IDF clears itself over Zomi Frankcom’s death + Pocock on Labor’s ‘tragic’ gambling laws

**Chris Spyrou** (0:07)
Hey, Chris Spyrou with you, welcome to The Briefing. With Labor on the cusp of getting its long-awaited gambling reform package through the parliament, many have been left lamenting a lost opportunity to give some teeth to Australia's betting laws.

**David Pocock** (0:20)
Despite what the PM says, no one in here wants to ban gambling. We just want to ensure that Australians are protected, that our children aren't being preyed on and gambling isn't normalised for the next generation.

**Chris Spyrou** (0:33)
What this new legislation means for the gambling industry and where the laws fall short with independent Senator David Pocock is coming up in the second half of this episode. First though, let's get into the headlines with Sacha Barbour Gatt on Thursday the 20th of August.

**Sacha Barbour Gatt** (0:47)
Hey Chris, the five Sydney Swans players involved in an alleged sexual assault have issued an apology.
Riley Bice, Nick Blakey, Isaac Heaney, James Jordan and Chad Warner put out a statement via the club last night saying, quote, their behaviour has fallen well short of the standards expected of us and the values of our club. They went on to acknowledge they'd let down their partners and families, members, supporters, teammates, the AFLW team, corporate partners and everyone at the club and in the wider community.

**Chris Spyrou** (1:18)
The group has also accepted the sanction handed to them yesterday by the Swans, which has seen them banned from playing the rest of the season, including the finals. The club, in handing down the penalty, said the players had breached behaviour standards after the men went out drinking following the win over Essendon on Sunday night and invited women back to their hotel room in Melbourne. It comes as detectives from Victoria Police travelled to New South Wales as they continued to investigate the alleged sexual assault. So far, none of the players have been formally interviewed, arrested or charged over the alleged incident inside the Melbourne hotel room.

**Sacha Barbour Gatt** (1:55)
Overseas now and the Israeli military has cleared its own soldiers of any criminal wrongdoing over the killing of seven aid workers in Gaza, including Australian woman Zomi Frankcom. Frankcom was part of a World Central Kitchen convoy moving through Gaza in April of 2024 when it was hit by a series of Israeli strikes killing everyone on board. Their deaths sparked outrage around the world. At the time, Israel said it fired, believing a Hamas fighter was in the convoy. But that man turned out to be an armed security guard traveling with the staff.

**Chris Spyrou** (2:29)
The IDF's investigation found serious failures led to that identification, but says it wasn't enough to suspect any crime had been committed. The military says the guard on board was never flagged before the convoy set off and the vehicles took a different route to the one agreed on. It also claims it tried to reach World Central Kitchen afterwards but heard nothing back. Two commanders have already been stripped of their ranks and three senior officers have been reprimanded.

**Sacha Barbour Gatt** (2:56)
World Central Kitchen has slammed the finding as deeply offensive, accusing Israel of shifting the blame and being incapable of investigating itself.
We are yet to hear from the Australian government, though just before the news broke, Foreign Minister Penny Wong was marking World Humanitarian Day at an event at Parliament in Canberra, where she launched an award in zombies honor with her family watching on. Kind of interesting timing there, Chris, to see those two things happening at the same time. Look, it was at that event that Penny Wong reiterated Australia's push for answers, telling the family the government will keep pressing Israel for full accountability over zombies death and the deaths of her World Central Kitchen colleagues. Now, zombies family have been pushing for the IDF to release the audio of the drone strike footage and we actually spoke to her brother Mal about it back in April.

**Mal Frankcom** (3:45)
I want to see the people punished for what they did for killing seven innocent humanitarian aid workers. Even if it was by mistake, I don't think you can kill seven innocent people that were trying to help people in need and keep on living a repercussion free life.

**Chris Spyrou** (4:04)
Yeah, and we do know that this is something that the Prime Minister had raised with the Israeli president during his visit back in February. The Australian government has long pressed for answers and has really put the pressure on Israel. He's saying, we want a bit more transparency because Israel has said, we've got this investigation going on and then leaked reports say that that investigation had been shelved or that things had been developing and the Australian government has been like, well, we're not being kept in the loop. So with these findings overnight, I have no doubt that Penny Wong will be out and about talking about it today. What she says is something that we'll be paying very close attention to.