Israel’s military has cleared its personnel of any criminal wrongdoing over an April 2024 strike in Gaza which killed seven aid workers including Australian Zomi Frankcom.
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) released a series of decisions on Wednesday regarding five incidents including the deaths of the World Central Kitchen (WCK) workers, and whether it would conduct criminal investigations.
Frankcom, 43, and six colleagues died on April 1, 2024 when the vehicle they were travelling in was fired upon while delivering aid in Gaza.
The IDF said its soldiers had “mistakenly believed that the vehicles contained Hamas military operatives and therefore struck the vehicles”.
It claimed that attempts were made to contact WCK representatives during “the approximately half-hour period in which the convoy vehicles were tracked on the understanding that they contained Hamas operatives”, but those attempts were unsuccessful.
The Israeli military said the presence of armed security to accompany the convoy “was not coordinated with IDF authorities” and the vehicles had deviated from the route arranged in advance, while several people were also mistakenly identified as armed persons.
“Following review of all findings of the factual assessment, it was determined that, notwithstanding serious failures in the process that led to the assessment that Hamas operatives were travelling in the vehicles, the decisions of the commanders did not raise reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct,” the IDF said.
It added that there was “no reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct that would justify the opening of a criminal investigation”.
Two Israeli officers were dismissed from their positions and three senior officers were formally reprimanded, according to the Israeli military.
World Central Kitchen said it fundamentally disagreed with the decision not to pursue a criminal investigation.
“We strongly condemn the Israeli military prosecutor’s account of the deaths of our seven colleagues on April 1, 2024,” the aid organisation said in a statement.
“There has never been any excuse or justification for the attacks, and there is nothing in this account that does so. The decision is inconsistent with the full truth and deeply offensive.”
Earlier on Wednesday, and prior to the IDF’s statement, Foreign Minister Penny Wong spoke at a Parliament House event attended by Frankcom’s family as she launched the Zomi Frankcom Humanitarian Award.
“I want to make it clear that the Australian government continues to press the Israeli government for full accountability for the deaths of Zomi and her World Central Kitchen colleagues,” Wong said. “Zomi and her family deserve justice.”
In a report released in July 2024, former Australian Defence Force chief Mark Binskin found that “a significant breakdown in situational awareness” by the Israeli military caused the strike that killed Frankcom, adding he did not believe the charity workers were deliberately targeted.
The IDF said its Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism had reviewed approximately 150 incidents since the beginning of the war, then transferred them for examination by the Military Prosecution.
It said it would conduct criminal investigations into the killings of five-year-old Hind Rajab and her family, who were trapped in a vehicle in Gaza City and pleaded for help by phone in January 2024, and the killing of 15 Palestinian paramedics as they drove in the southern city of Rafah in March 2025.
The military also decided not to take criminal action over the killings of four staffers from Doctors Without Borders in two separate instances in November 2023 and February 2024.
with Reuters/AP
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Sarah McPhee is the Overnight Homepage Editor for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
