The Israeli military has confirmed for the first time that its soldiers opened fire on a car carrying five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who was killed along with six relatives in Gaza in January 2024, and announced a criminal investigation into the incident.
The admission reverses the army’s initial position. The IDF had previously stated that none of its troops were in the area at the time of Hind’s killing. That suggestion was soon questioned, and the military later acknowledged it had conducted raids on what it called terror targets in neighbourhoods of Gaza City, including Tel al-Hawa, where Hind was located. On January 29, 2024, at about 7:30pm, Hind died of her injuries while trapped in a car surrounded by the bodies of her relatives, according to Al Jazeera. Her family had been forcibly displaced from Gaza City hours earlier and was attempting to follow Israeli orders to leave when the army fired more than 300 bullets at the black Kia driven by Hind’s uncle.
Hind initially survived the attack. She answered a telephone call and pleaded for help. The call lasted hours. Operator Rana Faqih of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society stayed on the line, as the Red Crescent team appealed to the Israeli army to allow their ambulance to access the location. Hind described seeing tanks directly in front of the car, moving towards her. The operators told her to hide under the seats and not let anyone see her. At one point, Hind told Faqih it was getting dark. She was scared. She asked how far away Faqih’s house was. Faqih told the BBC in February 2024 that she felt paralysed and helpless.
Ambulance shelled after coordination with Israeli army
Three hours after the call began, an ambulance was finally cleared to approach the area and dispatched to rescue Hind. It was after dark when the crew, Yusuf al-Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun, notified operators that they were nearing the location and about to be checked for entry by Israeli forces. That was the last operators heard from them, or from Hind. The line disconnected for good. The PRCS later confirmed that both paramedics were killed when the ambulance was bombed by Israeli forces. The organisation said the Israeli occupation deliberately targeted the Red Crescent crew despite obtaining prior coordination to allow the ambulance to arrive at the scene. An Al Jazeera investigation into the killing revealed that an Israeli tank was likely 13 to 23 metres away and would have clearly seen the civilians inside the car. Hind’s body was recovered days later, along with the others killed.
In its statement, the IDF said its findings indicate that troops fired at a vehicle that was travelling contrary to an advanced notice published by the IDF Spokesperson to residents of the area. The military described the vehicle as approaching them. The criminal investigation was decided on following a review of the findings and due to alleged failures in the coordination of the movement of the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance, the IDF said, and will be conducted by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division.
Second investigation into March 2025 killings
The IDF also announced a criminal investigation into the killing of 15 Palestinians, including medics and a UN worker, in the Tal al-Sultan area of Rafah in southern Gaza, during an emergency call-out early on 23 March 2025. An IDF unit fired on ambulances, a fire engine, and a marked UN vehicle. Their bodies were found buried in shallow graves a week later next to the crushed vehicles, the BBC reported. The Israeli military initially said its troops fired on suspicious vehicles driving in darkness with their headlights and emergency lights off. It later said that account was mistaken, after a video found on the mobile phone of one of the dead paramedics, Rifaat Radwan, showed the convoy was using its emergency lights. The IDF said the firing conducted during the incident raises a reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct.
The announcement followed reviews of 150 incidents of troop conduct during Israel’s war on Gaza, according to Al Jazeera. In three other cases, the IDF said it had not found grounds for criminal investigations. Those include the killing of seven World Central Kitchen employees in Deir al-Balah two years ago, and four employees of Médecins Sans Frontières who were killed in two incidents, the BBC reported. The IDF said in its statement that for more than 1,000 days it has been conducting intensive combat across numerous fronts in an exceptionally complex operational reality, and that as part of its obligations under international law and Israeli domestic law, it examines exceptional incidents that occurred during combat.
The IDF is under pressure to show it investigates itself to stave off international legal action, most notably from the International Criminal Court, the BBC reported. It aims to counter accusations that it has committed war crimes and that there is impunity for its forces. The UN cited Hind’s case in a commission of inquiry accusing Israel of war crimes, which Israel denies. However, Israeli rights groups say criminal investigations of Israeli forces rarely lead to convictions. Ziv Stahl, executive director of Israeli human rights group Yesh Din, told the BBC that almost no indictments are filed in relation to the number of complaints against soldiers and commanders for offenses committed. In the even more rare cases where soldiers or commanders are convicted, they receive disproportionately lenient sentences that bear little relation to the severity of the offenses, Stahl said.
Hind’s grandmother, also named Hind Rajab, told The Associated Press by phone that the Israeli investigation is not enough. She called for an international probe into the killing of her granddaughter and all of the thousands of children killed in Gaza during the war. An international investigation is required to uncover the truth and hold all those responsible accountable, she said. We call for justice, not only for Hind, but for all Gaza children. Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting in Gaza, said people there who are hearing about the investigation are sceptical that it will bring any justice to Hind and her family. Hind’s recorded pleas for help were widely shared on social media and led to international condemnation. A docu-drama on the killing, The Voice of Hind Rajab, was nominated for Best International Feature Film at the 2026 Oscars and received a record ovation at the Venice Biennale.