Israeli investigation into killing of 15 Palestinian aid workers reveals 'professional failures'

TEL AVIV — The Israeli Defense Forces faulted a series of “professional failures” and “breaches of order” in an incident last month when Israeli soldiers killed 15 Palestinian emergency workers in Gaza, an event that sparked widespread condemnation and calls for an independent investigation.

TEL AVIV — The Israeli Defense Forces faulted a series of “professional failures” and “breaches of order” in an incident last month when Israeli soldiers killed 15 Palestinian emergency workers in Gaza, an event that sparked widespread condemnation and calls for an independent investigation.

In the summary of an internal report on the killings and a briefing to foreign media Sunday, the IDF said it “regrets the harm caused to uninvolved civilians” and announced that it had discharged the field commander leading the implicated unit and formally reprimanded a senior officer.

The report and the IDF’s rare acceptance of blame were the culmination of a weekslong scandal that had heaped further criticism on Israel’s military just days after it broke a two-month ceasefire agreement with Hamas and restarted its offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The controversy around the killings worsened after United Nations personnel recovered the bodies from a shallow mass grave near the scene of the incident on March 23, and cellphone video found on one of the corpses revealed serious inconsistencies in the IDF’s original version of events.

“It’s like a chain of professional mistakes but with no ethical gaps,” Brig. Gen. Ephraim Defrin, said the newly appointed IDF spokesperson, in a presentation to reporters Sunday evening. “There was never any intention to deceive the public.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israeli-investigation-killing-15-palestinian-medics-rcna202028

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