The Israeli military acknowledged for the first time on Wednesday that it opened fire on the vehicle carrying 5-year-old Hind Rajab in Gaza and said it had opened a criminal investigation into the killing.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had previously denied involvement in the January 2024 killing, saying months later that a preliminary investigation found its forces were “not present near the vehicle or within firing range” of the vehicle.

The case is one of two-high profile incidents into which the military has opened criminal investigations. But the military said that it would not probe three other attacks from the early months of the war that killed aid workers.

Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour slammed Israel’s past investigations as “not independent and not credible,” telling CNN’s Jim Sciutto that he doesn’t believe this investigation will be any different. A credible investigation, he said, would result in the arrest of those responsible for Rajab’s killing.

Rajab was one of seven family members traveling in a vehicle in northern Gaza on when they came under Israeli fire. Rajab survived the initial fire and pleaded on the phone for hours with Palestinian paramedics to come rescue her. Afterwards, an ambulance dispatched to save her also came under fire.

Twelve days later, Rajab’s body was found in a car riddled with bullets.

“The findings of the examination indicate that IDF troops fired at a vehicle that was approaching them,” the IDF said in a statement.

“Following review of the findings an due to apparent failures in the coordination of the movement of the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance, it has been decided to initiate a criminal investigation of the incident by Military Police Criminal Investigation Division.”

The Hind Rajab Foundation said in a statement that investigations by Israeli forces “overwhelmingly end without meaningful examination, prosecution, or punishment. In the small number of cases in which soldiers have been convicted of crimes, the punishments imposed have often been exceptionally lenient or administrative in nature.”

Recordings of Rajab’s call with paramedics gained international attention, driving calls for accountability for her killing and that of thousands of other children in Gaza. A film about 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 alleged war crimes since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.

The IDF General Staff’s Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism concluded investigating 150 incidents, which were transferred to the military’s top lawyer to decide on opening criminal investigations. Of the 150 inquiries, five decisions were published on Wednesday, while the others await a decision from the military advocate-general.

The IDF also announced it has launched a criminal investigation into the March 2025 killing of 15 paramedics and first responders who were traveling in ambulances and other emergency response vehicles.

The IDF initially claimed the vehicles were driving suspiciously without headlights or emergency signals, which was later directly contradicted by video of the convoy of vehicles traveling with flashing lights. The group were buried in a mass grave along with their emergency vehicles.

The Israeli military subsequently acknowledged “professional failures” in the incident and insisted there had been “no ethical gaps.” But in its statement on Wednesday, the IDF said “the firing conducted during the incident raises a reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct.”

Outrage over other killings

In three other incidents, the military determined there was no reasonable suspicion of criminal conduct to justify opening a criminal investigation: the April 2024 killing of the seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) humanitarian aid workers in Deir El-Balah, a February 2024 strike on a Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) shelter in Khan Younis that killed two employees, and a November 2023 strike on an MSF convoy which killed two additional employees.

In the attack that killed the WCK employees, the IDF said it found “serious failures” in the process that mistakenly led the military to believe the humanitarian convoy was taken over by a group of Hamas fighters. But the military advocate-general did not find “reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct,” the IDF said.

In a statement, WCK blasted the decision not to open a criminal investigation, calling it “inconsistent with the full truth and deeply offensive.”

“At the time of the lethal attacks, the IDF knew that our team in Gaza was unarmed and posing a threat to nobody. It had full visual clarity on our clearly marked humanitarian vehicles during the extended, multiple airstrikes. It knew our team’s movements, identities and activities in advance.

Australia too, expressed outrage at the Israeli decision not to pursue criminal proceedings for those behind the attack that killed WCK employees, including Australian national Zomi Frankcom.

“Zomi represented the best of Australia. Her courage deserves to be celebrated. Her family deserves justice,” Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a statement on Thursday. “This decision falls far short of the accountability we expect.”

Wong said she would call in the Israeli ambassador to Australia, and has told Australia’s envoy to Israel to convey Canberra’s views to the Israeli government directly. The Australian foreign minister said her government would “not step pressing Israel for justice for Zomi and her colleagues.”

The military investigation conflates different timelines and events, muddies the story and shifts the blame for the IDF’s illegal conduct,” WCK said. (BBC)

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