The Israeli military’s “deeply” sorry for killing seven food volunteers in Gaza earlier this week. It was a case of mistaken identity.

That’s according to the results of an investigation conducted by… well, conducted by the Israeli military. They investigated themselves. What can you do? Laugh, I suppose. Despairingly. The World Central Kitchen incident‘s a lot of things, but funny isn’t one of them.

The IDF’s account of the mistakes made in the final minutes of the volunteers’ lives was about as forthcoming as you can expect from a self-investigation. Nobody’s going to accuse themselves of cold-blooded murder, particularly not when the victims are (or were, past tense) foreign nationals trying to feed the starving during a famine-in-the-making. So, instead, Israel accused itself of plain murder. Call it “innocent murder.”

The World Central Kitchen employees were involved in an operation to transfer humanitarian aid on Monday. The IDF was apparently monitoring that operation, and at some point, they “identified a gunman on one of the aid trucks.” Then, according to the investigation, “they identified an additional gunman.” So, two gunmen among a throng of aid workers. Allegedly.

For reasons that weren’t made entirely clear, the IDF assessed that both gunmen left the food warehouse inside the World Central Kitchen’s vehicles, which the military apparently misidentified.

“After the vehicles left the warehouse where the aid had been unloaded, one of the commanders mistakenly assumed that the gunmen were located inside the accompanying vehicles and that these were Hamas terrorists,” the IDF said Friday. “The forces did not identify the vehicles in question as being associated with the World Central Kitchen.”

Again, it’s hard not to laugh, where laugh means chuckle wryly. When you’re a hammer, everything’s a nail. When you’re the IDF, everybody’s “a Hamas terrorist.”

The IDF statement detailing the events conceded that the tragedy resulted both from “misidentification” of the vehicles and a “misclassification” of the event in general. Long story short, there were no “Hamas terrorists” inside the cars. And the strikes constituted “a serious violation” of standard operating procedures.

Of course, you didn’t need the IDF’s investigation to come to that conclusion. The entire world conducted its own “investigation” in the immediate aftermath of the strikes. Based on the conspicuous absence of dead “terrorists” at the scene, the international community was left to conclude that Israel might’ve accident-murdered half a dozen good-hearted box lunch providers and their Gazan Sherpa.

The IDF came away from its internal investigation convinced that (and this is a real quote), “the incident should not have occurred.” Tempted though you might be to shout, “No sh-t!” and at the peril of apologizing for the inexcusable, it’s important to note that putting yourself in a war zone, as these volunteers did, comes with risks. Serious risks.

These six foreign nationals, God bless ’em, didn’t have to be in Gaza. And you might argue they shouldn’t have been in Gaza. This is a bitter war even as bitter wars go. Yes, there’s something noble about inserting yourself into the crossfire in order to feed the starving. But in this case, there’s also something naive, suicidal and, frankly, stupid about it.

On one side of this conflict is a trigger-happy modern military which, over the past six months, has demonstrated no qualms whatsoever about killing civilians by the thousands in order to avenge a day of rape, murder and pillage foisted on its people by a Sunni extremist politico-terror organization. On the other side is that Sunni extremist politico-terror organization, which for its part has demonstrated no qualms about kidnapping people and dragging them down into a hellish subterranean tunnel network. This is playing out on a battlefield that’s barely the size of the Philly metro area.

In short: Gaza’s the most dangerous place on Earth right now on a square foot-for-square foot basis. If you’re there, the odds you’ll meet a violent end are quite high.

All of that said, the bottom line is, was and will forever be, this: Justified or not (I think not at this point, but as a committed realist, I’m willing to concede that if you’re the victim of a barbaric atrocity, you might insist, to the end, that anything goes when it comes to reprisals) Israel’s on track to kill around 2% of all Gazans with bombs and bullets, and has engineered a famine which could push that figure higher in the absence of international intervention.

When it comes to intervention, the US is the only nation with the power to put a stop to it, whatever you want to call “it.” (I know what I’m inclined to call it, but I’ll refrain for today.)

In the meantime, foreign nationals and aid workers would be advised to stay away. Far, far away. Going to Gaza is to sign your own death warrant.

“We send our condolences to the families and the World Central Kitchen organization,” the IDF said Friday, promising to “learn the lessons of the incident and incorporate them into the IDF’s ongoing operations.” Ongoing operations.

To quote the First Lady: “Stop it, Joe. Stop it now.”