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The Israeli military’s announcement late on Wednesday that it would not pursue criminal charges against commanders involved in the deadly 2024 strike on a humanitarian convoy prompted swift condemnation from Canberra. Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the outcome fell far short of the accountability Australia expected and described its timing on World Humanitarian Day as especially insulting. According to the minister the government would summon Israel’s ambassador to Australia Hillel Newman while directing its own envoy in Israel to register strong objections and consider further steps.
World Central Kitchen which employed the victims rejected the Israeli military’s findings as inconsistent with the full truth and deeply offensive. The organisation demanded an independent investigation stating that the Israel Defense Forces cannot credibly investigate its own conduct. At the time of the lethal attacks the charity said the military possessed full visual clarity on its clearly marked humanitarian vehicles and knew the team’s movements identities and activities in advance.
The strikes occurred on April 1 2024 when three successive drone missiles hit the coordinated World Central Kitchen convoy in Deir al-Balah according to forensic reviews conducted at the time. A report delivered in August 2024 by former Australian Defence Force chief Mark Binskin identified serious failures in Israeli procedures mistaken identification and errors in decision-making as factors that led to the deaths. The seven victims included Australian Zomi Frankcom three British nationals a Palestinian a Pole and a dual United States-Canadian citizen.
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs data from late 2025 placed the number of aid workers killed in Gaza since October 2023 at 565. The tally which includes 183 women highlights the extreme dangers facing humanitarian personnel in the conflict with the vast majority of fatalities being local Palestinian staff. Multiple independent analyses including those by Bellingcat confirmed the precision nature of the strikes on the clearly identified World Central Kitchen vehicles travelling on a pre-approved humanitarian route.
In its statement the Israel Defense Forces cited the presence of an armed guard with the convoy that had not been flagged beforehand and was misidentified as a Hamas fighter along with the vehicles’ deviation from the coordinated path. Notwithstanding those acknowledged procedural lapses the military assessment concluded that the commanders’ decisions did not raise reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct. The same announcement indicated no grounds existed for criminal investigations into the killings of four Médecins Sans Frontières employees in separate incidents in November 2023 and February 2024.
Australian former defence force chief Mark Binskin had previously described the original strike as resulting from serious failures in processes that should have protected the aid workers. Wong’s latest intervention marks one of the strongest public criticisms of the Israeli military by Australia since the war in Gaza began according to government statements. The foreign minister reiterated that Australia would continue pressing Israel for justice for Frankcom and her colleagues.
The Israel Defense Forces simultaneously announced it would open criminal investigations into other cases including the 2024 killing of five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab and an associated ambulance strike as well as the March 2025 deaths of 15 Palestinians including medics and a United Nations worker whose bodies were found in shallow graves. Those pledges stand alongside the no-prosecution ruling on the World Central Kitchen incident in the same military statement. Wong’s office has not commented on the contrast between the various announcements.
