Israel’s military announced on Wednesday that they will conduct internal investigations into the deaths of Palestinian girl Hind Rajab in January 2024 and 15 emergency and aid workers in March 2025 in Gaza. Despite this move, human rights organizations believe that such investigations rarely result in convictions.
The military stated that the decisions to investigate stemmed from inquiries by its Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism. It disclosed determinations regarding five incidents involving the fatalities of Palestinians, including the examination of the deaths of seven aid workers affiliated with the World Central Kitchen charity in April 2024. The military concluded that there was no basis for launching a criminal investigation in that particular incident.
In a statement, the Israeli military highlighted the extensive combat operations they have been conducting for over a thousand days across various fronts, emphasizing the complexity of their operational reality. They asserted that, in line with international and domestic laws, they scrutinize exceptional incidents occurring during combat.
The killings of Hind Rajab in February 2024 and the 15 Palestinian medics in May 2025 garnered international attention. However, Israeli rights groups argue that investigations into Israeli troops for criminal misconduct related to Palestinian fatalities rarely result in convictions.
Hind Rajab’s grandmother expressed shock at the announcement of the investigations, stating that the family lacks trust in Israel’s ability to conduct a fair inquiry. She called for other countries to investigate the circumstances surrounding her granddaughter’s death and those of other children in Gaza, demanding accountability for the loss of innocent lives.
According to UNICEF, as of last October, at least 64,000 Palestinian children have been killed or injured since the onset of the Gaza conflict in October 2023. Additionally, a report by the United Nations Human Rights Council in June accused Israeli security forces of intentionally targeting and killing Palestinian children in Gaza. Israel rejected the report as “propaganda.”
During Israel’s response to a Hamas-led attack in October 2023, Hind Rajab was trapped in a car for hours, pleading for help from Palestinian medics via phone while several of her family members had already perished. Following an ambulance’s arrival, communication was lost, and the bodies of Hind, her relatives, and two ambulance workers were recovered twelve days later.
A film depicting Hind Rajab’s tragedy, which sparked global outrage, received the Silver Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award.
In March 2025, the bodies of 15 emergency and aid workers from the Red Crescent, Palestinian Civil Defense, and the United Nations were discovered in a grave in the south of the Gaza Strip. UN officials revealed that the workers were killed by Israeli forces while attempting to save lives. The call for answers and justice was echoed by UN aid chief Tom Fletcher.
Israeli forces maintain they have never intentionally targeted civilians during the Gaza conflict, attributing civilian casualties to Hamas’s use of them as shields. The Israeli military did not immediately address the deaths of the Red Crescent workers but later informed Reuters that they facilitated the removal of the bodies from an active combat zone. Questions regarding the circumstances of the bodies’ retrieval and the crushed vehicles found nearby were left unanswered.
Eid Aziz, the media director for the Red Crescent, stressed the importance of preventing such incidents, emphasizing the need to safeguard medical personnel carrying out their humanitarian duties.
