Around 5pm on Monday, Israeli aircraft crossed into Syrian territory and launched an attack on an embassy in Damascus. This assault resulted in the controversial deaths of numerous high-ranking Iranian military officials, showcasing a high level of precision.
Several hours following this, Israeli military forces similarly launched an attack on an aid convoy journeying along a coastal route in the Gaza Strip, which unfortunately led to the demise of seven foreign aid personnel. This operation was widely condemned for its failings, significantly damaging Israel’s international standing. This necessitated the country’s leadership to own up for the lethal blunders.
The competence of one of the globe’s most superior military forces in accurately executing a perilous strike on foreign land, yet disastrously blundering an operation in Gaza, raises an array of difficult inquiries. This includes questions about the Israeli military’s enforcement of the rules of engagement in its battle against Hamas.
The aid group, World Central Kitchen (WCK), lamented the attack, attributing it to common pitfalls in warfare: a multifaceted battlefield wherein civilians and combatants blend; limited visibility due to the night-time operation; and a mobile target which necessitated snap decisions from the commanders.
The Damascus operation was systematically planned and executed against an immobile target, with key decisions most likely being sanctioned at the highest echelons of Israel’s military and government. However, such an action attracted criticisms for being in contravention of international laws, and an infringement on the UN charter safeguarding diplomatic establishments.
Reports from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard indicated that Israel possessed the latest intelligence prior to the strike, including the departure time of the embassy’s civilians, as well as the arrival of leading Iranian commanders to meet Palestinian militants to discuss the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
However, this doesn’t fully correlate with what happened on the Gaza coastal strip that Monday night, according to military experts from Israel and the US. They argued that the inadvertent killing of aid workers was the foreseeable outcome of the Israeli troops’ propensity to act hastily, a tactic that has been utilised since the Hamas attacks on October 7th.
Yagil Levy, an academic and Israeli military expert at the Open University of Israel emphasised that the issue wasn’t about the strike’s precision or lack of foresight, since the activity was carefully contemplated before being carried out.
“The founder of World Central Kitchen claims that Israeli forces systematically targeted aid workers.”
In the Gaza strip, it’s apparent that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) aims to neutralise as much of the Hamas militia as possible, as outlined by a spokesperson. This strategy, however, conflicts with the obligation to protect civilian lives. It’s common for aid deliveries in the Hamas-administered Gaza region to be accompanied by locals with militant links, who ensure the resources are not destroyed or thieved. This, in turn, creates tricky situations for the IDF who use drones to surveil the aid groups, thus flagging some inhabitants as potential combat threats.
The IDF targeted a specific convoy operated by World Central Kitchen after it had transported goods from a jetty to storage. The convoy was on its return journey when three rounds of IDF attacks were launched. Two of the vehicles were obliterated, and a third left with a profound hole in the roof just near the logo denoting it as property of World Central Kitchen – a charity established by chef José Andrés.
According to Andrés, it was obvious where his employees were located as they were in continued communication with the IDF. He expressed to Reuters that it wasn’t a case of misplaced bombing.
On Thursday, World Central Kitchen demanded an autonomous investigation concerning the IDF assault that resulted in the death of seven of their staff. The charity stated that this was a deliberate military assault involving several strikes, aimed at their three vehicles. “All of which were occupied by non-combatants, clearly labelled as World Central Kitchen vehicles, and their movements were in full compliance with Israeli authorities who knew about their journey, path and their charitable assignment.”
On the following Tuesday, the IDF’s Chief of Staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, admitted that the event was an error caused by incorrect identification during the conflict’s nocturnal complexities. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reassured that steps would be taken to avoid repeating such a mistake.
The incident drew comparisons to a misdirected American drone strike in Afghanistan in 2022 that resulted in the demise of ten innocent lives, including seven children. The affinities were that both incidents utilised aerial video imagery for targeting and both happened after significant human loss; in Gaza’s case, many Hamas fighters, and in Afghanistan, a suicide bombing resulting in at least 182 deaths, among which were 13 American soldiers, amid the hasty US retreat from the country.
Under intense stress to prevent another onslaught, the US forces were under the impression they were trailing a bomber poised to set off an explosive. This led to a tragic incident where an Afghan humanitarian worker, along with nine of his family members, were inadvertently eliminated.
John Nagl, a War Studies academic at the American Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, remarked, “We were reeling from a troop loss due to a bomb, with the impending dread of another. The Israelis felt their personnel were at risk. The urge to shield the troops surpassed considerations about safeguarding civilians.”
On the other hand, Nagl contended that the operation on the embassy in Damascus was “perfectly executed”. According to him, the Israelis “dictated the operation’s timing and location which was a predetermined place. The challenging aspect was intelligence gathering, not the military manoeuvre per se.”
The aftermath of the offensive, which dealt a significant blow to Iran’s Quds Force, which doubles as the external military and intelligence apparatus of the Revolutionary Guard, still haunts Israel. It evoked fury from Syria and Iran, while US officials expressed concern regarding potential backlash against Israel or America.
But Israel’s flawed assault in Gaza led to a worldwide wave of criticism, exacerbating its already isolated diplomatic situation. In the UK, the kin of one of the killed humanitarian workers, John Chapman, issued a statement, claiming, “he succumbed while trying to aid others, victim to a brutal act.”
These are not isolated cases of Israeli forces accidentally striking civilians. In the past, incidents such as the accidental shooting of three Israeli hostages in Gaza City in December and the inadvertent firing on a convoy of Paltel, Gaza’s largest telecommunications firm, resulting in technicians’ deaths have sparked outrage. These events only magnify the challenges Israel faces, especially against the rising fatalities in Gaza. Health authorities in the Hamas-led territory report that over six months of conflict have seen more than 32,000 casualties, many of whom are children. The count from Gaza’s health ministry includes both civilian and combatant losses.
Nagl expressed his opinion that the Israeli army should further enforce its conditions for initiating fire – the rules of engagement, particularly as the count of Hamas militants amidst civilians has reduced since the conflict began in October. Some Israeli experts, too, urge the Israeli military to refine their abilities of identifying targets correctly.
“A large majority of targets were accurately identified,” stated Michael B Oren, a former ambassador to the United States from Israel, and at one point, a spokesperson for the Israeli army. However, Oren acknowledged the regrettable failure to recognise WCK workers as non-targets. “An investigation will be conducted by the IDF that will determine why this mistake occurred and steps will be taken to prevent this kind of mistakes in the future.”
However, Oren and a number of other Israelis took issue with the comparison of the Damascus mission. Oren commented, “Israel confronts considerably fewer complications in locations outside of Gaza, like Syria. It is comparatively simpler to spot and take out targets, which greatly diminishes the chance for human mistakes.”
Major General Tamir Hayman, who previously stood as the chief of Israeli military intelligence, described a distinctive operation like the Damascus mission as “a domain of certainty.” In opposition, he stated, “a war is a domain of uncertainty.”
This piece first appeared in The New York Times.
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