Israel’s military announced on Wednesday 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 expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of such investigations leading to convictions.
The military stated that these investigation decisions were based on inquiries by its Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism, which also reviewed five incidents involving Palestinian fatalities. Among these incidents was the examination of the deaths of seven aid workers linked to the World Central Kitchen charity in April 2024. The military concluded that there was insufficient evidence to warrant a criminal investigation in this case.
Highlighting the intense combat operations conducted by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) across various fronts, the military emphasized its commitment to examining exceptional incidents in compliance with international and domestic laws.
The killings of Hind Rajab in February 2024 and the 15 Palestinian medics in May 2025 drew global attention. However, Israeli rights groups argue that investigations into alleged misconduct by Israeli troops rarely result in convictions, with minimal indictments or lenient sentences in cases where convictions do occur.
Reacting to the announcement, Hind Rajab’s grandmother expressed shock and mistrust in Israel’s investigative process, calling for international scrutiny into her granddaughter’s death and the treatment of children in Gaza. She demanded accountability for the killing of Hind and stressed the rights of all Gaza children.
According to UNICEF, over 64,000 Palestinian children suffered injuries or fatalities since the Gaza conflict began in October 2023. A United Nations Human Rights Council report accused Israeli security forces of deliberately targeting and killing Palestinian children in Gaza, a claim dismissed by Israel as propaganda.
During the Israeli offensive following a Hamas-led attack in October 2023, Hind Rajab was trapped in a car for hours, pleading for help via phone as her family members lay dead nearby. An ambulance dispatched to rescue her lost contact, leading to the recovery of the bodies of Hind, her relatives, and two ambulance workers 12 days later.
A film depicting Hind Rajab’s tragic ordeal won accolades and brought international attention to the incident. In a separate incident in March 2025, the bodies of 15 emergency and aid workers were discovered in a grave in southern Gaza, prompting demands for answers and justice from UN aid chief Tom Fletcher.
Israeli forces maintain that they do not target civilians deliberately, attributing civilian casualties to Hamas using them as shields. The military facilitated the retrieval of the workers’ bodies, located in an active combat zone, without clarifying the circumstances surrounding their deaths or the condition of the recovery site.
Eid Aziz, the Red Crescent’s media director, stressed the importance of protecting medical staff under international law, emphasizing the need to prevent such tragic incidents in the future.