More than two years on from Frankcom\u2019s death, there is no closure. From the perspective of her family, no justice.<\/p>\n
Lalzawmi \u201cZomi\u201d Frankcom, 43, was killed when an aid convoy in which she was travelling, bringing food to the war-ravaged people of Gaza<\/a>, was hit by three drone strikes, intentionally fired over four minutes into three vehicles.<\/p>\n How it happened<\/p>\n Frankcom was an experienced humanitarian, she had worked across Asia, north Africa, the Americas and the Middle East.<\/p>\n Her employer, the World Central Kitchen, was similarly credentialed. It had operated in war-ravaged Gaza for months of intense conflict, and closely coordinated what aid it could deliver with the arm of the Israeli ministry of defence which controlled everything that went in and out of the occupied territory.<\/p>\n Permission to move from the IDF had been slow to come through, and it was after 11pm when the three vehicles \u2013 each marked with the WCK logo on their roofs \u2013 turned south on to the coast road, heading for Rafah.<\/p>\n Between 11:09pm and 11:13pm<\/a>, strikes from IDF drones hit all three vehicles in steady succession, each strike about two minutes apart. Survivors from the first vehicles ran in fear to the surviving cars, before they too were annihilated in turn.<\/p>\n The seven aid workers who were killed in Gaza on Tuesday, 2 April, 2024. Photograph: World Central Kitchen\/APSign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n Seven aid workers were killed, probably one in the first vehicle, two in the second, four in the third. They were from Australia, the UK, Poland, Palestine<\/a> and America.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people in the Gaza Strip,\u201d the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said at the time.<\/a> \u201cThis happens in wartime.\u201d<\/p>\n The World Central Kitchen saw it very differently.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organisations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable,\u201d the chief executive, Erin Gore, said.<\/p>\n The IDF conducted a rapid investigation of the attacks, characterising the decision to repeatedly strike the aid convoy as a \u201cgrave mistake\u201d, but said there was no intentional harm.<\/p>\n \u201cThose who approved the strike were convinced that they were targeting Hamas operatives and not WCK employees.\u201d<\/p>\n In its public statement on the attacks, the IDF said it had not been told of the presence of an armed guard with the convoy before it started moving, and that that guard had been wrongly identified as a Hamas fighter who had taken the convoy hostage.<\/p>\n The IDF also said the convoy had deviated from its previously agreed route.<\/p>\n Notwithstanding \u201cserious failures\u201d that led to the killings, \u201cthe decisions of the commanders did not raise reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct,\u201d the IDF said.<\/p>\n Within 72 hours of the strikes, the two Israeli officers responsible for the strike were identified and removed from their posts.<\/p>\n It was later reported the most senior of those officers, Col Nochi Mendel, was a West Bank settler who, earlier in 2024, had signed an open letter with more than 100 other IDF officers and commanders, imploring that aid to Gaza be cut off<\/a>.<\/p>\n The letter, sent to the Israeli War Cabinet and the IDF chief of staff, urged those to \u201cdo everything in your power\u201d not to allow \u201chumanitarian supplies and the operation of hospitals inside Gaza City\u201d.<\/p>\n Australia responded to the attack on the aid convoy with fury.<\/p>\n The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, described Frankcom\u2019s killing, alongside those of her colleagues, as \u201ccompletely unacceptable\u201d<\/a>, saying they were undertaking \u201cextraordinarily important work\u201d and should have been protected.<\/p>\n The former chief of the defence force, retired air chief marshal Mark Binskin, was charged with investigating the circumstances of the attack. He visited Israel between 5 and 13 May 2024, just over a month after the attack.<\/p>\n He reported constructive engagement from Israeli authorities, including interviews with senior IDF officials. He was shown 90 minutes of unedited drone footage from the night of the attack. He was shown that footage without sound.<\/p>\n Binskin reported to government<\/a>: \u201cit is my assessment that the IDF strike on the WCK aid workers was not knowingly or deliberately directed against the WCK\u201d.<\/p>\n Mal Frankcom (L) and Australian foreign minister Penny Wong at ceremony to honour Zomi Frankcom and the 674 humanitarian personnel killed since the start of 2024. Photograph: Lukas Coch\/EPA<\/p>\n He said it was likely the presence of armed, locally contracted, security personnel on the convoy, of which the IDF had not been notified ahead of its movement, as well as the failure within the IDF to properly disseminate information around the convoy\u2019s movements, led to a \u201csignificant break-down in situational awareness\u201d.<\/p>\n Binskin said the Israeli government should apologise to the families of those innocents it killed.<\/p>\n \u2018Far short of accountability\u2019<\/p>\n Binskin delivered his report in early August of 2024. It was more than two years later, that the Israel Defense Forces\u2019 military advocate general cleared the officers and soldiers of any criminal wrongdoing.<\/p>\n In a statement, the IDF said its officers \u201cmistakenly believed that the vehicles contained Hamas military operatives and therefore struck the vehicles\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was determined that, notwithstanding serious failures in the process<\/a> that led to the assessment that Hamas operatives were travelling in the vehicles, the decisions of the commanders did not raise reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct,\u201d the IDF said.<\/p>\n Australia\u2019s response, again, was frustration and rage<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIsrael\u2019s decision falls far short of the accountability we expect,\u201d the foreign minister, Penny Wong<\/a>, said.<\/p>\n \u201cDemocracies seek and accept higher standards. The Australian government will continue to keep pressing Israel for justice for Zomi and her colleagues.\u201d<\/p>\n But Israel\u2019s ambassador to Australia, Hillel Newman \u2013 summoned by Wong for what has been described as a \u201cdressing-down\u201d \u2013 was steadfast in his defence of Israel\u2019s process. He said he felt \u201cdeep sorrow\u201d for the victims and those who loved them, but refused to apologise.<\/p>\n Asked about the Australian government\u2019s, and people\u2019s, demands for justice, Newman asked \u201cWhat does it mean: justice? Lynch people on the street<\/a>?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo. Justice is that\u2019s why you have a court. A court measures what happened and comes to a decision.\u201d<\/p>\n Israeli ambassador to Australia Hillel Newman speaks to the media outside Parliament House in Canberra, Thursday, 20 August, 2026. Photograph: Lukas Coch\/AAP<\/p>\n Zomi Frankcom\u2019s grieving brother Mal had just been in Canberra to mark World Humanitarian Day \u2013 memorialising \u201cthose who have lost their lives while helping others\u201d \u2013 when the news of Israel\u2019s finding was announced.<\/p>\n He and the foreign minister had just announced an award in his sister\u2019s honour.<\/p>\n![\"Wong](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787283970_977_1125.jpg\")
Wong \u2018outraged\u2019 at Israeli decision to not criminally investigate Zomi Frankcom killing \u2013 video<\/p>\n