Israel’s military announced on Wednesday that it will 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. These investigations were initiated following assessments by the Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism of the military, which also made decisions on five incidents involving Palestinian fatalities.
Among the incidents reviewed was the death of seven aid workers affiliated with the World Central Kitchen charity in April 2024. The military stated that no evidence of criminal misconduct was found warranting a criminal investigation in that case.
The Israeli military emphasized that it has been engaged in extensive combat operations on multiple fronts for over a thousand days, facing a complex operational environment. As part of its obligations under international and domestic laws, the military examines exceptional incidents that occur during combat.
The killings of Hind Rajab in February 2024 and the 15 Palestinian medics in May 2025 garnered international attention. Nevertheless, Israeli rights groups express skepticism regarding the effectiveness of criminal misconduct investigations involving Israeli troops and Palestinian fatalities, citing low conviction rates and lenient sentences for those found guilty.
Rajab’s grandmother, Hind Rajab, expressed shock at the announcement of the investigations, stating a lack of trust in Israel’s ability to conduct a fair inquiry. She called for other countries to investigate the deaths of her granddaughter and other children in Gaza, demanding accountability for the killing of innocent civilians.
Recent reports from UNICEF revealed that since the start of the Gaza conflict in October 2023, at least 64,000 Palestinian children have been killed or injured. A United Nations Human Rights Council report accused Israeli security forces of deliberately targeting and killing Palestinian children in Gaza, an allegation that Israel has strongly rejected as propaganda.
During an offensive in response to a Hamas-led attack in October 2023, Hind Rajab found herself trapped in a car, pleading for help via phone as her family members and medics lay dead. The subsequent recovery of their bodies twelve days later drew global attention, with a film depicting Rajab’s ordeal winning accolades at prestigious film festivals.
In a separate incident in March 2025, the bodies of 15 emergency and aid workers were discovered buried in a grave in the southern Gaza Strip. UN officials condemned the killings, attributing the deaths to Israeli forces. The Red Crescent media director criticized the lack of protection for medical personnel, emphasizing the need to safeguard humanitarian workers executing their duties.
The Israeli military, while denying deliberate targeting of civilians, acknowledged facilitating the evacuation of the bodies from an active combat zone. Questions remain regarding the circumstances surrounding the recovery of the bodies and the condition of the vehicles found in the area.
Overall, calls for accountability and justice persist amidst ongoing scrutiny of the events surrounding the deaths of civilians in Gaza.