Israeli colonel tells Guardian aid workers were legitimate targets under military 'guilt by association' policy

Reserve colonel Nochi Mendel ordered the drone strikes that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers on April 1, 2024. He has now told the Guardian why he believes the killings were justified, in an investigation published as an Israeli military prosecutor closes the case without criminal charges.

The WCK convoy, three clearly marked vehicles, was struck by missiles soon after delivering food aid in Gaza. Killed were British nationals James Kirby, James Henderson and John Chapman, Australian Zomi Frankcom, Palestinian Saifeddin Abutaha, Polish national Damian Sobol, and dual US-Canadian citizen Jacob Flickinger.

The IDF's official account blamed individual officer errors and faulted the victims for hiring armed guards and allegedly deviating from an agreed route. But Mendel, in interviews with the Guardian, described a different justification: a practice known inside the army as haflala, or incrimination, which lets field commanders designate people as targets based on association with alleged militants rather than direct evidence against them.

Mendel said the WCK team became targets after a brief encounter, lasting only minutes, with armed men assumed to be Hamas fighters, an assumption the Guardian's reporting indicates was never substantiated. He described the threshold for being marked as 'mixed together' with militants as being 'near them, talking, playing, hanging out and so on.'

Asked whether the presence of armed men made the entire convoy a target, Mendel answered plainly.

"Certainly. They were not innocent because they were connected to Hamas."

He said his unit had previously been commended by the army hierarchy for strikes on what were deemed Hamas attempts to seize control of aid shipments. "They applauded us and were pleased with our action," he said, adding that the only distinction in the WCK case was that foreign nationals died. "That's the whole difference. Not a substantive difference."

Several Israeli officers familiar with the incident told the Guardian the convoy was nowhere near Israeli troops when it was hit, and that the strikes were not ordered because of any imminent threat to Israeli forces, but to advance the broader mission of blocking Hamas from controlling aid distribution.

WCK rejected the prosecutor's decision to close the case. "At the time of the lethal attacks, our team in Gaza was unarmed and posing a threat to nobody," the organization said, adding that the IDF "had full visual clarity on our clearly marked humanitarian vehicles during the extended, multiple airstrikes" and knew the team's movements and identities in advance.

The governments of Britain, Australia and Canada called the prosecutor's decision "shameful" and said they would keep seeking answers for their citizens. A UK inquest opened in 2024 into the deaths of Kirby, Henderson and Chapman remains adjourned pending the outcome of the Israeli investigation.

Mendel is described as the only officer of such senior rank to have been dismissed over conduct during the Gaza war, and has reportedly been portrayed within army command as a rogue operator. The Guardian notes he was reported to be among 130 signatories of a January 2024 letter to the IDF calling for aid flow into Gaza to be restricted. The IDF did not respond to a request for comment.