Israel's Military Advocate General closed the criminal file on the strike that killed Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom on Wednesday, finding no basis for charges. Foreign Minister Penny Wong summoned Israel's ambassador to Australia, Hillel Newman, the following day and told him the decision falls short of what Canberra expects.
Seven World Central Kitchen staff were killed on 1 April 2024 when Israeli forces struck their vehicles in central Gaza. Frankcom was among them, along with a Palestinian colleague, the Canadian American Jacob Flickinger and workers from the United Kingdom. The convoy had been delivering food.
The Military Advocate General's Corps announced decisions on five incidents on Wednesday. It opened criminal investigations into two of them, the killing of six-year-old Hind Rajab and eight others in Gaza City in January 2024, and the deaths of 15 rescue workers at Rafah in March 2025. It closed three, including the World Central Kitchen strike and two incidents involving Doctors Without Borders in 2023. On the aid convoy, the Corps said that despite failures in forming the assessment that Hamas operatives were travelling in the vehicles, the commanders' decisions did not cross the criminal threshold.
“Australia is outraged the Israeli Government has decided not to pursue criminal proceedings against those responsible for killing Zomi Frankcom and her World Central Kitchen colleagues," Wong said in a statement issued on Thursday. She noted that the Israel Defense Forces had already admitted the strikes were the result of serious failures to follow procedure, mistaken identification and errors in decision making. "This decision falls far short of the accountability we expect.”
Wong also objected to the timing. The decision was released on World Humanitarian Day, which she called especially insulting to Frankcom's family, to humanitarians and to Australians generally. Frankcom's brother Mal said the same thing in the family's statement, calling it an insult to his sister's memory and asking the Australian government to pursue all available legal avenues towards an independent and credible investigation.
Australia has been through one such process already. After the strike, the government appointed a Special Adviser to examine Israel's own response and published his report in August 2024. It found serious failures on the Israeli side. The Australian position since then has been to press Israel to complete its domestic process. That process has now completed, and it produced no charges.
Wong rejected calls to expel Newman, saying that removing him would reduce the government's ability to engage with Israel and press Australia's interests. That leaves the summons, the statement and continued representations through the embassy as the extent of what Canberra has said it will do. Canada, whose citizen also died in the strike, criticised the decision the same day.
Two officers were dismissed and three senior officers reprimanded by the IDF in April 2024 over the strike, and the Corps said process failures identified in the incident are still being assessed for possible command level disciplinary action. No criminal proceeding is on foot. Wong said the government will not stop pressing Israel for justice, and has not said what further step it is prepared to take if the answer does not change.
