The brother of the Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike, has called for those responsible for his sister’s death to be prosecuted and punished.
Frankcom, a 43-year-old from Melbourne who was working in Gaza with World Central Kitchen, was one of seven people killed in April when a convoy of cars was hit by an Israeli airstrike.
Israel’s defence force conducted an investigation into the incident, which resulted in two officers being dismissed and three others being reprimanded.
Mal Frankcom told the ABC he did not feel this was an adequate response.
“[I’d like] to see them go to court and to be tried and convicted and punished,” he said.
The Australian government commissioned the former defence force chief Mark Binskin to provide it with advice on the adequacy of Israel’s investigations and actions following the incident.
In the report, which was published earlier this month, Binskin wrote there had been “a significant breakdown in situational awareness” by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) when the World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid convoy was hit by Israeli drone strikes.
But Binskin said he did not believe the strikes were “knowingly or deliberately directed against the WCK”, instead saying IDF controls failed, “leading to errors in decision making and a misidentification, likely compounded by a level of confirmation bias”.
PM responds to Netanyahu: not ‘good enough’ to call aid worker killings a ‘product of war’ – videoOn Monday, the deputy leader of the Greens, Mehreen Faruqi, said the Binskin report “was missing evidence, contained feeble explanations and let Israel completely off the hook”.
“We will only uncover the facts and details with an independent investigation. If there is nothing to hide, let’s have a war crimes investigation. Zomi’s family deserves real answers and the perpetrators must be held to account,” she said in a statement.
After the report was released, a Frankcom family spokesperson welcomed the report, saying they appreciated Binskin’s role “had some limitations, but his report is an important first step”.
“We hope it will be followed by further investigations in Israel regarding those responsible for this tragic event, followed by appropriate action,” the spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said: “The Australian government will continue to press for full accountability, including any appropriate criminal charges. We will continue to engage with the Frankcom family, and advocate their views and the views of the Australian government to Israel.”