日本語
한국어
Polski
Deutsch
Nederlands
Español
Français
Português
Italiano
Svenska
繁體中文
Dansk
// DOSSIER — israeli-military-criminal-probe-hind-rajab-killing
Israeli Military Opens Criminal Probe Into 2024 Killing of Hind Rajab as Family and Advocates Reject Investigation
REL_TIME: 24 Aug 2026 12:12Z · LANG: EN
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has acknowledged for the first time that its troops fired upon a car carrying five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, six family members, and an ambulance dispatched to rescue her in Gaza City in January 2024, reversing over two years of previous denials. The IDF announced a criminal probe by military police into troop conduct and alleged coordination failures. However, Rajab's mother Wesam Hamada, her grandmother, the Palestine Red Crescent Society, film director Kaouther Ben Hania, and the Hind Rajab Foundation rejected the internal Israeli investigation, dismissing it as a PR smokescreen and distraction. They are demanding an independent international investigation and broad accountability for all children killed in Gaza.
// Background
On January 29, 2024, five-year-old Hind Rajab fled Gaza City in a car with six relatives when their vehicle came under Israeli fire near Fares gas station in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood. Emergency dispatchers at the Palestine Red Crescent Society received frantic phone calls from 15-year-old Layan Hamada and subsequently Hind Rajab, who was left as the sole survivor among the dead relatives. Despite coordinating safe passage with Israeli authorities, the ambulance dispatched to retrieve Hind was also targeted, killing medics Yousef Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun. After Israeli forces withdrew 12 days later, all bodies were recovered. Independent investigations, including one by Forensic Architecture, identified 335 bullet holes in the vehicle and placed Israeli tanks within close proximity. Israel initially denied its forces were present in the area before admitting to the shooting in August 2026.
// Key Developments
- The IDF admitted troops fired at the family car and Red Crescent ambulance in January 2024, opening its first Gaza war criminal probes alongside an investigation into the March 2025 killing of 15 paramedics in Rafah.
- All six family members inside the car—including 5-year-old Hind Rajab and 15-year-old cousin Layan Hamada—and two Red Crescent paramedics were killed in the 2024 incident.
- Hind Rajab's family and human rights advocates dismissed the Israeli military probe as an attempt to improve its global image, demanding an independent international investigation.
- The IDF closed separate criminal files into high-profile incidents without charges, including the April 2024 strike on a World Central Kitchen convoy that killed seven aid workers.
- Audio recordings of Hind Rajab pleading with emergency dispatchers drew worldwide outrage and inspired the Oscar-nominated documentary 'The Voice of Hind Rajab'.
// Timeline
-
The family car carrying Hind Rajab and six relatives comes under Israeli fire in Gaza City; an ambulance dispatched to rescue Hind is also attacked.
-
Twelve days after the attack, the bodies of Hind Rajab, six family members, and two Red Crescent paramedics are discovered inside their destroyed vehicles.
-
An Israeli strike kills seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Deir al-Balah.
-
Israeli forces fire on emergency vehicles in Tel al-Sultan, Rafah, killing 15 Palestinian paramedics.
-
The docudrama film 'The Voice of Hind Rajab' debuts at the Venice Film Festival, later earning an Oscar nomination.
-
The Israeli military admits for the first time that troops fired on Hind Rajab's vehicle and ambulance, announcing a military police criminal probe while closing the World Central Kitchen file without charges.
// Perspectives
[Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)]
Acknowledged firing on the car and ambulance due to alleged coordination failures and launched a Military Police Criminal Investigation Division probe as part of a review of 150 operational incidents.
[Family of Hind Rajab]
Rejected the Israeli military investigation as an insufficient PR attempt to justify the killings, demanding an independent international inquiry and justice for all Gazan children.
[Kaouther Ben Hania (Film Director)]
Labeled the Israeli investigation a smokescreen and public relations maneuver, arguing abundant visual, ballistic, and audio evidence already exists to warrant external justice.
[Hind Rajab Foundation & Palestine Red Crescent Society]
Dismissed Israeli internal investigations as fundamentally flawed, non-credible mechanisms of accountability, and called for an independent, neutral international probe.
[World Central Kitchen (WCK)]
Condemned the IDF's simultaneous decision to close the investigation into the April 2024 attack that killed seven of its aid workers without criminal charges as deeply offensive and inconsistent with the truth.
// Quotes
“All I remember is her voice pleading, 'Mama, I’m scared. Mama, I’m hungry. Mama, I’m hurt,'... Her voice keeps repeating in my ears.”
“Why did the investigation and the acknowledgment of the shooting at Hind’s car and at the paramedics come only after more than two years? It’s an attempt to distract from what’s happening in Gaza and improve the (Israeli) army’s image to the world.”
“This announcement is a smokescreen... What is needed now is not a public relations operation. What is needed is justice (delivered by an independent authority) for Hind and for all the victims of the genocide in Gaza.”
“We are not demanding justice only in Hind’s name as a child from Gaza, but in the name of all our child martyrs in Gaza.”
