Israel suspends two soldiers after recognizing “serious errors” in the massacre of seven WCK collaborators in Gaza

The internal conclusions of the Israeli army on the aerial bombardment that killed seven collaborators of chef José Andrés' NGO, World Central Kitchen (WCK), reveal a chain of major errors and leave some questions unanswered. The report – released this Friday and whose person in charge, Lieutenant General Yoav Har-Even, has presented to WCK and ambassadors from the countries of origin of the victims, reiterating his “deep sorrow for the incident” – states that “the troops did not identify the vehicles as associates” to the NGO, despite the fact that the cars had the organization's logo very visible on the top since they had previously communicated the route and time to the army, using the United Nations system. “The forces attacked the three WCK vehicles based on a misclassification of the event and after wrongly identifying that the vehicles had Hamas operatives inside,” he notes.

The army admits that the bombings were carried out due to a “serious error” in both identification and decision and “in serious violation” of internal regulations, which is why it suspends a brigade chief, with the rank of colonel, and a military officer. brigade support, with the rank of commander. He also formally reprimands senior officers such as the general and the head of the Southern Command. It does not announce other measures, such as imprisonment within the framework of military justice.

The Spanish chef José Andrés, founder of WCK, stated this Friday for his part that the Israeli army “cannot credibly investigate its own failure in Gaza.” “It is not enough to simply try to prevent more humanitarian deaths, which are now approaching 200,” he said. “It is necessary to protect all civilians and feed and protect all innocent people in Gaza. And all the hostages must be released.”

According to the investigation, it all started when a commander identified an armed man inside the WCK aid trucks and later another. They were not the vehicles in which the aid workers were traveling, nor were they militiamen—predictably they were guards to prevent assaults by hungry people or armed family clans—and they did not get into the cars, but rather stayed in the warehouse. However, one of the commanders “erroneously assumed that they were inside the accompanying vehicles.” [de WCK] and that they were Hamas terrorists,” according to the version offered by the Israeli army. The statement does not mention that the organization had previously communicated the route it was going to take to the Armed Forces.

“The military takes seriously this serious incident that claimed the lives of seven innocent aid workers. We express our deep sorrow for the losses and send our condolences to the families of the WCK organization,” the note states.

The army has made public the conclusions half a day after the first telephone conversation since the bombing between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the President of the United States, Joe Biden. One of the seven dead aid workers had American nationality (as well as Canadian); The headquarters of the NGO is in the city of Washington and the work of the Spanish José Andrés is very popular in the North American country.

From that call has emerged the announcement by the Israeli Government that it will open the Erez border crossing – which faces the north of Gaza, the most malnourished area – and will allow humanitarian aid to arrive through the port of Ashdod, 30 kilometers from the Strip. , as was the case until October 7, the day of the Hamas attack that sparked the war.

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