The Israeli military says two basic mistakes led to the series of drone strikes that killed seven staffers from the World Central Kitchen charity.

Two basic mistakes, according to the Israeli military. First, an officer overlooked a message detailing the vehicles in the convoy. Second, a spotter saw something in one car – possibly a bag – that he thought was a weapon. Officials say the result was the series of Israeli drone strikes that killed seven aid workers on a dark Gaza road.

The Israeli military has described the deadly strike on the World Central Kitchen convoy as a tragic error. Its explanation raises the question: If that’s the case, how often has Israel made such mistakes in its 6-month-old offensive in Gaza?

Rights groups and aid workers say Monday night’s mistake was hardly an anomaly. They say the wider problem is not violations of the military’s rules of engagement but the rules themselves.

In Israel’s drive to destroy Hamas after its Oct. 7 attacks, the rights groups and aid workers say, the military seems to have given itself wide leeway to determine what is a target and how many civilian deaths it allows as “collateral damage.”

  • S_204@lemm.ee
    01·
    7 months ago

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/17/us/politics/pentagon-drone-strike-afghanistan.html

    Not the first time tragedy like this has happened in a war zone, hopefully it’s the last though. Looks like the mistake has prompted the opening of additional aid corridors to attempt to offset the fury this bullshit mistake has caused so there’s that silver lining sadly. Bibi knows they massively fucked up with this one, he looks to be scrambling, and hopefully he’s out of office sooner than later as he’s lost support.

    • birthday_attack@lemm.ee
      0·
      7 months ago

      Even the title of this article asserts that this latest “tragedy” is part of a larger systemic problem than just the incident itself.

      “There seems to be a consistent pattern of utterly reckless behavior,” said Cobb-Smith, who helped investigate the Doctors Without Borders shelling.

      The whole point of this is the lack of accountability for Israel’s repeated “mistakes,” which they have no intention of correcting. The indiscriminate violence is a feature for Israel, not a bug.

      To try and excuse or deflect from Israel’s current missile strikes by bringing up the US’s own missile strikes is an odd choice here. Like, the same people who are calling for Israel to stop its indiscriminate bombardment are largely the same people who were calling for the same when the US was doing it.

      • S_204@lemm.ee
        01·
        7 months ago

        I’m not excusing anything, seems like they fired a few people involved, hopefully they charge them with the crimes they commited too. I didn’t see that follow up with the us situation though so why is one country accountable but not another is what I’m getting at? The US has had additional civilian and involved drone issues since then, as well as very well documented ones under Obama so it’s clear nothing is changing on the home front wrt to how the policy’s are enacted.

        Everyone who fucks up like this should end up in jail. It’s inexcusable… except when Americans do it it seems. The same people/politicians calling for Israel to stop are the same ones who support and funded the actions over the past twenty years that led to far greater civilian death in the region so claiming otherwise is pretty insane.

    • Kalysta@lemm.ee
      0·
      7 months ago

      It wasn’t a mistake. It was a targeted strike. Other aid groups immediately left after this which was their goal. The Palestinians that they don’t murder with bombs Israel wants to starve to death.