Israeli colonel who ordered strike that killed seven WCK aid workers says he is 'not sorry'

The Israeli officer who ordered the drone strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza says he does not regret it.

Colonel Nochi Mendel, who commanded the 1 April 2024 operation, told Australia's ABC in an interview recorded in October 2025 that he takes responsibility for the decision and stands by it.

"I'm the commander, and I'm the one who gave the order to carry out the operation. I didn't run away from the situation. I said I gave the order; don't look for anyone else."

He said he did not intend to kill the WCK workers, but added: "I'm not sorry for what I did."

The strike killed seven people, including Palestinian, British, Australian, Canadian and Polish nationals, as their marked convoy left a Gaza warehouse after delivering food aid. Mendel was removed from his post as chief of staff of the army's Nahal infantry brigade in the aftermath. The Israeli military itself said the attack resulted from a string of failures, including breaches of its rules of engagement and standard operating procedures.

Earlier this month, the military announced it would not open a criminal investigation into the strike, a decision the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia jointly called "shameful." The three governments said the timing, announced on World Humanitarian Day, was "particularly egregious" and that the military had offered no further explanation for declining to prosecute.

"The victims of this incident and their families deserve justice and accountability, and we will continue to seek answers on their behalf," the governments said.

In the ABC interview, Mendel went further than defending the order. He blamed WCK itself, claiming there was "an intermingling between the WCK and Hamas operatives" on the night of the strike and describing the aid group as not "a neutral organisation."

"Not really an organisation you can say is innocent and completely clean," he said.

WCK rejected the claim outright. A spokesperson told ABC the allegation was "false and outrageous" and "the latest attempt to shift blame away from the IDF's own actions."

"The individual making these slanderous claims has no credibility," the spokesperson said. "He was directly involved in the decisions that led to the 1 April strikes and was immediately removed from his post for serious failures and breaches of standard operating procedure."

WCK said it continues to demand "a full, independent investigation into the attack" on behalf of its seven dead colleagues.

The sequence now stands as a matter of public record: an officer removed for procedural failures, a military that acknowledged those failures but closed the file without charges, and the officer himself, on camera, declining to apologize.