Israel’s military announced criminal investigations into troop conduct in the deaths of five-year-old Hind Rajab, members of her family and 15 Palestinian emergency workers. The inquiries were the first criminal probes it publicly opened into soldiers’ actions during the Gaza war after reviewing 150 incidents.
Rajab was trapped in a car in Gaza City in February 2024 after relatives travelling with her were shot. Her 15-year-old cousin called the Palestinian Red Crescent and said the family had been killed before gunfire interrupted the call. Dispatchers remained in contact with Rajab while sending an ambulance, but communication ended.
Twelve days later, rescuers found Rajab, five relatives and the two ambulance workers dead. The Israeli military acknowledged that troops fired at the family’s car and toward the ambulance. Rajab’s grandmother and the Red Crescent said an Israeli internal process was insufficient and called for an international investigation.
The second probe concerns 15 paramedics and rescue personnel killed near Rafah in March 2025. Troops fired on an ambulance and then other emergency vehicles that arrived to find it, according to video and the sole survivor. Soldiers later buried bodies and vehicles in a mass grave that humanitarian workers reached a week afterward.
The military initially said vehicles advanced suspiciously without lights or markings. Footage subsequently showed emergency signals operating and logos visible, leading it to revise that account. A deputy commander was ordered to leave his position, but Palestinian emergency officials argued that the known evidence already showed violations requiring accountability.
At the same time, the military declined criminal investigations into three other attacks that killed workers from World Central Kitchen and Doctors Without Borders. World Central Kitchen founder José Andrés criticised that decision. The military’s announcement did not address every prominent case it had previously promised to examine.
Rights organisations and UN commissions accuse Israeli forces of grave crimes and say domestic accountability is rare. Israel rejects allegations of genocide and systematic war crimes, says it targets Hamas, and argues that its justice system can investigate violations by soldiers. The criminal probes begin a legal process; they do not establish individual guilt.
The decision was significant because it moved the Rajab and paramedic cases beyond operational review. Its credibility would depend on investigators’ independence, access to evidence, treatment of survivors and whether findings produced charges. Families and rescue organisations continued to seek outside scrutiny rather than accepting the announcement as a completed form of justice.
Rajab’s case later became the subject of an internationally recognised docudrama, widening attention beyond legal and humanitarian organisations. Public prominence did not determine criminal responsibility, but it increased scrutiny of whether the military process would examine command decisions as well as direct fire.
