Dogstar wrote: ↑Tue Apr 02, 2024 11:09 am
Following up on the now confirmed IDF strike on the WCK convoy, it was a drone that attacked three times even though the vehicles were marked with the WCK logo, were in a deconflicted zone, and WCK had coordinated with the IDF about the convoy. All to get one suspected militant who wasn't even present in the convoy.
Per Haaretz:
Until the actions that preceded the strike, carried out by a Hermes 450 drone, were completed, the truck reached the warehouse with the World Central Kitchen's three cars, with seven volunteers in them – two dual-national Palestinians (U.S. and Canada) and five citizens of Australia, the UK, and Poland.
A few minutes later, the three cars left the warehouse without the truck, on which the ostensibly armed man was located. According to the defense sources, that armed man did not leave the warehouse. The cars travelled along a route preapproved and coordinated with the IDF.
...
On Tuesday morning, World Central Kitchen executives announced a temporary halt to its operations in Gaza, and that the ship that had departed to Gaza with aid shipments would return to Cyprus.
Netanyahu called the strike unintentional and said they'd work to make sure it didn't happen again, but it strains belief a bit that three separate (with each delayed in time) drone hits on clearly marked cars on a pre-approved and coordinated route was entirely an accident.
To be clear per the article Netanyahu didn't say that the attack was unintentional (obviously the people operating the drone intended to fire the missiles); rather it was "hitting innocent people" that was unintentional. Basically that it was a targeting misjudgment.
If I understand the article correctly an Israeli unit saw an armed person with the WCK convoy; when the convoy stopped that person got out and left, the convoy continued, but the unit must have thought that the guy (who they believed to be a Hamas commander) was still with the convoy and attacked. Presumably the unit commander either believed that the WCK convoy was a fake being used by Hamas or (and I think this is more likely) he decided it was ok to attack a WCK convoy to get at a Hamas commander.
This is the interesting quote to me from an unnamed IDF source:
"It's frustrating," one of the defense sources told Haaretz. "We're trying our hardest to accurately hit terrorists, and utilizing every thread of intelligence, and in the end the units in the field decide to launch attacks without any preparation, in cases that have nothing to do with protecting our forces."
So basically it seems like there are a few plausible explanations:
(1) The unit commander made a poor judgment that the IDF is genuinely unhappy with;
(2) The unit commander was following formal or informal instructions to target any commanders regardless of nearby civilians, and the IDF / Israeli government is throwing them under the bus because of the international reaction;
(3) Israel intentionally targeted a WCK convoy to discourage the distribution of food aid in Gaza;
I tend to think 1 or 2 is far more likely than #3, in part because intentionally targeting a WCK convoy seems so stupid and damaging to Israeli self-interests, but YMMV. Between 1 and 2...not sure. This is where I struggle with differentiating between what's a "normal" war incident and what's not.
Black Lives Matter.