Updated ,first published
Israel’s ambassador to Australia has defended the Israeli investigation that cleared its military of any criminal wrongdoing over an attack in Gaza that killed seven aid workers, including Australian Zomi Frankcom, after Foreign Minister Penny Wong summoned him to Parliament House for a rebuke.
The Israeli Defence Forces 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.
Wong released a strongly worded statement on Thursday morning, expressing Australia’s outrage and pointing out she learnt of Israel’s decision on World Humanitarian Day moments before it was announced – a fact that was “especially insulting to Zomi’s loved ones, humanitarians and all Australians”.
“This decision falls far short of the accountability we expect,” Wong said.
“Democracies seek and accept higher standards. The Australian government will not stop pressing Israel for justice for Zomi and her colleagues.”
The foreign minister added that she will call in Israel’s ambassador – a process where a diplomat is summoned for a formal warning or dressing down – and that Australia was considering its next steps.
Speaking immediately after the meeting with Wong at Parliament House, Israeli ambassador Hillel Newman told this masthead that it was a coincidence that the investigation findings were released on World Humanitarian Day and declared he had personally intervened to speed up the probe.
Newman said he had not been expelled from the country or issued another form of retaliation, as some critics of Israel have demanded.
“How can one retaliate against a finding of an independent court that…does an independent proceeding and comes to findings?” he asked.
“How can you retaliate against findings like that? I have a lot of criticism of decisions of courts here in Australia.”
Newman said there had been a “thorough investigation by an independent authority” and that it had been conducted with “total independence”.
“Not every operational failure means that there’s criminal liability,” Newman said.
“One has to respect international bodies that work according to law and evidence and come to a conclusion.
“One cannot judge a conclusion and say it’s [incorrect] or unjustified just because it doesn’t tally with what I want.”
Asked about the timing of the release of the finding, Newman said: “There was no intention of it falling on the humanitarian day.”
“We don’t have control over that,” he said.
“It’s the prosecution in Israel that decides when to release the findings of cases.
“We’ve been under pressure, by the way, all the time to release [the findings] as soon as possible, and I was personally involved in making sure that these the case goes forward and comes to closure.
“I even involved the President of Israel, President Herzog, and he got involved with the prosecution.”
Asked for his message to the Frankcom family, Newman said: “We express deep sorrow with the family, and every loss of innocent life is a tragedy.
“My message to the family is that Israel is full of sorrow and solidarity with the family, but it was not intentional.”
He said he would leave it to Wong to provide her message on the issue.
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 WCK, 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.
WCK said it fundamentally disagreed with the decision not to pursue a criminal investigation.
“We strongly condemn the Israeli military prosecutor’s account of the deaths of our seven colleagues on April 1, 2024,” the aid organisation said in a statement.
“There has never been any excuse or justification for the attacks, and there is nothing in this account that does so. The decision is inconsistent with the full truth and deeply offensive.”
Wong spoke in Canberra on Wednesday at a Parliament House event attended by Frankcom’s family to launch the Zomi Frankcom Humanitarian Award.
“I want to make it clear that the Australian government continues to press the Israeli government for full accountability for the deaths of Zomi and her World Central Kitchen colleagues. Zomi and her family deserve justice,” she said.
In a report released in July 2024, former Australian Defence Force chief Mark Binskin found that “a significant breakdown in situational awareness” by the Israeli military caused the strike that killed Frankcom, adding he did not believe the charity workers were deliberately targeted.
The IDF said its Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism (FFAM) had reviewed approximately 150 incidents since the beginning of the war, then transferred them for examination by the Military Prosecution.
Rajab and her family were trapped in a vehicle under fire in Gaza City in January 2024, while she pleaded for help by phone with her cousin Layan Hamada beside her.
The IDF concluded that in the hours shortly after the firing, following a telephone call to rescue authorities, the movement of a Palestine Red Crescent ambulance was coordinated for the purpose of evacuating the casualties.
“However, according to the allegations raised, upon the ambulance’s arrival at the scene of the incident, a shell was fired toward it, resulting in the deaths of the two paramedics travelling in it,” the IDF said.
“Several days later, the bodies of the seven members of the Hamada family, including the bodies of Hind and Layan, were recovered from the vehicle. In addition, the bodies of the two paramedics were recovered from the ambulance.
“It has been decided to initiate a criminal investigation of the incident by Military Police Criminal Investigation Division (MPCID). In light of this decision, no further details can be provided beyond the above with respect to the aspects arising from the FFAM’s review.”
The 15 Palestinian paramedics were killed as they drove in the southern city of Rafah in March 2025.
The IDF decided not to take criminal action over the killings of four staffers from Doctors Without Borders in two separate instances in November 2023 and February 2024.
On Wednesday, an Israeli airstrike killed nine Palestinians at a police station in Gaza, medics said.
Medics and police sources said several officers were among those killed at what the Hamas-led interior ministry said was the headquarters of the municipal police. Fifteen others were wounded.
The Israeli military said it had struck Hamas militants who “operated from the civilian police station” to advance attacks against its troops.
With Reuters
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Matthew Knott is the foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X, Facebook or email.
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David Crowe is Europe correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.