The Israeli military admitted on Wednesday its troops had opened fire on a car carrying five-year-old Hind Rajab and six family members in Gaza in 2024, saying it had ordered a criminal investigation into the killings.
The killing of Hind and her family was one of the most high-profile of a series of incidents involving civilian casualties during the first months of the Gaza conflict which prompted international outrage.
Hind died after a desperate three-hour phone call to the Palestinian Red Crescent on January 29th, 2024, in which she pleaded for rescue. The family’s Kia Picanto car had been hit as the family sought to flee a new Israeli offensive into Gaza City. All the other passengers were also killed.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) repeatedly denied its troops had been present in the area near the incident, but investigations by media and others found evidence that strongly suggested nearby Israeli tanks were responsible.
Palestinian paramedics dispatched an ambulance to rescue Hind and stayed on the line until contact was lost, but the ambulance too came under fire, killing two medics. The bodies of the casualties were only retrieved 12 days later when Israeli troops withdrew. The IDF also admitted Wednesday that troops had fired on the ambulance.
“Following review of the findings and due to alleged failures in the co-ordination 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 military said on Wednesday.
The IDF published reviews on Wednesday into four other high-profile incidents in Gaza, saying it was launching a criminal investigation into the killing near the southern city of Rafah of 15 Palestinian medics and humanitarian personnel in March 2025.
Troops lying in ambush for Hamas militants initially shot at an ambulance that was trying to retrieve casualties from an Israeli offensive, then fired on a series of emergency vehicles which approached their positions, according to phone footage and the sole survivor of the shootings.
The soldiers then bulldozed over the bodies and vehicles, burying them in a mass grave. UN and rescue workers were only able to reach the site a week later.
“They were killed in their uniforms. Driving their clearly marked vehicles. Wearing their gloves. On their way to save lives. This should never have happened,” said Jonathan Whittall, a UN official who helped recover the bodies.
The Israeli military initially said it had opened fire because the vehicles were “advancing suspiciously” without headlights or emergency signals. But it backtracked from that account after footage emerged showing the Red Crescent and civil defence teams driving slowly with their emergency vehicle lights flashing and logos visible.
Regarding 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”.
World Central Kitchen said it strongly disagreed with Israeli officials’ account of the airstrikes and their decision not to pursue a criminal investigation. “There has never been any excuse or justification for the attacks, and there is nothing in this account that does so. The decision is inconsistent with the full truth and deeply offensive,” it said in a statement.
“At the time of the lethal attacks, the IDF knew that our team in Gaza was unarmed and posing a threat to nobody. It had full visual clarity on our clearly marked humanitarian vehicles during the extended, multiple airstrikes. It knew our team’s movements, identities and activities in advance.”
Israeli rights groups say that criminal misconduct investigations of Israeli troops over the killing of Palestinians rarely lead to convictions.
“Nearly zero indictments are served relative to the number of complaints of soldiers and commanders who commit offences. In rare cases when commanders or soldiers are convicted, they receive ridiculously lenient sentences compared with the severity of the offence,” a spokesperson for the Israeli rights organisation Yesh Din said.
Dan Owen, a researcher with Yesh Din, said 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”.
[ Israel says its account of 15 rescue workers killed in Gaza was partly ‘mistaken’Opens in new window ]
In March 2025, the remains of the 15 emergency and aid workers from the Red Crescent, Palestinian Civil Defense and the UN were recovered from a grave in the sand in the south of the Gaza Strip, UN officials said at the time.
Israeli forces say they have never deliberately targeted civilians in the Gaza war. They say the Palestinian militant group Hamas endangers such people’s lives by using them for cover.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment directly on the deaths of the Red Crescent workers at the time. In a later statement, it said it had facilitated the evacuation of the bodies from the area, which it described as an active combat zone. It did not specifically respond to questions about why the bodies were retrieved from beneath the sand or why the vehicles were found crushed.
[ Palestinian paramedics shot by Israeli forces had hands tied, eyewitnesses sayOpens in new window ]
Munther Abed, a Palestinian paramedic who said he was present at the incident, said on Wednesday he hoped “those who killed my colleagues, who were like family to me, face justice, real justice”.
“I want to say to the whole world, Ambulances 101 is not a target and they must be protected,” he said referring to the speed dial number for the Red Crescent Service in Gaza.
More than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since the start of the Gaza war in 2023, with thousands more killed in its military operations in southern Lebanon. The dead include many aid workers, doctors, journalists and others. Israel’s military, which says its attacks target Hamas and Hizbullah militants, opens investigations into some of its attacks, when they involve the deaths of civilians including medical and aid workers or journalists.
The Gaza ceasefire declared last October may have halted all-out fighting in Gaza, but it failed to end Israeli attacks. Israel has said its ongoing strikes aim to thwart imminent attacks by Hamas and other Gaza militants.
More than 1,200 Palestinians and four Israeli soldiers have been killed since the truce, according to Gaza health authorities and the Israeli military. – Guardian/Reuters