Israel will pay compensation to dead aid workers’ families, say sources

Report into tragedy due as officials continue to reject claims strike on convoy that killed seven, including three Britons, was deliberate

Israel is expected to offer compensation to the families of the aid workers killed in Gaza after completing its investigation into their deaths.
The official report, which could be made public within days, is thought to blame the deaths of the World Central Kitchen (WCK) workers – including three Britons – on an intelligence failure, according to a military source.
The report is being conducted by Yoav Har-Even, a retired major general with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who recently stepped down as chief executive of Rafael, one of Israel’s three largest weapons suppliers, The Telegraph has been told.
Sources said the report could be available as soon as by the end of the week and is likely to be presented to officials representing the countries of the victims, including Simon Walters, the UK’s ambassador to Israel.
If the report concludes, as expected, that the deaths were a tragic accident, the bereaved families will be offered compensation by the Israeli government, according to Giora Eiland, a retired IDF major general and a former head of Israel’s National Security Council.
It comes as Israeli officials are continuing to push back against accusations that the attack on the aid convoy was deliberate.
The IDF chief of staff yesterday apologised for the killings, saying it was the result of a “misidentification in complex conditions”.
But military sources told Haaretz newspaper that the deaths were the result of “a lack of discipline on the part of commanders in the field”.
Military sources have claimed they suspected Hamas fighters of being in a vehicle when the food convoy was struck. But reports suggest three separate missiles were fired at the vehicles, killing seven aid workers.
In a hint at what might form part of the investigation’s conclusions, a source close to Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister said: “Thought they’d spotted guys with guns. One car then broke away which they thought was terrorists.”
However, Derek Madsen, of US aid agency Anera, which has paused its aid operations in Gaza after a member of its own staff was killed last month, said yesterday the deaths appeared to be “intentional”.
Meanwhile, José Andrés, the founder of WCK, said Israel must stop killing civilians “today” in an extensive op-ed in the New York Times.
Maj-Gen Eiland told The Telegraph he conducted the investigation into the 2003 death of Iain Hook, a British UN worker killed by an IDF sniper. The sniper claimed to have mistaken Mr Hook’s mobile phone for a pistol.
Maj-Gen Eiland said: “I made the investigation and I flew to London and I met his family and also the foreign minister. I presented my analysis and we admitted we made a mistake. We apologised and we paid compensation to the family.”
Israel at the time was accused of the “cold-blooded murder” of Mr Hook, a former British Army officer who headed a UN operation to rebuild Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.
Yohanan Tzoreff, a former adviser to the Israeli civil administration in Gaza before the disengagement, also told The Telegraph compensation was likely for the deaths of the WCK workers.
“It is highly possible that Israel as a state, not the army, will offer compensation because Israel has to show that was a mistake, and we’re ready to pay the price for it,” he said.
He added that the “longer the war goes on, the more mistakes will be made”, and stressed that IDF units were under significant pressure in a “chaotic environment”.
He added: “Nobody in Israel has any intention of killing innocent people – let alone those coming in to provide humanitarian services to civilians.”
Maj-Gen Eiland said: “Mistakes in this kind of war cannot be prevented. Every mistake is a terrible one but you can make a mistake by pushing the trigger or sometimes by hesitating and not making the shot. This is what we call the kingdom of uncertainty.”
Israel, he pointed out, had killed three of its own hostages, who were shot dead by the IDF as they escaped from their Hamas captors, while he estimated dozens of Israeli troops killed in Gaza had died as a result of friendly fire.
“These kinds of mistakes do happen,” he said, echoing statements made by the IDF as well as senior politicians including Benjamin Netanyahu, who has accepted that israeli forces “unintentionally struck innocent people in the Gaza Strip”.
Maj-Gen Eiland insisted lessons would be learned and that “almost everything” about the air strikes that hit the WCK convoy will be made public.