufficient and the IDF's target verification procedures are inadequate.'' (IDF is Israel) (Refers to the military.)
That may be shaping Israel's hostilities far beyond this particular attack, raising concerns about whether the military is meeting basic standards requirements under international law. she stated.
“There is a pattern here of attacks on humanitarian operations,” Dill said.
At least 196 aid workers were killed in Gaza between October 2023 and late March, according to a statement by McGoldrick, the top UN relief official. The same total is listed in his USAID-backed project, the Aid Worker Security Database, which tracks attacks on aid workers around the world.
Christopher Lockyear, executive director of Médecins Sans Frontières, an international humanitarian organization working in Gaza, said at a press conference on Thursday that “this pattern of attacks is either deliberate or shows reckless incompetence.” “Our movements have already been shared, coordinated and identified. This is about impunity and a complete disregard for the laws of war. And now we must be held accountable.”
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on its reaction to claims by some international law experts that the attack should be investigated as a war crime, and questioned whether military protocols were legally sufficient. He said that it caused
Tomer Herzig, a lawyer for the Israeli military's international law division, said last week that investigators would relay their findings to the military's top prosecutor once they have completed their initial investigation. “She needs to look at her findings and determine whether she suspects criminal activity,” Herzig told reporters.
“When there is a pattern of attacks against protected objects or protected persons, there is always the suspicion that the rules of engagement in that particular operational situation are too lax, or worse, that command '' Dill said. The problem is that some commanders and units are prioritizing their own judgment over international humanitarian law and the rules of engagement. ”
Asked last week whether the military was concerned that months of Israeli barrage across the Gaza Strip were leading to more incidents of indiscriminate firing, military spokesman Daniel Hagari said: The Major General gave no substantive answer.
He told reporters on Thursday that the Israeli military would change procedures to ensure aid groups' vehicles are clearly marked and easily identified by troops, but gave no further details. .
The Israeli military announced that it had dismissed two officers from the brigade responsible for the attack. In addition, the military chief of staff will formally discipline the Southern Command commander and two other senior officers, the military said in a statement.
Military spokesman Peter Lerner said: Said In a statement on social media, the Israeli military said it would incorporate the lessons learned from the incident into its operations to prevent similar incidents in the future.
aaron boxerman Contributed reporting from Jerusalem.