Israel’s military announced on Wednesday that it will conduct internal investigations into the deaths of Palestinian girl Hind Rajab in January 2024 and 15 emergency and aid workers in March 2025 in Gaza. The decision to investigate came after reviews by the Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism of the military, which looked into five incidents involving Palestinian fatalities.
Among the cases examined was the killing of seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen charity in April 2024. The military concluded that there was no evidence of criminal misconduct warranting a criminal investigation in that instance.
The Israeli military stated that due to the extensive combat operations it has been engaged in for over a thousand days across various fronts, it is obligated under international and domestic laws to scrutinize exceptional incidents that occurred during combat.
The killings of Hind Rajab in February 2024 and the 15 Palestinian medics in May 2025 garnered international attention. However, Israeli rights groups expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of criminal investigations into Israeli troops involved in the deaths of Palestinians, citing a lack of convictions.
A spokesperson for the Israeli rights organization Yesh Din highlighted the low rate of indictments relative to the number of complaints against soldiers and commanders. They emphasized that when convictions do occur, the sentences are often disproportionately lenient.
Hind Rajab’s grandmother, also named Hind Rajab, expressed shock at the announcement of the investigations, stating a lack of trust in Israel’s ability to conduct a fair inquiry. She called for international investigations into the deaths of her granddaughter and other children in Gaza, emphasizing the right of all Gaza children to protection.
Recent reports by UNICEF and the United Nations Human Rights Council have highlighted the toll on Palestinian children in the Gaza conflict, with thousands killed or injured since the war began in October 2023. The Israeli government has refuted allegations of deliberately targeting and killing Palestinian children in Gaza as claimed in the UN report.
During the unrest in October 2023, Hind Rajab was trapped in a car for hours, pleading for help over the phone as her family members lay dead nearby. The subsequent recovery of bodies, including those of Hind Rajab and emergency workers, drew international condemnation and demands for justice.
The Red Crescent workers found buried in the south of Gaza in March 2025 were said to have been trying to save lives when they were killed by Israeli forces. The Israeli military, while denying deliberate targeting of civilians, facilitated the retrieval of the bodies from an active combat zone but did not directly address questions about the circumstances of their deaths.
The Red Crescent’s media director stressed the importance of protecting medical staff and upholding international laws safeguarding humanitarian workers. The focus remains on prevention and accountability in such tragic incidents.