Israeli Military Admits for First Time to Firing on Car Carrying 5-year-old Hind Rajab
The Israeli army had previously denied that its troops were involved in the killing of Hind Rajab.
The grandmother of five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who was killed by the Israeli army in January 2024, shows a photo of Hind as she speaks to AA in Gaza, Palestine on August 20, 2026. Photo by Anadolu Images.
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he Israeli military has acknowledged for the first time that its forces fired on a vehicle carrying 5-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab in Gaza in January 2024 and announced a criminal investigation into the incident.
The Israeli army had previously denied that its troops were involved in the killing. Months after the incident, a preliminary military investigation concluded that Israeli forces were “not present near the vehicle or within firing range.”
The new findings mark a significant reversal in the military’s account of one of the most widely publicized killings of a Palestinian child during the Gaza war.
Hind was traveling with six members of her family in a vehicle in northern Gaza when it came under Israeli fire. She survived the initial attack and remained trapped inside the car, where she made a desperate phone call to Palestinian Red Crescent paramedics asking for help.
An ambulance sent to rescue her also came under fire.
Twelve days later, rescuers found Hind’s body inside the bullet-riddled vehicle alongside the bodies of her relatives.
Military acknowledges firing on vehicle
In a statement, the Israeli military said an examination had found that Israeli troops had fired at a vehicle “that was approaching them.”
The military said the findings, combined with what it described as apparent failures in coordinating the movement of the Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance, had led to the decision to open a criminal investigation by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division.
The investigation is part of the Israeli military’s first comprehensive review of alleged war crimes since the beginning of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023.
The military said its General Staff’s Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism had examined 150 incidents and transferred them to the military’s top legal authorities to determine whether criminal investigations should be opened.
Of five decisions announced Wednesday, two resulted in criminal investigations: the killing of Hind Rajab and the March 2025 killing of 15 Palestinian paramedics and first responders.
Family calls for independent investigation
Hind’s mother, Wesam Hamada, welcomed the decision as a long-overdue development but said it did not amount to justice.
She called for an independent and transparent investigation and genuine accountability for those responsible for her daughter’s death, rather than a closed military inquiry.
Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour also questioned whether the Israeli military could conduct a credible investigation into its own forces. He described previous Israeli investigations as neither independent nor credible and said accountability should include the arrest of those responsible.
The Hind Rajab Foundation similarly criticized Israel’s military justice system, arguing that investigations into alleged violations by Israeli forces frequently end without meaningful prosecution or punishment.
No criminal probes into aid worker killings
The Israeli army also announced that it would not open criminal investigations into three other incidents involving humanitarian workers.
They included the April 2024 Israeli strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid 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 attack on a Doctors Without Borders convoy that killed two others.
In the World Central Kitchen case, the Israeli military acknowledged “serious failures” that led its forces to mistakenly believe the convoy had been taken over by Hamas fighters. However, the military advocate-general concluded there was no reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct.
World Central Kitchen condemned the decision, saying it was inconsistent with the full circumstances of the attack and failed to provide meaningful accountability.
Australia also criticized the decision because one of those killed, Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom, was among the seven WCK employees.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Frankcom’s family deserved justice and that the decision fell “far short” of the accountability Australia expected. She said Australia would summon Israel’s ambassador and continue pressing Israel over the deaths.
Investigation into paramedics
The Israeli army did open a criminal investigation into the March 2025 killing of 15 Palestinian paramedics and first responders.
The military had initially said the emergency vehicles were traveling suspiciously without headlights or emergency signals. Video footage later contradicted that account, showing the vehicles traveling with flashing lights.
The victims were buried in a mass grave alongside their emergency vehicles.
The Israeli military later acknowledged “professional failures” in the incident but maintained that there had been no ethical failures. In its latest statement, however, the Israeli military said the firing during the incident raised a “reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct.”
The findings surrounding Hind Rajab’s killing and the paramedic deaths are likely to intensify international scrutiny of Israel’s conduct during the Gaza genocide, as questions continue over the independence and effectiveness of Israeli investigations into alleged violations by its forces.
(Source: CNN)
