Israeli Military Admits Troops Fired on Car in Hind Rajab Killing

The Israeli military has admitted its troops fired on a car carrying five-year-old Hind Rajab and six relatives in Gaza in 2024, announcing a criminal investigation by the military police.

Military Admits Responsibility and Opens Criminal Probe Into 2024 Killing

The Israel Defense Forces admitted on Wednesday its troops had opened fire on a Kia Picanto carrying five-year-old Hind Rajab and six family members as they attempted to flee a new military offensive in Gaza City on January 29, 2024.

According to the military’s updated review, troops fired at a vehicle that was travelling contrary to the advance notice published by the IDF Spokesperson for residents in the zone. The initial gunfire killed five passengers, leaving Hind and her cousin Layan Hamada as the survivors. Hind subsequently spent three hours on the phone with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) pleading for rescue as tanks moved directly in front of the vehicle.

Operator Rana Faqih stayed on the line with the child as darkness fell. Three hours into the ordeal, an ambulance carrying paramedics Yusuf al-Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun was cleared and dispatched to the location. Contact with both the medics and the child was lost shortly after they neared the scene. The PRCS later confirmed the ambulance was bombed by Israeli forces, killing both crew members. The bodies of Hind, her relatives, and the two medics were retrieved 12 days later after troops withdrew.

The military announced that its review found alleged failures in the coordination of the ambulance’s movement, prompting the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division to initiate a criminal investigation of the incident. Criminal misconduct investigations into Israeli troops over Palestinian deaths rarely lead to convictions, and legal organisations have expressed deep skepticism regarding the proceedings. The Brussels-based Hind Rajab Foundation stated it had no confidence in the internal probe, calling it a flawed mechanism that should not be mistaken for genuine justice.

Simultaneous Reviews Expose Deadly Incidents Involving Medics and Aid Workers

Alongside the Hind Rajab case, the military published findings from reviews into four other high-profile incidents involving civilian casualties. Among them is the March 23, 2025 killing of 15 Palestinian medics, civil defense workers, and humanitarian personnel in the Tal al-Sultan area of Rafah. First responders attempting to retrieve casualties from an army offensive were fired upon one after another over several hours, and their bodies were eventually found buried in a shallow mass grave near crushed vehicles.

Israeli Military Admits Troops Fired on Car in Hind Rajab Killing — Photo: Yahoo

Hind Rajab smiles at the camera. She has long, brown wavy hair and is wearing a pink flower crown on her head. She also has — Photo: BBC

While the IDF initially claimed troops fired on suspicious vehicles operating without lights in the dark, mobile phone video recovered from dead paramedic Rifaat Radwan showed the convoy was moving slowly with emergency lights flashing and logos visible. Acknowledging the video evidence, the military stated that the firing raised reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct, leading to a separate criminal investigation into the Rafah incident. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, previously stated that the Rafah attack amounted to potential war crimes.

In contrast, the military decided against launching criminal investigations into three other lethal incidents, including the April 2024 airstrikes that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers and separate operations involving Médecins Sans Frontières staff. World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres on X as wrong and painful. The US-based charity characterized the military’s conclusions as inconsistent with the full truth and demanded an independent commission of inquiry.

Between Domestic Accountability Claims and International Skepticism

The timing of these admissions highlights a widening chasm between official Israeli assertions of transparency and the demands raised by international bodies and legal advocates. Israel’s foreign ministry defended the latest announcements by emphasizing that the state operates as a law-abiding democracy thoroughly investigating claims of misconduct during an exceptionally complex combat environment.

Israeli military admits firing on car carrying Hind Rajab

Yet the structural limitations of military self-investigation remain a central point of contention. While the IDF cites operational realities across multiple fronts over more than a thousand days of combat, human rights advocates maintain that internal reviews serve primarily to deflect independent international scrutiny.

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