Israel opens criminal probes over killings of 6-year

Israel opens criminal probes over killings of 6-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, Gaza rescue workers

Israeli rights groups say such internal investigations rarely lead to convictions

Israel's military said on Wednesday that it will open internal investigations over its troops' killings in Gaza of Palestinian girl Hind Rajab in January 2024 and 15 emergency and aid workers in March 2025, 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."

"For more than a thousand days, the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] has been conducting intensive combat across numerous fronts, carrying out a wide range of military missions in an exceptionally complex operational reality," the Israeli military said.

"As part of the IDF’s obligations under international law and Israeli domestic law, the IDF examines exceptional incidents that occurred during combat," the military said.

Both the killing of Rajab in February 2024 and the killing of 15 Palestinian medics in May 2025 gained international attention.

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But Israeli rights groups say that criminal misconduct investigations into Israeli troops over the killing of Palestinians rarely lead to convictions.

"Nearly zero indictments are served relative to the number of complaints of soldiers and commanders who commit offences. In rare cases when commanders or soldiers are convicted, they receive ridiculously lenient sentences compared with the severity of the offence," said a spokesperson for the Israeli rights organization Yesh Din.

Rajab's grandmother, also named Hind Rajab, told The Associated Press by phone that the Israeli investigation is not enough, and called for an international probe into the killing of her granddaughter and all of the hundreds of children killed in Gaza during the war.

"An international investigation is required to uncover the truth and hold all those responsible accountable," she said. "We call for justice, not only for Hind but for all Gaza children."

In June, a United Nations Human Rights Council report said evidence showed that Israeli security forces had "deliberately targeted" and killed Palestinian children in Gaza. Israel rejected the report as "a propaganda piece."

During Israel's offensive in response to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack, 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.

A film about Hind Rajab's death, which sparked international outcry, 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, United Nations officials said at the time.

UN 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 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.

"More important than opening the investigation is that this should have been prevented," Eid Aziz, media director for the Red Crescent, told Reuters.

"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.”

With files from The Associated Press and CBC News