The Israeli military has confirmed it opened fire on a vehicle carrying five-year-old Hind Rajab and six members of her family in Gaza City during the war in Gaza. The military said it would open a criminal investigation into the incident.
The attack happened in January 2024. Hind survived the initial strike, which killed several of her relatives. She answered a telephone call from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, and that call lasted hours. An ambulance dispatched to reach her, in a move coordinated with the Israeli army, was then shelled. Two paramedics were killed. Hind's body was recovered days later.
According to BBC News, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that it would be opening a criminal investigation. "Due to alleged 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.
The IDF had initially stated that none of its troops were in the area at the time of the killing. That claim was soon questioned. The military later acknowledged it had "conducted raids on terror targets" in neighborhoods of Gaza City, including Tel al-Hawa, where Hind was located.
A recording of Hind speaking to paramedics was broadcast around the world and drew international condemnation. Her pleas ended when the phone line was cut amid the sound of more gunfire. The story was later made into an Oscar-nominated film called The Voice of Hind Rajab. The United Nations cited her case in a commission of inquiry that accused Israel of war crimes, which Israel denies.
Alongside the investigation into Hind's killing, the IDF said it would also investigate the deaths of 15 Palestinians, including medics and a United Nations worker, near Rafah in southern Gaza last year. In three other cases, involving the killing of seven World Central Kitchen employees in Deir al-Balah two years ago and four Médecins Sans Frontières employees killed in two separate incidents, the IDF said it found no grounds for criminal investigations.
The IDF faces pressure from the International Criminal Court and from international observers to demonstrate that it investigates itself. The criminal investigation announcement is part of that effort to counter accusations of impunity for its forces.
