The White House on Friday said it welcomed the news that Israel made public the results of its investigation into an air strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza.
National Security spokesman John Kirby said they will carefully review the inquiry and discuss the findings with Israeli government officials and humanitarian organizations, including World Central Kitchen, which was founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres.
“They have held accountable a couple of officers,” Mr. Kirby told reporters. “That’s important, but what really matters here is for two things: that something like this doesn’t happen again and that there are concrete, achievable, and sustainable changes to the processes in the way they conduct these kind of missions.”
Israel acknowledged that Monday’s airstrike on the World Central Kitchen (WCK) food convoy was a mistake and the result of a misidentification by military personnel. They spotted what they thought was a gunman inside one of the vehicles and assumed Hamas fighters were in the others as well. That turned out to be untrue.
“The forces did not identify the vehicles in question as being associated with WCK. Following a misidentification by the forces, [they] targeted the three WCK vehicles, based on the misclassification of the event and misidentification of the vehicles as having Hamas operatives inside them,” IDF officials said Friday in a statement.
IDF officials said the airstrike was a “serious violation” of Israel Defense Forces standard operating procedures.
Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the IDF Chief of Staff, fired the brigade chief of staff, an Army colonel, and fire support commander, a major. He formally reprimanded the top general in the IDF’s Southern Command along with the division and brigade commanders at the scene, officials said Friday.
“They said they were going to include accountability and they’ve done that. Whether there will be more as they go, I don’t know,” Mr. Kirby said.
There are no plans for the U.S. to conduct its own investigation into the airstrike on the World Central Kitchen convoy.
President Biden on Thursday warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that U.S. policy in Gaza could be amended if the IDF doesn’t do more to ensure the safety of aid workers and civilians living inside the besieged Palestinian enclave.
“We need to see changes in their policy toward the fighting in Gaza, or we’ll have to make changes to our policy with regard to supporting their efforts in Gaza,” Mr. Kirby said.
GOP lawmakers accuse the White House of playing partisan politics with its public criticism of the leading U.S. ally in the Middle East.
“To help his polls in Michigan, Joe Biden just strengthened Hamas‘ negotiating position,” Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas said on X. “He effectively encourages Hamas to hold out and not release the hostages. Shameful.”
WCK officials called the IDF’s acknowledgment of its responsibility mistakes and disciplinary actions taken against those responsible “important steps forward.”
“The IDF has deployed deadly force without regard to its own protocols, chain of command, and rules of engagement. The IDF has acknowledged that our teams followed all proper communications procedures,” WCK said in a statement. “The IDF’s own video fails to show any cause to fire on our personnel convoy, which carried no weapons and posed no threat.”
Mr. Andres said merely trying to avoid further humanitarian deaths in Gaza isn’t enough.
“All civilians need to be protected, and all innocent people in Gaza need to be fed and safe. And all hostages must be released,” he said.
Israel also committed to opening its port in Ashdot, about 25 miles north of Gaza, for direct delivery assistance and to reopen the Erez crossing into the northern section of the enclave. The government also will “significantly increase” deliveries from Jordan directly into Gaza, White House officials said.
President Biden also pushed Prime Minister Netanyahu to work out a deal with Hamas for a ceasefire that could result in the release of more than 100 remaining hostages who were kidnapped during the terror group’s Oct. 7 rampage into southern Israel.
“We are coming up on six months that these people have been held hostage. They need to be home with their families,” Mr. Kirby said.