The IDF and defense ministry claimed that the aid workers' killing resulted from poor coordination. Israeli army sources later refuted their claims, saying the incident has 'no connection to coordination' and was caused by the fact that 'every commander sets the rules for himself'
The sources accused the IDF's Southern Command of trying to deflect blame for the incident in Deir al-Balah, in which seven employees of World Central Kitchen were killed. A source in the intelligence branch said the command "knows exactly what the cause of the attack was – in Gaza, everyone does as he pleases."
Army regulations say that final approval for any action against sensitive targets like aid organizations must be given by senior officers – the division commander, the head of the command or even the chief of staff. But in Gaza, the source said, "every commander sets the rules for himself" and gives his own interpretation of the rules of engagement.
"It has no connection to coordination," the intelligence branch source said. "You can set up another 20 administrations or war rooms, but if someone doesn't decide to put an end to the conduct of some of the troops inside Gaza, we'll see more incidents like this."
As genocide per definition requires internt, the argument that "whoops, it was an accident!" might actually hold up in court.
Of course it is not an accident, and central authorities (Netanyahu and his fascists) know exactly what they're doing. But this is what they're betting on, and time will tell if it works out for them.
The genocide convention and the state of Israel were brothers in birth, both being responses to the atrocities of the Holocaust. This time around they will be reunited as enemies.
I mean, genocide is not a single event. Even a massacre is not necessarily genocide by itself. It's a systemic, large scale process. If we're going to the scale of genocide, it won't be about one or two events, but a multitude of events at which point it's getting hard to put the blame on a rogue person or on accidents.
That aside, it's of course something that the IDF went from "we are a modern, precise army, the best of the crop" to "no, we can't be at fault, we have no control over ourselves, everyone just does what they want".