No criminal probe over Israeli strike that killed Australian Zomi Frankcom

Israel’s military has cleared its personnel of any criminal wrongdoing over an attack in Gaza that killed seven aid workers including Australian Zomi Frankcom.

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) decided there was “no reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct” in the strike on the World Central Kitchen workers in April 2024 as they delivered humanitarian aid to a warehouse.

The formal IDF decision came hours after Foreign Minister Penny Wong called for “full accountability” over the deaths, as she honoured Frankcom at an event in Canberra on Wednesday to launch a humanitarian award in her name.

The outcome was one of five IDF reports issued on Wednesday into separate incidents. In one case, which made global headlines, five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab died in January 2024 after pleading to be rescued from an attack that had killed her aunt, uncle and three cousins.

The IDF ruled there should be a criminal investigation by the Military Police into the death of Rajab, her family members, as well as paramedics who sought to come to her aid.

In a second case, the IDF decided there should also be a criminal investigation into an ambush by Israeli forces that killed 15 Palestinians including medical personnel as well as a United Nations employee in March 2025.

The decision on Frankcom and her colleagues outraged World Central Kitchen, which condemned the outcome and called for an independent inquiry into the airstrikes on the grounds that the Israeli military could not credibly investigate its own conduct.

Frankcom, 43, and six colleagues died on April 1, 2024 when the vehicle they were travelling in was fired upon while delivering aid in Gaza .

The IDF said its officers had “mistakenly believed that the vehicles contained Hamas military operatives and therefore struck the vehicles”.

It claimed that attempts were made to contact WCK representatives during “the approximately half-hour period in which the convoy vehicles were tracked on the understanding that they contained Hamas operatives”, but those attempts were unsuccessful.

The Israeli military said the presence of armed security to accompany the convoy “was not coordinated with IDF authorities” and the vehicles had deviated from the route arranged in advance, while several people were also mistakenly identified as armed persons.

“Following review of all findings of the factual assessment, it was determined that, notwithstanding serious failures in the process 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,” the IDF said.

It added that there was “no reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct that would justify the opening of a criminal investigation”.

Two Israeli officers were dismissed from their positions and three senior officers were formally reprimanded, according to the Israeli military.