Nearly two years after a targeted Israeli drone strike in Gaza killed seven humanitarian aid workers with the global non-profit World Central Kitchen, the Israeli army officer who personally authorized the attack has publicly defended his actions and stated he feels no remorse for the deaths. In a recorded interview with Australia’s public broadcaster ABC conducted in October 2025, Colonel Nochi Mendel, who commanded the April 1, 2024 operation that struck the WCK aid convoy, confirmed he stood firmly by the order he issued.
The fatal strike claimed the lives of aid workers from five nations: Palestine, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and Poland, triggering international outcry in its immediate aftermath. Mendel, who was removed from his position as chief of staff of the Israeli military’s elite Nahal infantry brigade shortly after the incident, acknowledged full responsibility for the strike in the interview. “I’m the commander, and I’m the one who gave the order to carry out the operation. I didn’t run away from the situation. I said I gave the order; don’t look for anyone else,” he told reporters. While Mendel admitted he had not intended to kill the WCK team, he doubled down on his stance, adding: “I’m not sorry for what I did.”
Within the Israeli military’s own post-attack investigation, the strike was concluded to have been the product of multiple cascading failures, including serious breaches of the IDF’s own rules of engagement and standard operating procedures. Earlier this year, however, the Israeli military announced it would not launch any criminal investigation into the incident, a decision that drew immediate and fierce condemnation from the three Western nations whose citizens were killed: the UK, Canada, and Australia. In a joint public statement, the three nations described the decision as “shameful”, noting that the Israeli military had failed to offer any substantive explanation for its refusal to pursue criminal accountability. The countries also emphasized that the announcement, made on World Humanitarian Day, was “particularly egregious”. “The victims of this incident and their families deserve justice and accountability, and we will continue to seek answers on their behalf,” the statement read.
In his interview, Mendel sought to deflect blame for the fatal incident, blaming what he claimed were mistakes on WCK’s part and the inherent operational complexity of military activity in Gaza for the deaths. He repeated the unsubstantiated claim that WCK workers and Hamas operatives had been intermingled in the area on the night of the strike, going further to accuse the humanitarian organization of lacking neutrality. “So the WCK, too – unfortunately, they aren’t really a neutral organisation. Not really an organisation you can say is innocent and completely clean,” he said. “It had ties to Hamas,” he added.
World Central Kitchen has forcefully rejected Mendel’s allegations as baseless and defamatory. A WCK spokesperson told ABC that the claims represent the latest effort to shift blame away from the Israeli military’s own failures in the strike. “The individual making these slanderous claims has no credibility. He was directly involved in the decisions that led to the 1 April strikes and was immediately removed from his post for serious failures and breaches of standard operating procedure,” the spokesperson said. The organization reaffirmed its demand for full accountability, stating: “We demand truth and justice for our seven colleagues who were killed, through a full, independent investigation into the attack.”