Israel’s military has acknowledged for the first time that its soldiers fired on the car in which five-year-old Hind Rajab was trapped in Gaza City, and has opened a criminal investigation into her killing.
DR reports that the Israel Defense Forces will investigate two of the most widely covered cases of the war in Gaza. Hind Rajab died in January 2024 together with six relatives and two Palestine Red Crescent paramedics, Yousef Zeino and Ahmed al Madhoun.
The girl spoke for hours with a Palestine Red Crescent operator while trapped in the car, surrounded by dead family members. The line was eventually cut, and she was found dead a week later.
The IDF previously denied involvement. According to DR, a preliminary military review stated that its forces were neither near the vehicle nor within firing range. Two and a half years later, the military says troops did shoot at the car.
CNN reports that the case will be handled by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division, after an internal review pointed to apparent failures in coordinating the movement of the Red Crescent ambulance. As noted by TIME, the findings come from the General Staff Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism, which reviews so-called exceptional incidents.
A second investigation concerns the killing of 15 Palestinian paramedics, rescue workers and one UN employee, whose bodies were found in a mass grave in Rafah in 2025. NPR reports that troops fired on an ambulance and then on other emergency vehicles, and that the bodies and vehicles were bulldozed into sand.
These are the first criminal investigations into Israeli troop conduct in Gaza since the war began. ABC News reports that the military’s review body has examined around 150 incidents since October 2023 and referred five for prosecutorial decisions.
At the same time, the IDF said it found no grounds for criminal investigations in three other cases, including the deaths of seven World Central Kitchen staff and four employees of Doctors Without Borders. Australia’s foreign minister said she was furious over the decision not to prosecute anyone over the killing of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom.
The Hind Rajab Foundation, based in Brussels, said it has no trust in the process and called it an illusion of accountability when Israel investigates itself. Israel’s foreign ministry described the investigations as evidence of the strength of the country’s law enforcement and its commitment to transparency.
Ziv Stahl, director of the Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din, told BBC that charges are almost never brought over complaints against soldiers and commanders, and that sentences are disproportionately light.
According to the Hamas-controlled health authorities in Gaza, at least 73,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023. A UN Human Rights Council commission concluded in a September 2025 report that Israel’s offensive in Gaza constitutes genocide, citing the Hind Rajab case. Israel rejects the accusation.
