Israel’s military announced on Wednesday that it will conduct internal investigations into the killings of Palestinian girl Hind Rajab in January 2024 and 15 emergency and aid workers in March 2025 in Gaza. The decision to investigate comes after reviews by the military’s Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism, which examined five incidents involving the deaths of Palestinians.
Among the incidents scrutinized was the killing of seven aid workers with the World Central Kitchen charity in April 2024. The military stated that there was no reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct warranting a criminal investigation in this case.
The Israeli military emphasized the complexity of its operational reality, engaging in intense combat across various fronts for over a thousand days. It highlighted its commitment to examining exceptional incidents during combat, in compliance with international and domestic laws.
The deaths 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 misconduct investigations involving Israeli troops in the killing of Palestinians, citing a lack of convictions.
Rajab’s grandmother, also named Hind Rajab, expressed shock at the announcement of the investigations, questioning Israel’s ability to conduct impartial inquiries. She called for other countries to investigate the incidents involving her granddaughter and other children in Gaza, emphasizing the need for accountability and protection of children’s rights.
UNICEF reported last October that at least 64,000 Palestinian children had been killed or injured since the start of the Gaza conflict in October 2023. Additionally, a United Nations Human Rights Council report in June accused Israeli security forces of deliberately targeting and killing Palestinian children in Gaza, a claim that Israel rejected as propaganda.
During Israel’s offensive in response to a Hamas-led attack in October 2023, Hind Rajab was trapped in a car for hours, pleading for help from Palestinian medics via phone while her family members lay dead nearby. The subsequent recovery of the bodies, including those of Rajab and ambulance workers, raised international outcry and led to the production of a film that received accolades.
In March 2025, the bodies of 15 emergency and aid workers from various organizations were found in a grave in the south of the Gaza Strip. UN officials stated that the workers were killed by Israeli forces while attempting to save lives, demanding answers and justice for the victims.
Israeli forces maintained that they never intentionally targeted civilians during the Gaza conflict, attributing civilian casualties to Hamas’s use of human shields. The military facilitated the evacuation of the workers’ bodies from the combat zone but did not provide specific details on the circumstances of their deaths.
Eid Aziz, the media director for the Red Crescent, emphasized the protection of medical staff under international law, emphasizing the importance of preventing such tragedies in the future.