The family of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom has called for “further investigations” into her killing in Gaza, while describing an Australian government-ordered report as only a “first step”.
The report said the Israeli government should provide an “appropriate apology” and consider compensation to the families of Frankcom, aged 43, and her six colleagues over their killings on 1 April.
The former Australian defence force chief Mark Binskin found “a significant breakdown in situational awareness” by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) when the World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid convoy was hit by Israeli drone strikes.
The report published on Friday said IDF controls failed, “leading to errors in decision making and a misidentification, likely compounded by a level of confirmation bias”.
But Binskin said he did not believe the strikes were “knowingly or deliberately directed against the WCK”.
Binskin said that while acknowledgement of responsibility had been “made at many levels” within the Israeli government and a public apology had been given by the IDF, “the families do not consider this to be a proper apology at the appropriate level”.
“Nor do they feel reassured that lessons have truly been taken from the incident and measures been put in place to reduce the chance of it happening again,” Binskin said in the 10-page “unclassified edition” of his report.
A spokesperson for the Frankcom family said they were “very grateful to have had the benefit of a detailed discussion” with Binskin and Australia’s foreign affairs department.
“We appreciate that Mr Binskin’s role had some limitations, but his report is an important first step,” the family spokesperson said.
“We hope it will be followed by further investigations in Israel regarding those responsible for this tragic event, followed by appropriate action.”
But the deputy leader of the Greens, Mehreen Faruqi, said the report was “a complete whitewashing” of the incident because Binskin had no investigative powers of his own and had to “rely significantly” on Israel’s investigation.
“An Australian aid worker was killed trying to help civilians in a genocide,” Faruqi said.
“We will only uncover the facts and details with an independent investigation. If there is nothing to hide, let’s have a war crimes investigation.”
Just days after the fatal strikes, Binskin was appointed by the Australian government to provide it with advice on the adequacy of Israel’s investigations and actions.
The appointment came after the Australian government described initial comments from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that such incidents happened in war as “deeply insensitive” and “not good enough”.
Binskin visited Israel from 5 to 13 May. In his report, Binskin said “all parties engaged constructively” with him, even though he had “no investigative powers”.
He said he viewed 90 minutes of unedited drone footage “of the WCK convoy and subsequent strikes”. This footage did not include audio.
The report said WCK was scheduled to receive a second shipment of food aid, delivered by sea, and to move it to its warehouse in Deir el-Balah on 1 April in a plan that was “closely coordinated” with Israeli authorities in the days before the delivery.
Binskin’s report said as the trucks moved away from the WCK welcome centre, “one locally-contracted security person on top of the trailer of the third truck fired his weapon into the air” and this was “clearly visible” in the drone video.
Binskin said this was “assessed by the Brigade Fire Support Commander to be consistent with Hamas hijacking the aid convoy”.
Later, according to the report, when personnel started entering the escort vehicles to depart a warehouse, a drone operator “mistakenly identified one of the WCK drivers putting a ‘gun’ into a WCK vehicle (driver’s side front)”.
Binskin’s report says after that three WCK vehicles, after turning south onto the coast road, “were struck in relatively quick succession, each strike being approximately two minutes apart”.
“There were two survivors from the strike on the first (up-armoured) vehicle who quickly moved to the second vehicle, then two survivors from the second (up-armoured) vehicle who moved to the third vehicle,” he wrote.
“There were no survivors from the third (soft-skinned) vehicle. Over the four-minute period … the seven WCK workers were killed – likely one in the first vehicle, two in the second and four in the last.”
Binskin said he was of the view “that Israel’s acceptance of accountability for the 1 April WCK incident, and investigation, reporting and responding has, to this point, been timely, appropriate and, with some exceptions, sufficient”.
He said an IDF-ordered fact-finding investigation “took less than 72 hours” and led the IDF’s chief of general staff to quickly dismiss two officers from their positions and reprimand three others.
Binskin said it “would be difficult for western militaries, including the Australian Defence Force, to be any quicker”.
The Australian foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, promised that Australia would “continue to press for full accountability, including any appropriate criminal charges”. Israel’s military advocate general is considering the matter.
Wong said the deaths of Frankcom and her colleagues were “inexcusable” and condemned “the Israeli strikes that caused them”.
“Gaza remains the deadliest place on earth to be an aid worker,” Wong told reporters in Adelaide.
“This was not a one-off incident. The UN reports that more than 250 aid workers have been killed since the start of this conflict, and in recent weeks, a number of UN vehicles have come under attack. This is not acceptable.”
Wong said the best way to protect aid workers, health workers and civilians was “to achieve the release of hostages and increased humanitarian access through a ceasefire”.
The Coalition’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Simon Birmingham, questioned “whether domestic politics led to the Albanese government pursuing this unprecedented review of a foreign government’s military operations”.
Comment was sought from the Israeli embassy in Canberra and WCK.
