On Wednesday, Israel’s military announced that it would initiate internal investigations into the deaths of Palestinian girl Hind Rajab in January 2024 and 15 emergency and aid workers in March 2025 in Gaza. However, human rights organizations have noted that such inquiries seldom result in convictions.
The military indicated that the decision to investigate came after assessments conducted by its Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism. Findings were released regarding five separate incidents leading to Palestinian fatalities.
Included in these findings was an analysis of the deaths of seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen charity in April 2024. The military concluded that there was “no reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct that would justify the opening of a criminal investigation” in that case.
“For over a thousand days, the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] has been engaged in intense combat across multiple fronts, executing a variety of military operations in an extremely complex operational environment,” stated the Israeli military.
“In line with the IDF’s responsibilities under international law and Israeli law, the IDF investigates exceptional occurrences that happen during combat,” the military added.
The deaths of Rajab in February 2024 and the 15 Palestinian medics in May 2025 received significant international scrutiny.
-
Days after she called for help, girl’s body found in car in Gaza City, relatives say
-
At least 350 aid workers killed in 2025, more than half in Gaza: UN
Israeli human rights organizations claim that investigations into potential criminal behavior by Israeli soldiers over the killings of Palestinians rarely yield any convictions.
“Indictments are almost nonexistent compared to the number of complaints against soldiers and commanders for offenses. In the rare instances when convictions occur, the sentences are shockingly lenient compared to the gravity of the crimes,” remarked a spokesperson from the Israeli rights group Yesh Din.
Rajab’s grandmother, who shares her name, expressed to CBC News freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife that the family was “stunned” by the announcement made on Wednesday.
She conveyed a lack of trust in Israel’s ability to conduct a fair investigation and urged that other nations should look into what happened to her granddaughter and other children in Gaza.
“We demand that the soldiers be held accountable for the killing of an innocent Hind,” the grandmother stated, emphasizing that “all the children of Gaza deserve rights.”
UNICEF reported last October that at least 64,000 Palestinian children had either been killed or wounded since the Gaza conflict began in October 2023.
A United Nations Human Rights Council report released in June indicated that there was evidence suggesting Israeli security forces had “deliberately targeted” and killed Palestinian children in Gaza. Israel dismissed the report as “a propaganda piece.”
Phone call pleading for assistance
During Israel’s military response to the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, Hind Rajab spent hours trapped in a vehicle, pleading with Palestinian medics via mobile phone for assistance, while her aunt, uncle, and three cousins had already been killed.
When an ambulance finally arrived, contact was lost with the girl as well as with the rescuers. Twelve days later, the remains of the girl, her family members, and two ambulance workers were recovered from the vicinity.
A film depicting Hind Rajab’s tragic death, which generated international outrage, won the Silver Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival and received an Academy Award nomination.
A destroyed vehicle where the body of Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, 6, who pleaded with Gaza rescuers for help after being trapped by Israeli military fire, was discovered in Gaza City on February 10, 2024. (Reuters)
In March 2025, United Nations officials reported that the remains of 15 emergency and aid workers from the Red Crescent, Palestinian Civil Defense, and the United Nations were found in a grave in the southern Gaza Strip.
UN aid chief Tom Fletcher stated on a post on X that the bodies were buried near “destroyed & clearly marked vehicles,” asserting: “They were killed by Israeli forces while attempting to save lives. We demand accountability & justice.”
Israeli forces maintain that they have never intentionally targeted civilians during the Gaza conflict. They claim that Hamas jeopardizes the lives of these individuals by using them as shields.
The Israeli military did not immediately provide a direct comment on the deaths of the Red Crescent workers at that time. In a subsequent statement to Reuters, it mentioned that it had assisted in the recovery of the bodies from the area, which it labeled as an active combat zone. However, it did not specifically address inquiries about why the bodies were retrieved from beneath the sand or the condition of the vehicles found crushed.
“More critical than launching the investigation is the fact that this tragedy should have been averted,” Eid Aziz, media director for the Red Crescent, told Reuters.
“The Palestinian Red Crescent emblem is shielded by international law, and medical personnel must be safeguarded, particularly while performing their duties and humanitarian missions.”