World Central Kitchen killings expose the internal rift tearing Israel's military apart

A growing rift between the Israeli military's rank-and-file and the political leadership could collapse it from within.

On April 1, Israeli drones chased three vehicles belonging to the World Central Kitchen in the Gaza Strip, launching strikes and killing seven aid workers – an Australian, three Britons, a dual U.S.-Canadians, a Palestinian and a Pole.

The brutal assassination shocked even Israel’s most fervent supporters.

WCK founder José Andrés, the Spanish celebrity chef who had condoned Israel’s assault on Gaza in the wake of October 7, and whose operation was meant to supplant UNRWA and undermine Hamas’ governance, was outraged.

“What I know is that we were targeted deliberately, non-stop until everybody was dead in this convoy,” Andrés said in a video. “This looks like it’s not a war against terrorism anymore. It seems this is a war against humanity itself.”

For the first time, Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned an Israeli strike, albeit three days after the attack and only when asked by a reporter. “When I saw the news of the strike, I was outraged. And I strongly condemn it,” he said at a press conference. 

President Biden, who had just approved $18 billion more in military aid to Israel, gently admonished Israel, saying that the country hasn’t done enough to protect aid workers. However, his administration declined to call for an independent investigation and did not reverse his decision on the weapons package. 

The Israeli military initially claimed that Hamas militants were inside the vehicles. But as that narrative fell flat and international fury boiled, Israeli military chief of staff Herzl Halevi claimed in an April 2 video that the attack was a “mistake.”

Facing international condemnation, the Israeli military dismissed on April 5 high-ranking official Colonel Nochi Mendel, who served as chief of staff of the Nahal Infantry Brigade, and reprimanded Major General Yaron Finkelman, the commander of the Southern Command.

However, Barak Ravid, an Israeli journalist close to the military establishment, remarked to CNN’s Andersen Cooper, that the attack was intentional, contrary to Halevi’s claim.

“I’m sure that there are a lot of IDF commanders and soldiers in Gaza that watch this [Halevi’s] video and say ‘What is he talking about?’” Ravid said. “There is a disconnect between how the IDF senior brass is looking at this and the way it develops the rules of engagement and the orders, and what happens when those percolate down to the forces in Gaza, especially the field commanders, the lieutenant colonels, the colonels, the brigade commanders, the battalion commanders. They’re not in the same place as the senior command.”

Indeed, soldiers of the Nahal unit spray-painted in their post inside the Gaza strip a denunciation of Halevi and showed support for their commander.

“Nohi the Nahal brigade is with you. Hertzi shame on you” the message read.

It was not only soldiers who sent messages of support for Mendel.

Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich accused the leadership of making him a “scapegoat,” and said that the dismissal “does not contribute to the public's trust in the senior command.”

Similarly, the head of the Gush Etzion settlement regional council sent a box of chocolates to Mendel.

"We are sure that you always acted in the spirit of the IDF,” the attached note read.

Indeed, Mendel exemplifies the dominant strain of Zionist holy warriors in today’s Israeli military, which has largely replaced the old guard of secular Zionists. Their ideology views Palestinians purely as an enemy nation that must be vanquished from the land, and does not differentiate between combatant and infant. Mendel resides in the Karmei Tzur settlement, the rabbi of which is the father of Amiram Ben Oliel, who burned to death a Palestinian family in Douma in 2015. The fired colonel also attended Ateret Kohanim yeshiva, which works to ethnically cleanse the Old City of Jerusalem.

The gruesome Israeli attack on its own assets and show of support for its perpetrators illustrates an internal conflict between the Israeli military rank-and-file and the political class that could lead to the military’s self-implosion.