Daily Alert Archives

Civilian Casualties Occur in Fog of War

(Ynet News) Col. Richard Kemp - The deaths of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers were a terrible tragedy. We can only admire the courage and humanity of these men and women, and others like them who work to alleviate the suffering of the civilian population, while knowing they could be killed or seriously wounded in a war zone where by definition nowhere can be safe. While combatants on both sides have an absolute duty to adhere to the laws of war and where possible avoid killing uninvolved civilians, the ultimate responsibility for all killings in this war - including the WCK workers - lies with Hamas. The IDF has accepted direct responsibility for these deaths and initiated an independent investigation. Knowing the ethos of the IDF and its strict adherence to the laws of war, it is unthinkable that the action was deliberately intended to kill aid workers. Those who point to the prominent vehicle markings have presumably never observed drone optics at night. Unfortunately, nightmares like this occur frequently in the fog of war. During President Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, a U.S. drone strike in Kabul mistakenly killed an aid worker and nine members of his family including seven children. In October 2015, a U.S. gunship attacked a hospital in Kunduz operated by Doctors Without Borders in which 42 staff and patients were killed and many wounded. Three soldiers from my own regiment were killed by a U.S. air strike in Afghanistan in August 2007 due to human error by both the American strike commander and the British ground controller. While lessons will be learned by the IDF to help them avoid repetition, the unfortunate reality of war is that other tragic incidents will re-occur during this and other conflicts around the world, especially where terrorists use human shields. The writer, a former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, was chairman of the UK's national crisis management committee, COBRA.
2024-04-04 00:00:00
Full Article