The Israeli military on Wednesday admitted for the first time that it had opened fire on a vehicle carrying five-year-old Hind Rajab in the Gaza Strip and announced that it had opened a criminal investigation into the killing.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have previously denied any involvement in the January 2024 killing, saying a preliminary investigation several months later found that the IDF was “not in the vicinity of the vehicle or within its firing range.”
The case is one of two high-profile cases in which the military has launched a criminal investigation. But the military said it would not investigate three other attacks in the early months of the war that killed aid workers.
Rajab was one of seven family members traveling by car in northern Gaza when they came under Israeli shelling. Mr. Rajab survived the initial fire and spent hours on the phone with Palestinian paramedics pleading with them to come and help. Afterwards, the ambulance dispatched to rescue her also came under fire.
Twelve days later, Mr. Rajab’s body was found inside a car riddled with bullets.
“Test results indicate that IDF troops opened fire on the approaching vehicle,” the IDF said in a statement.
“After considering the findings of the apparent failure of the Palestine Red Crescent in coordinating the movement of the ambulance, it was decided to open a criminal investigation into the incident by the Criminal Investigation Department of the Military Police Police.”
Recorded calls between Ms. Rajab and emergency workers attracted international attention and led to calls for accountability for her and thousands of other children’s deaths in Gaza. A film based on the incident, The Voice of Hind Rajab, was nominated for an Oscar in 2026.
The investigation into Hind Rajab’s death is part of the IDF’s first comprehensive report on suspected war crimes since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.
The Fact-Finding and Evaluation Mechanism of the Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff has completed its investigation of 150 cases, which have been forwarded to the military’s top lawyer for a decision to open a criminal investigation. Out of 150 investigations, decisions on five cases were made public on Wednesday, and the rest await the decision of the Commander-in-Chief of Military Justice.
The IDF also announced that it had opened a criminal investigation into the March 2025 killings of 15 emergency workers and first responders traveling in ambulances and other emergency response vehicles.
The IDF initially claimed that the vehicle was driving suspiciously, without headlights or emergency signals, but this was later flatly contradicted by footage of a convoy of vehicles driving with flashing lights. The group was buried in a mass grave along with emergency vehicles.
The Israeli military later admitted “professional negligence” in the incident and insisted there was no “ethical gap.” But the IDF said in a statement Wednesday that “the shots fired during the incident raise a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.”
In three other cases, the military determined there was no reasonable suspicion of criminal conduct to warrant opening a criminal investigation. The first was the killing of seven World Central Kitchen humanitarian workers in Deir Elbala in April 2024, the second in February 2024 when an attack on a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) shelter in Khan Younis killed two workers, and the second in November 2023 when an attack on an MSF convoy killed two more workers.
