Aid convoy’s armed guards ‘acted like Hamas’
Former defence chief Mark Binskin says armed security guards in the World Central Kitchen convoy ‘gave the appearance of the presence of Hamas’.
The Albanese government’s hand-picked adviser on the Israeli drone strikes that killed Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom has revealed there were armed men in the convoy she was travelling in, including one who fired his weapon in the air.
Former defence chief Mark Binskin found in his report on the April 1 killings of Frankcom and six of her colleagues that it was likely the armed security guards in the convoy “gave the appearance of the presence of Hamas”.
He said the strike was “not knowingly or deliberately directed against the World Central Kitchen”, but found the Israel Defence Force had failed to properly share and co-ordinate the WCK convoy’s movements with all levels of its command structure.
The inability of the IDF to communicate in real time with WCK personnel also contributed to the tragedy, Air Chief Marshal Binskin found.
As The Australian revealed last month, his report confirms Israel’s own findings – that the “incident should not have occurred” and was a “grave mistake”,
Air Marshal Binskin said the IDF had taken full accountability for what occurred and moved quickly to hold those responsible to account, while its targeting procedures were similar to those used by the Australian Defence Force.
He said the use of armed guards was a contravention of WCK policy that its “security personnel were never armed – either openly or discreetly”.
“I cannot rule out that WCK inadvertently contracted security for the aid convoy with an entity that had links to Hamas,” he said in the public version of his report.
Penny Wong, who released the report on Friday afternoon, said the Albanese government would continue to seek “full accountability” for the deaths, “including any appropriate criminal charges”.
“Israel is bound by international law which requires the protection of aid workers. Demonstrably that did not occur in relation to Zomi Frankcom and her World Central Kitchen colleagues,” the Foreign Minister said.
She said Australia was also working with the international community to urge Israel to overhaul its co-ordination with humanitarian organisations to avoid any repeat of the tragedy.
A member of Frankcom’s family thanked Air Chief Marshal Binskin for his report, describing it as an “important first step”.
“We hope it will be followed by further investigations in Israel regarding those responsible for this tragic event, followed by appropriate action,” the family spokesperson said in a statement.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said the report confirmed Israel’s accountability and transparency, raising questions over the Albanese government’s motives in seeking an “unprecedented review of a foreign government’s military operations”.
Deputy Greens leader Mehreen Faruqi said it was “a whitewash”, and called for an independent war crimes investigation.
Air Chief Marshal Binskin, who viewed Israel Defence Force drone footage of the convoy’s movements leading up to the tragedy, said one of the armed security guards “fired his weapon into the air” as the convoy travelled to a WCK warehouse.
“This was clearly visible in the (unmanned aerial vehicle) video, observed by the UAV operator and assessed by the Brigade Fire Support Commander to be consistent with Hamas hijacking the aid convoy,” he said. His report found the IDF tried to contact WCK with its concerns about the convoy, eventually making contact with the aid group’s US headquarters and later, after multiple attempts, with a WCK member on the ground in Gaza.
The WCK representative told the IDF the contracted security personnel had “fake guns”, and the issue would be addressed after WCK completed its deliveries.
Food aid that had earlier been collected from a jetty on Gaza’s coastline was delivered to the warehouse, where the drone operator observed “the original gunman dismounting from the truck and joining with another individual identified as a gunman”.
“During this period, the gunmen were classified by the Brigade Fire Support Commander and Brigade Chief of Staff as Hamas,” Air Chief Marshal Binskin said.
“Permission was requested from higher command to engage the escort vehicles outside the warehouse; however, this approval was denied due to the vehicles being too near the humanitarian aid convoy.”
He said the drone operator then mistakenly identified one of the WCK drivers placing a “gun” into one of three WCK vehicles. The aid group’s vehicles then separated with a vehicle carrying its contracted security personnel.
The WCK vehicles were struck by missiles in quick succession from 11.09pm-11.13pm. All seven WCK workers were killed, including Frankcom, 43; Britons John Chapman, 57, James Henderson, 33, and James Kirby, 47; Polish citizen Damian Soból, 35; dual US-Canadian Jacob Flickinger, 33, and; Palestinian Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha, 25.
Air Chief Marshal Binskin said the route taken by the WCK aid convoy was not the route pre-co-ordinated with the Israeli military.
He said that in his discussions with the Israeli investigators: “It was inferred a number of times that not only had the gunmen associated with the WCK aid convoy exhibited tactics similar to Hamas, but that in fact ‘they were Hamas’.”
Israel issued a formal apology, and sacked two Israeli officers and reprimanded two senior commanders following the tragedy.
The country’s Military Advocate General is yet to decide whether to take further action over the incident. Air Chief Marshal Binskin said even if a decision was made to prosecute, the conduct of those involved might not meet the requirements for a charge of “unlawful killing”.
He said it could be a case where “the evidence available to the investigators and prosecutors indicates a culpable mistake causing death, for which the perpetrator should be held responsible, as opposed to the criminal offence of murder or manslaughter”.
Senator Wong said: “Our expectation remains that there be transparency about the Military Advocate General’s process and decision. I have written to my Israeli counterpart to this end.”
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