For more than two years the Israeli military said its troops were nowhere near the car. On Wednesday it said the opposite: soldiers fired on the vehicle carrying 5-year-old Hind Rajab in Gaza, and a criminal investigation is now under way.
It is the first time the Israel Defense Forces have acknowledged that its troops shot at the car. Months after the January 2024 killing, a preliminary inquiry had found that forces were “not present near the vehicle or within firing range.”
“The findings of the examination indicate that IDF troops fired at a vehicle that was approaching them,” the military said in a statement. It cited “apparent failures in the coordination of the movement of the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance” and ordered an investigation by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division.
What happened in January 2024
Hind was one of seven family members in a vehicle in northern Gaza when it came under Israeli fire. She survived the first shots and spent hours on the phone with Palestinian paramedics, begging them to come. An ambulance sent to reach her was also hit. Twelve days later her body was found in a car riddled with bullets.
Recordings of her call spread around the world. A film about the case, “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” was nominated for an Oscar in 2026.
Independent reviews had already contradicted Israel’s early account. The Washington Post, using satellite imagery, concluded in April 2024 that Israeli armored vehicles were near the car. Forensic Architecture concluded that a tank had likely fired 335 rounds at it.
Family and critics respond
Her mother, Wesam Hamada, called the investigation a “long-overdue step,” but said “justice has not yet begun.” “I do not want a closed military investigation,” she said in a statement on Thursday. “I want an independent, transparent investigation and genuine accountability for everyone responsible.” Hind’s grandmother said she does not trust the Israeli judiciary to deliver justice.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, told CNN’s Jim Sciutto that past Israeli investigations were “not independent and not credible.” A credible one, he said, would end in the arrest of those responsible. The Hind Rajab Foundation said such inquiries “overwhelmingly end without meaningful examination, prosecution, or punishment.”
Other cases in the same announcement
The Hind Rajab case is one of two high-profile incidents the military is now investigating criminally. The other is the March 2025 killing of 15 paramedics and first responders. The IDF first said their vehicles were driving suspiciously without headlights or emergency signals, which video of the convoy later contradicted. The military later acknowledged “professional failures,” and on Wednesday said the firing “raises a reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct.”
It declined to open investigations into three other attacks: the April 2024 killing of seven World Central Kitchen workers in Deir El-Balah, a February 2024 strike on a Doctors Without Borders shelter in Khan Younis that killed two employees, and a November 2023 strike on a Doctors Without Borders convoy that killed two more.
World Central Kitchen called the decision “inconsistent with the full truth and deeply offensive.” Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, whose country lost aid worker Zomi Frankcom in the attack, said it “falls far short of the accountability we expect.” She said she would summon Israel’s ambassador.
The announcement was part of the IDF’s first comprehensive report on alleged war crimes since the war began in October 2023. Its fact-finding mechanism finished examining 150 incidents. Five decisions were published on Wednesday, and the rest await a ruling from the military advocate-general.
Sources
- Killing of Hind Rajab – Wikipedia
- Israeli military admits for first time to firing on car carrying 5-year-old Hind Rajab, opens criminal probe | CNN
