Gaza Herald – An Israeli commander who ordered the 2024 drone strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers, including Australian Zomi Frankcom, has defended his decision and said he does not regret ordering the attack, according to ABC News. The interview with Colonel Nochi Mendel was conducted in October 2025, before the Israel Defense Forces announced last week that it would not pursue a criminal investigation into the strike.
Frankcom, 43, was killed alongside six colleagues in April 2024 as they traveled through central Gaza after delivering food aid. Mendel, who ordered the strike, was later dismissed from his position as chief of staff of the Israeli military’s Nahal infantry brigade. The IDF described the attack as a grave mistake caused by the misidentification of the convoy’s occupants.
According to ABC, Mendel said he did not intend to kill the aid workers but insisted, “I’m not sorry for what I did.” He blamed the complex battlefield environment and alleged that armed men linked to Hamas had become mixed with the World Central Kitchen convoy.
World Central Kitchen has rejected those allegations as “false and outrageous,” ABC reported. The organization accused Mendel of attempting to shift responsibility away from the Israeli military and called for a full and independent investigation into the deaths of its seven workers.
Mendel told ABC that he was watching live drone footage from a command center in southern Israel and believed he saw armed men near the aid convoy. He claimed that an armed man later entered one of the WCK vehicles and that personnel at Israel’s Palmachim air base confirmed the presence of what he described as an armed Hamas operative.
However, an Australian investigation led by Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin reached conclusions that diverged from Mendel’s account. The investigation found that the decision to strike had already been made before the convoy changed direction, challenging Mendel’s claim that the movement toward Rafah contributed to the decision to attack.
The strike involved three separate attacks on three WCK vehicles over roughly four minutes. According to the Binskin report cited by ABC, the strikes were authorized despite an order from a division commander that no further strikes should take place around humanitarian convoys that night.
Mendel was unable to say whether the attack actually killed any of the armed men he believed were present. He told ABC that “maybe one, or maybe none” had been killed. The seven people who were unquestionably killed were humanitarian workers traveling in clearly marked WCK vehicles.
The IDF announced last week that it would not open a criminal investigation or take further action against those involved. Frankcom’s family, World Central Kitchen, and the Australian government have criticized that decision. Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia still had not received a satisfactory explanation for why the convoy was attacked in a humanitarian area after Israeli high command had directed forces not to engage it.
ABC reported that Frankcom’s family has also repeatedly criticized the IDF for refusing to release the drone audio from the night of the attack, which could help resolve conflicting accounts. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called for an independent investigation, while ABC’s Unravel podcast is continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the killing.
