Israel’s military announced on Wednesday that it would 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. However, human rights organizations pointed out that such inquiries rarely result in convictions.
The military’s decision to investigate followed assessments by its Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism, which issued rulings on five incidents involving Palestinian fatalities. These included a review of the deaths of seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen charity in April 2024. The military concluded that there was no basis for a criminal investigation in that particular case.
Stating that they have been engaged in intensive combat across multiple fronts for over a thousand days, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) emphasized their commitment to examining exceptional incidents during combat in accordance with international and domestic laws.
The killings of Hind Rajab in February 2024 and the 15 Palestinian medics in May 2025 attracted significant international attention. Israeli rights groups expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of criminal misconduct investigations involving Israeli troops and their impact on achieving convictions.
Yesh Din, an Israeli rights organization, highlighted the low rate of indictments relative to the number of complaints against soldiers and commanders for offenses. They criticized the lenient sentences handed down in cases where convictions were obtained.
Responding to the announcement of the investigation, Hind Rajab’s grandmother voiced their lack of trust in Israel’s ability to conduct a thorough inquiry. She called for other countries to investigate the circumstances surrounding her granddaughter’s death and that of other children in Gaza, demanding accountability for the soldiers responsible for Hind’s killing.
Citing a UNICEF report from last October, which revealed that at least 64,000 Palestinian children had been killed or injured since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, the grandmother emphasized the urgent need to address the rights of all children in Gaza.
In a separate development, a United Nations Human Rights Council report in June accused Israeli security forces of intentionally targeting and killing Palestinian children in Gaza. Israel rebuffed the report as “propaganda,” rejecting the allegations.
The tragic story of Hind Rajab’s ordeal during the October 2023 conflict sparked international outrage. Pinned down in a car for hours, she pleaded for help via mobile phone while her family members lay dead nearby. The subsequent discovery of their bodies, along with those of two ambulance workers, highlighted the devastating toll of the conflict on civilians and aid workers.
The investigation into these incidents underscores the ongoing scrutiny of Israeli military actions in Gaza and the importance of accountability in upholding international humanitarian laws.