Gaza: Israeli information on death of Australian aid worker deemed ‘insufficient’, according to Canberra

Days after the tragedy, Australia is still searching for answers. Information provided by Israel about the death of an Australian aid worker during a strike in the Gaza Strip is “insufficient,” Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Saturday.

After speaking with Israeli authorities, Australia “has made it clear that we have not received enough information to meet our expectations”, she told reporters following the death of Lalzawmi Frankcom, an Australian aid worker killed on Monday along with six other aid workers in an Israeli strike in Gaza. The other victims are three Britons, a Canadian with dual citizenship, a Pole and a Palestinian.

The 43-year-old Australian, nicknamed “Zomi”, worked for the American non-governmental organization World Central Kitchen (WCK), which, among other things, is involved in sending humanitarian aid by boat from Cyprus to Gaza and building a temporary pier in the Gaza Strip. Aid workers were killed after overseeing the partial unloading of a ship carrying 300 tonnes of food aid from Cyprus.

“Completely unforgivable”

“We expect that all those responsible for her death and those colleagues from World Central Kitchen who died with her will be brought to justice,” Penny Wong said. “We believe these deaths are completely inexcusable and that clear action is needed to ensure these tragedies never happen again.”

Israel has confirmed that the two officers involved in the airstrike have been suspended, Penny Wong said. An Israeli army internal investigation report announced that a reserve colonel and an active commander would be fired. “We reiterate that appropriate action must be taken against those responsible for these tragic incidents,” she insisted.

“We are also alarmed by the first (Israeli) statements that it was an accident and that such incidents occur during war,” she also responded, as quoted by the Herald Sun. The statements “suggest that the Israeli government has not yet realized the gravity of the deaths of the seven aid workers,” she criticized.

The Israeli army admitted on Friday that a series of mistakes at various levels contributed to the deadly strikes on aid workers, saying it mistakenly believed they were targeting “Hamas agents” aboard three vehicles. Thus, the IDF admitted that the WCK had communicated its route plan, but the soldiers responsible for the strikes were unaware of it.

The head of Australia’s diplomacy also added that the Australian government would appoint a special adviser to ensure that the Israeli investigation was carried out in accordance with Canberra’s expectations. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese already called his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to express “his anger.”

Lalzawmi Frankcom was an experienced humanitarian worker who had already worked in Morocco after the devastating 2023 earthquake, in the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian in 2019, and in her home country during the fires that devastated Australia in late 2019 and early 2020.

“Is this a mistake or a crime? »

The governments of several other countries from which aid workers came also expressed their dissatisfaction. British diplomatic chief David Cameron also called for an “independent review” of the Israeli investigation. Warsaw, for its part, called for a “criminal investigation” into the “murder.” “Something from this errors still seem incomprehensible to us. Is this a mistake or a crime? “asked Pavel Vronsky, a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As for the WCK association, it also demanded an “independent investigation”, believing that the Israeli army “cannot credibly investigate its own failure in the Gaza Strip.”

The drama has even caused Washington, Israel’s staunch ally, to toughen its tone. For the first time, US President Joe Biden raised on Thursday the possibility of conditioning US aid to Israel on “tangible” measures to address the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. Secretary of State Antony Blinken finally welcomed Israel’s acknowledgment on Friday of its “full responsibility in this matter” but called for “ensure (that) measures are taken to ensure this never happens again.”