Israel confirms troops fired at car carrying Hind Rajab

Israel’s military has confirmed for the first time that its troops fired at the car carrying five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab before she was found dead with six relatives in Gaza, and said it has opened a criminal investigation into the case.

Hind’s killing in 2024 drew international condemnation after recordings of her phone calls with the Palestine Red Crescent Society spread widely. Trapped in a car with the bodies of relatives, she pleaded for help for hours as Red Crescent operators tried to secure access for an ambulance.

The Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday that a review found troops “fired at a vehicle” that it said was travelling contrary to advance instructions issued to residents of the area. Al Jazeera reported that the military said troops had “fired at a vehicle that was approaching them.”

The IDF said the decision to open a criminal investigation was made “due to alleged failures in the co-ordination of the movement of the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance.” The case will be investigated by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division.

The military initially said no Israeli troops were in the area when Hind was killed. That account was later questioned. The IDF subsequently said its forces had conducted raids on “terror targets” in Gaza City, including Tel al-Hawa, where Hind was located.

According to Al Jazeera, Hind died on Jan. 29, 2024, at about 7:30 p.m. after her family had been forcibly displaced from Gaza City and tried to follow Israeli evacuation orders. The outlet reported that Israeli forces fired more than 300 bullets at the black Kia driven by Hind’s uncle.

Red Crescent operator Rana Faqih stayed on the line with Hind for hours while colleagues sought Israeli army permission for an ambulance to reach her. “At one point, she told me it was getting dark,” Faqih told the BBC in February 2024. “She was scared. She asked me how far away my house was. I felt paralysed and helpless.”

Three hours after the call began, an ambulance crew was cleared to approach the area, according to the BBC. The paramedics, Yusuf al-Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun, told operators they were nearing Hind’s location and were about to be checked by Israeli forces. Contact with the crew and with Hind was then lost.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society later said the two paramedics were killed when the ambulance was bombed by Israeli forces. “The [Israeli] occupation deliberately targeted the Red Crescent crew despite obtaining prior coordination to allow the ambulance to arrive at the scene to rescue the child Hind,” the group said.

Hind’s grandmother, also named Hind Rajab, told The Associated Press by phone that the Israeli investigation is not enough. “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.”

The IDF also said it would open a criminal investigation into the killing of 15 Palestinians, including medics and a United Nations worker, in the Tal al-Sultan area of Rafah in southern Gaza on March 23, 2025. The group was killed after an IDF unit fired on ambulances, a fire engine and a marked UN vehicle during an emergency call-out. Their bodies were found a week later in shallow graves beside crushed vehicles.

The Israeli military first said troops had fired on “suspicious vehicles” moving in darkness without headlights or emergency lights. It later said that account was “mistaken” after video found on the phone of one of the dead paramedics, Rifaat Radwan, showed the convoy’s emergency lights were on.

In three other cases, including the killing of seven World Central Kitchen employees in Deir al-Balah and four Médecins Sans Frontières employees killed in two incidents, the IDF said it had not found grounds for criminal investigations.

The military said it had reviewed 150 incidents of troop conduct during the war in Gaza, according to Al Jazeera. “As part of the IDF’s obligations under international law and Israeli domestic law, the IDF examines exceptional incidents that occurred during combat,” the IDF said.

The BBC reported that Israeli rights groups say criminal investigations of Israeli forces rarely lead to convictions. Ziv Stahl, executive director of Yesh Din, told the broadcaster that “almost no indictments are filed in relation to the number of complaints against soldiers and commanders for offenses committed.”