By Emily Rose and Nidal al-Mughrabi
JERUSALEM/CAIRO, Aug 19 (Reuters) – Israel’s military will open internal investigations over its troops’ high-profile killings in Gaza of 5-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab in January 2024 and 15 emergency and aid workers in March 2025, it said on Wednesday, although rights groups said such probes rarely lead to convictions.
The military said the investigation decisions followed probes by its Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism. It released decisions regarding five incidents involving the deaths of Palestinians.
They included an examination of the killings of seven aid workers with the World Central Kitchen charity in April 2024. On that incident, the military said there was “no reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct that would justify the opening of a criminal investigation.”
Israeli rights groups say that criminal misconduct investigations into Israeli troops over the killing of Palestinians rarely lead to convictions.
Dan Owen, a researcher in the Yesh Din rights organization, said that over the last decade only a “tiny” proportion of investigations had led to indictments while growing political pressure “further deters Israeli law-enforcement authorities from holding those responsible accountable, even when clear evidence does exist.”
During Israel’s offensive in response to an October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel which triggered the Gaza war, Hind Rajab was pinned down in a car for hours, begging Palestinian medics by mobile phone to send help, while her aunt, uncle and three cousins already lay dead. When an ambulance arrived, contact with the girl and the rescuers themselves was lost. Twelve days later, the bodies of the girl, her relatives and two ambulance workers were recovered from the area.
HIND RAJAB FILM
A film about Hind Rajab’s death won the Silver Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award.
In March 2025, 15 emergency and aid workers from the Red Crescent, Palestinian Civil Defense and the United Nations were recovered from a grave in the sand in the south of the Gaza Strip, U.N. officials said at the time.
U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher said in a post on X that the bodies were buried near “wrecked & well-marked vehicles,” adding: “They were killed by Israeli forces while trying to save lives. We demand answers & justice.”
Israeli forces say they have never deliberately targeted civilians in the Gaza war. They say the Palestinian militant group Hamas endangers such people’s lives by using them for cover.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment directly on the deaths of the Red Crescent workers at the time. In a later statement to Reuters, it said that it had facilitated the evacuation of the bodies from the area, which it described as an active combat zone. It did not specifically respond to questions about why the bodies were retrieved from beneath the sand or why the vehicles were found crushed.
Eid Aziz, media director for the Red Crescent, told Reuters:
“More important than opening the investigation is that this should have been prevented. The Palestinian Red Crescent badge is protected by international laws, and the medical staff must be protected, especially as they execute their duties and humanitarian work.”
Munther Abed, a Palestinian paramedic who said he was present at the incident in which 15 of his colleagues were killed, told Reuters on Wednesday he hoped “those who killed my colleagues, who were like family to me, face justice, real justice”.
“I want to say to the whole world, Ambulances 101 is not a target and they must be protected,” he said referring to the speed dial number for the Red Crescent Service in Gaza.
More than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since the start of the Gaza war in 2023, with thousands more killed in its military operations in southern Lebanon. The dead include many aid workers, doctors, journalists and others.
Israel’s military, which says its attacks target Hamas and Hezbollah militants, opens investigations into some of its attacks, when they involve the deaths of civilians including medical and aid workers or journalists.
The Gaza ceasefire declared in last October may have halted major fighting in Gaza but it failed to end Israeli attacks. Israel has said its ongoing strikes aim to thwart imminent attacks by Hamas and other Gaza militants.
More than 1,200 Palestinians and four Israeli soldiers have been killed since the truce, according to Gaza health authorities and the Israeli military.
(Additional reporting by Pesha Magid and Ali Sawafta; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Toby Chopra)
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