Israel won't open criminal investigation into killing of aid workers
The decision leaves the World Central Kitchen deaths outside criminal inquiry while two other Gaza cases move to military police amid scrutiny of Israel’s accountability system.
neljapäev, 20. august 2026 10:55
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday called the Israeli military’s decision not to open a criminal investigation into strikes that killed aid worker Zomi Frankcom and six colleagues in Gaza an “outrage.”
The decision came in an internal IDF review of five Gaza incidents since the war began in October 2023, reported by The Conversation. The IDF found that two incidents raised “reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct” and ordered its Military Police Criminal Investigation Division to open criminal probes, while declining further investigation in three others.
Albanese said the World Central Kitchen decision “falls far short of the accountability that we expect and consistently called for on behalf of Australia.” Frankcom, three British nationals, a Palestinian, a Pole and a dual US-Canadian citizen were killed in April 2024 when the IDF said soldiers mistakenly identified their vehicles as carrying Hamas operatives. The review found serious operational failures, and two commanders were stripped of their ranks while three officers were reprimanded, but it found no “reasonable suspicion” of criminal conduct.
The two referred cases involve the killing of five-year-old Hind Rajab in January 2024 and the killings of 15 Palestinians in southern Gaza in March 2025. The IDF acknowledged that soldiers opened fire on a vehicle carrying Rajab and her family as they fled Gaza City, and said “a shell was fired toward” an ambulance trying to reach the car, killing two paramedics. In the March 2025 case, the IDF said troops fired on three vehicles later identified as ambulances, a fire truck and a UN vehicle; Forensic Architecture alleges the military tried to cover up the killings by crushing and burying the medics’ vehicles.
International law requires states to investigate alleged war crimes by their nationals or armed forces, or on their territory, and to prosecute suspects where appropriate. Yesh Din found that 72% of complaints made to the IDF in 2019–20 were closed without criminal investigation and 2% led to prosecutions, while another review of 52 military probes from 2023 to 2025 found 88% were still under review or closed and only one had led to a prison sentence. Human Rights Watch has said IDF investigations involving Palestinian civilians are “not impartial, thorough or timely,” while the military says investigations are slowed by the need to ensure due process in an active combat zone.
The Hind Rajab and paramedic cases will now go to military police, who will collect forensic evidence, review communications logs and interrogate soldiers and commanders before the military advocate general decides whether to issue indictments. Under Israeli military law, wartime conduct is assessed against what a “reasonable commander” knew or should have known when force was used. The International Criminal Court is a “court of last resort” that acts only when a state is “unwilling or unable” to genuinely investigate suspected war crimes, and cases may also be pursued in foreign courts under universal jurisdiction.
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