Over two years after five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab was killed in Gaza, Israel’s military has reportedly for the first time acknowledged that it opened fire on the vehicle carrying her.
Rajab’s killing in January 2024 sparked widespread anger. The family, that included her aunt, uncle and three cousins, were caught in the crossfire while attempting to escape the conflict zone, and their status was unknown till February 10. The audio revealed the final moment of interaction the girl had before her death, asking the aid workers to come rescue her.
“Following review of the findings an due to apparent failures in the coordination of the movement of the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance, it has been decided to initiate a criminal investigation of the incident by Military Police Criminal Investigation Division,” the IDF said, according to a CNN report. She died while she was trapped inside a car for hours alongside several members of her family, who were also killed, after their vehicle came under the IDF firing. Rajab’s story came to light after a phone recording went viral on social media.
The Israeli military said it will open internal investigations over its troops’ involvement in the killing, along with the killings of 15 emergency and aid workers in March 2025, Reuters reported, adding that the decision on investigation came after a report of its Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism. On the killings of seven aid workers with the World Central Kitchen charity in April 2024, the military said there was “no reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct that would justify the opening of a criminal investigation.
Notably, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had initially refuted allegations of being involved in Rajab’s killing and also cited a ‘preliminary investigation’ to say that its forces were “not present near the vehicle or within firing range” of the vehicle. Dan Owen, a researcher in the Yesh Din rights organisation, told Reuters that over the last decade only a “tiny” proportion of investigations had led to indictments while growing political pressure “further deters Israeli law-enforcement authorities from holding those responsible accountable, even when clear evidence does exist.” However, rights groups have expressed skepticism saying such probes rarely lead to convictions.
