Israel opens first Gaza war criminal probes over Hind Rajab killing

Israel's military has opened its first criminal probes into two deadly Gaza incidents. The move has revived demands for wider accountability as several other high-profile cases remain outside criminal inquiry.

In Short

• The army reviewed 150 troop conduct incidents and decided five cases
• Investigators acknowledged troops fired at Rajab's family car and rescue ambulance
• A deputy commander was told to step down over Rafah paramedics' killings

Israel's military on Wednesday announced its first criminal investigations into troop conduct in the Gaza war, nearly three years after the conflict began. The probes will look into the killings of 5-year-old Hind Rajab and her family, and of 15 Palestinian paramedics, both of which drew international outrage.

In the same statement, the military said it would not open criminal investigations into three other attacks that killed aid workers from World Central Kitchen and Doctors Without Borders. It said reviews of 150 incidents of troop conduct in Gaza had been completed and decisions taken in five cases.

The military statement did not mention many other high-profile killings that Israel has said it would investigate during the war. It also did not mention the Israeli strikes on a hospital in southern Gaza that killed five journalists in August 2025, including Mariam Dagga, a visual journalist who freelanced for AP and other news organisations. Israeli strikes continue in Gaza despite a fragile ceasefire.

In the Rajab case, the military admitted firing at the family car carrying the child, four of her cousins, and her aunt and uncle as they fled an Israeli invasion of Gaza City in February 2024. As gunfire hit the area, Rajab's 15-year-old cousin Layan Hamada called the Palestinian Red Crescent paramedic centre and said a tank was approaching and her family had been killed. According to a Red Crescent recording of the call, more gunshots were heard seconds later and Layan's screaming stopped.

Paramedics then sent an ambulance to rescue Rajab, who was the only survivor in the stranded car, and stayed on the line until contact was lost. Rajab, her five relatives and two medics from the ambulance were found dead 12 days later. The military said on Wednesday that troops had also fired towards that ambulance, killing the two medics.

Rajab's grandmother, who is also named Hind Rajab, said the Israeli investigation was not enough and called for an international inquiry into the killing of her granddaughter and other children killed in Gaza during the war. "An international investigation is required to uncover the truth and hold all those responsible accountable," she said. "We call for justice, not only for Hind, but for all Gaza children."

In the other case being criminally investigated, Israeli troops opened fire on vehicles carrying 15 paramedics in the southern city of Rafah in May 2025. The military said one deputy commander had been directed to step down. According to phone footage and the only survivor, troops first shot at an ambulance going to retrieve casualties from an Israeli offensive, and then fired on several other emergency vehicles that went to search for it. Troops later bulldozed the bodies and vehicles into a mass grave, and UN and rescue workers were able to reach the site only a week later to recover the bodies.

The Israeli military had initially said it opened fire because the vehicles were "advancing suspiciously" towards nearby troops without headlights or emergency signals. It later changed that account after footage emerged showing Red Crescent and Civil Defence teams driving slowly with emergency lights flashing and logos clearly visible. "We are not obligated to prove the truth because it is already proven to the whole world," Palestinian Red Crescent spokesperson Eid Azizi said. "We shouldn't have reached this point if they respected and followed the international humanitarian law."

The military said it had decided not to open a criminal investigation into the April 2024 airstrikes on a World Central Kitchen convoy that killed seven staff members. The group had said at the time that it had coordinated the movement of its vehicles with the military, and the vehicles, marked with the organisation's logo on their roofs, were left burned and badly damaged, suggesting multiple targeted strikes. The military said it had mistakenly identified several people in the convoy as armed Hamas operatives and that the convoy had deviated from the previously coordinated route, but concluded that "the decisions of the commanders did not raise reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct." At the time, two officers were removed from their positions and three others were reprimanded.

The military also said it would not take criminal action over the killings of four Doctors Without Borders staff members in two separate incidents in November 2023 and February 2024. Israel later barred the medical charity from operating in Gaza.

The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in southern Israel and abducted 251 others. Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza has since killed more than 73,000 people, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The ministry says at least 1,273 people have been killed in Gaza since a fragile ceasefire took effect in October, and that women and children make up about half of the dead. Overall, the military's statement marked its first criminal probes into wartime conduct in Gaza, while leaving several other major cases outside criminal investigation.

With PTI Inputs

- Ends