The Israeli military admitted on Wednesday that its troops had opened fire on a car carrying five-year-old Hind Rajab and six members of her family in Gaza in 2024, saying it had ordered a criminal investigation into the murder. The murder of Hind and her family was one of the most high-profile in a series of incidents involving civilian casualties during the early months of the Gaza conflict that sparked international outrage. Hind died after a desperate three-hour phone call to the Palestine Red Crescent on January 29, 2024, in which he demanded a ransom. The family’s Kia Picanto car had been hit as the family tried to flee a new Israeli offensive towards Gaza City. All other passengers also died. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) repeatedly denied that its troops had been present in the area near the incident, but investigations by the media and others found evidence strongly suggesting that nearby Israeli tanks were responsible. A child looks at the car in which Hind Rajab died in January 2024. Photograph: Reuters Palestinian paramedics sent an ambulance to rescue Hind and remained on the line until contact was lost, but the ambulance was also attacked, killing two doctors. The victims’ bodies were not recovered until 12 days later, when Israeli troops withdrew. The IDF also admitted on Wednesday that troops had fired at the ambulance. “Upon review of the findings and due to alleged failures in the coordination of the movement of the Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance, it was decided to initiate a criminal investigation of the incident by the criminal investigation division of the military police,” the military said Wednesday. Investigations of criminal misconduct by Israeli troops over the murder of Palestinians rarely lead to convictions. launch a criminal investigation into the killing near the southern city of Rafah of 15 Palestinian doctors and aid workers in March 2025. Recording by Hind Rajab and telephone operator – audio Troops who were ambushing Hamas militants initially fired on an ambulance trying to recover victims of an Israeli offensive, then fired on a series of emergency vehicles approaching their positions, according to phone footage and the sole survivor of the shooting. and vehicles, burying them in a common grave. UN and rescue workers were only able to reach the scene a week later. “They died dressed in uniforms. Driving their clearly marked vehicles. With gloves. On their way to save lives. This should never have happened,” said Jonathan Whittall, a U.N. official who helped recover the bodies. The Israeli military initially said it had opened fire because the vehicles were “moving forward suspiciously” without headlights or emergency signals. But he retracted that account after footage emerged showing Red Crescent and civil defense teams driving slowly with their emergency vehicles’ lights flashing and logos visible. Red Crescent paramedics arrive at the mass grave where the bodies of their colleagues were buried. Photograph: OCHA/Red Crescent Munther Abed, a Palestinian paramedic who was present at the incident in which 15 of his colleagues died, said he hoped that “those who killed my colleagues, who were like my family, will face justice, real justice.” “I want to tell everyone that 101 ambulances are not a target and must be protected,” he said, referring to the speed dial number for the Red Crescent service in Gaza. The IDF said it had decided not to open a criminal investigation into the April 2024 airstrikes that hit a convoy of World Central Kitchen vehicles, killing seven aid workers from the US-based aid group, which has distributed food in Gaza throughout the war. The aid group said at the time that it had coordinated with the military over the movement of its cars. The vehicles, which had the group’s logo on their roofs visible from the air, were incinerated and destroyed, indicating a series of targeted attacks. One of the World Central Kitchen vehicles hit by an Israeli airstrike Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty Images The IDF said on Wednesday that it had mistaken several individuals in the vehicles for armed Hamas military operatives, and that the convoy deviated from the previously coordinated route. But he concluded that “the commanders’ decisions did not raise reasonable suspicions of criminal conduct.” Two officers were removed from their positions at the time and three others were reprimanded. One of those killed in the strike was Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom. The Australian government has called the deaths a “tragedy and outrage” and has pressed for full accountability and “any appropriate criminal charges.” In February this year, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had made it clear to Israel and its president, Isaac Herzog, that there was transparency about Israel’s ongoing investigation into the incident. In April this year, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong paid tribute to Frankcom on the second anniversary of his death, saying that “people like Zomi are rare and their altruism should not only be celebrated but protected.” World Central Kitchen said it strongly disagreed with Israeli officials’ account of the airstrikes and their decision not to do so. carry out a criminal investigation. “There has never been any excuse or justification for the attacks, and there is nothing in this account that does. The decision is inconsistent with the entire truth and deeply offensive,” he said in a statement. “At the time of the deadly strikes, the IDF knew that our team in Gaza was unarmed and posed no threat to anyone. They had complete visual clarity on our clearly marked humanitarian vehicles during the extended and multiple airstrikes. They knew our team’s movements, identities and activities in advance.” take criminal action for the murder of four Doctors Without Borders aid workers in two separate cases in November 2023 and February 2024. Israel subsequently effectively banned the medical charity from operating in Gaza. Dan Owen, a researcher at Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights organization, said that over the past decade only a small 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 exists.” A UN report published in February described “a widespread climate of impunity” by Israel in occupied Palestine “in relation to serious violations of international human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law… some of which constitute war crimes and possibly other international crimes.” Israeli forces say they never deliberately attack civilians in Gaza and accuse Hamas of using civilians to protect its militants. combat.” “For more than a thousand days, the IDF has been conducting intense combat on numerous fronts, carrying out a wide range of military missions in an exceptionally complex operational reality,” it said in a statement. The war began in October 2023 when Hamas launched a surprise attack in southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 250. Israel’s subsequent offensives in Gaza have killed more than 73,000, mostly women and children, including more than 1,200 since a fragile ceasefire came into force in October. Israeli airstrikes killed seven Palestinians on Wednesday. Israeli military officials told local media that an attack that killed six people targeted a meeting of Hamas commanders in Gaza City.
