{"id":590202,"date":"2026-08-20T04:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T04:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/590202\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T04:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T04:56:09","slug":"australia-outraged-after-israel-clears-soldiers-over-aid-worker-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/590202\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia outraged after Israel clears soldiers over aid worker deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Australia summoned Israel&#8217;s ambassador on Thursday and expressed outrage at a decision by its military not to pursue criminal proceedings over the death of an Australian aid worker in a 2024 airstrike in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/israel-news\/defense-news\/article-906011\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">&#8220;This decision falls far short of the accountability we expect,&#8221; Foreign Minister Penny Wong said, adding that Australia was outraged by the decision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">&#8220;Democracies seek, and accept higher standards. The Australian government will not stop pressing Israel for justice for Zomi and her colleagues.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">In her statement, Wong said she had told Australia&#8217;s envoy in Israel to convey its views directly to the Israeli government as Canberra considers its next steps.<\/p>\n<p>The attack drew widespread condemnation from the United States and several allies after citizens of Britain and Poland, as well as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/israel-news\/article-905875\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Palestinians<\/a> and a dual US-Canadian citizen were among those killed.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation had concluded there was no criminal liability for the soldiers involved in the attack, said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/diaspora\/antisemitism\/article-902765\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Hillel Newman,<\/a> Israel&#8217;s ambassador to Australia, although there had been operational failures by the Israeli military.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">&#8220;It was a mistake, in retrospect, but the findings of the court are that there was no criminal intention, no intention to hit at aid workers, and therefore no criminal responsibility,&#8221; Newman told reporters in Canberra after meeting Wong.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Newman said the aid workers&#8217; convoy deviated from a pre-approved route and may have carried armed personnel, leading the Israeli military to believe it had been taken over by the Hamas terrorist group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia summoned Israel&#8217;s ambassador on Thursday and expressed outrage at a decision by its military not to pursue&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[972,50,51,85,46,145828,61,43,71135],"class_list":["post-590202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-australia","tag-gaza","tag-hamas","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israel-australia-relations","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-news","tag-world-central-kitchen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}