Israel opens criminal probe into killing of Gaza girl Hind Rajab, paramedics

The Israeli military has confirmed for the first time that it opened fire on a car carrying five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who was killed alongside six relatives in Gaza in 2024. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it would open a criminal investigation into her death and that of two paramedics sent to rescue her.

Rajab initially survived the attack and remained on the phone with Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) operators for hours, pleading for help. An ambulance dispatched to reach her, in a move coordinated with the Israeli military, was then shelled, killing both paramedics aboard. Her body was recovered days later alongside the others.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the IDF said the criminal investigation would be opened over "alleged failures in the coordination of the movement" of the PRCS ambulance. It said its examination found troops had fired at a vehicle travelling contrary to advance notice previously issued to residents of the area.

The IDF had initially stated that none of its troops were present in the area at the time of Rajab's killing, an account later called into question. It subsequently said forces had conducted raids on "terror targets" in neighbourhoods including Tel al-Hawa, where Rajab was located.

The case drew international condemnation after a recording of Rajab speaking to PRCS operators was broadcast worldwide. Operator Rana Faqih, who stayed on the line for hours, told the BBC in February 2024 that Rajab described tanks moving toward the car and asked repeatedly to be rescued.

Faqih said operators told Rajab to hide beneath the car seats and avoid being seen. Three hours after the call began, an ambulance was cleared to approach the location. Paramedics Yusuf al-Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun notified operators they were nearing the site before contact was lost permanently.

The PRCS later confirmed both paramedics were killed when Israeli forces bombed the ambulance. The organisation said Israeli forces had deliberately targeted the crew despite prior coordination allowing the ambulance access to rescue the child.

The case was the subject of an Oscar-nominated film, The Voice of Hind Rajab, and was cited by a United Nations commission of inquiry that accused Israel of war crimes, an allegation Israel denies. The Hind Rajab Foundation, a Brussels-based organisation addressing alleged Israeli violations in Gaza, said it had "no confidence" in the investigation, describing Israel's internal inquiries as "fundamentally flawed" mechanisms of accountability.

Separately, the IDF said it would investigate the killing of 15 Palestinians, including medics and a United Nations worker, after troops fired on a convoy of ambulances, a fire engine and a marked UN vehicle responding to an emergency call-out in the Tal al-Sultan area of Rafah on 23 March 2025. The bodies were found in shallow graves a week later, buried next to the crushed vehicles.

The Israeli military initially said its troops had fired on "suspicious vehicles" driving with their headlights and emergency lights switched off. It later called that account "mistaken", after footage recovered from the phone of paramedic Rifaat Radwan, one of those killed, showed the convoy's emergency lights had been active.

The IDF said its review found the firing "raises a reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct", prompting the decision to open a criminal investigation into the incident.

In three other cases reviewed, the IDF said it had found no grounds for criminal investigations. These included the 2024 killing of seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) staff in Deir al-Balah, and the deaths of four Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) employees across two separate incidents.

WCK said the closure of its case was "inconsistent with the full truth", adding that the military's investigation had conflated different timelines and events and shifted blame away from what the organisation called the IDF's unlawful conduct. WCK strongly condemned the military prosecutor's account and renewed its call for an independent investigation.

The closure of the WCK case drew outrage from the Australian government, whose national Zomi Frankcom was among those killed. Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia was outraged by the decision not to prosecute those responsible, calling it a decision that "falls far short of the accountability we expect", and summoned Israel's ambassador in response.

Wong said in a statement that Australia would continue pressing Israel "for justice for Zomi and her colleagues". Three British nationals, a Palestinian, a Polish national and a dual US-Canadian citizen were also killed alongside Frankcom in the April 2024 strike.

Wednesday's disclosures mark the first comprehensive IDF report on alleged war crimes published since the Gaza war began, following the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023. More than 73,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its military campaign, including about 1,200 since a ceasefire was announced last October, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry, figures the United Nations considers reliable.

The IDF is under pressure to demonstrate it investigates its own forces, amid the threat of international legal action, most notably from the International Criminal Court, and to counter allegations of war crimes and impunity.

However, Israeli rights groups say convictions from such investigations remain rare. Ziv Stahl, executive director of Israeli human rights group Yesh Din, told the BBC that almost no indictments are filed relative to the number of complaints against soldiers and commanders, and that in the rare cases resulting in conviction, sentences are disproportionately lenient relative to the severity of the offences.