The Israeli military announced on Wednesday its decision to launch internal investigations into the killings of Palestinian girl Hind Rajab in January 2024 and 15 emergency and aid workers in March 2025 in Gaza. Human rights organizations expressed skepticism about the outcome of such investigations, noting the rarity of convictions resulting from similar probes.
Following assessments by its Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism, the military disclosed outcomes concerning five incidents involving Palestinian fatalities, including the deaths of seven aid workers affiliated with the World Central Kitchen charity in April 2024. The military stated that no evidence of criminal misconduct justifying a criminal investigation was found in this particular case.
Emphasizing the challenges faced during prolonged combat operations across multiple fronts, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) highlighted its commitment to examining exceptional incidents that occur during combat as part of its obligations under international and domestic laws.
The international community paid close attention to the killings of Hind Rajab in February 2024 and the 15 Palestinian medics in May 2025. However, Israeli rights groups raised concerns about the track record of criminal misconduct investigations involving Israeli troops and their minimal conviction rates.
A spokesperson for the Israeli rights organization Yesh Din criticized the lack of indictments relative to the volume of complaints against soldiers and commanders, citing lenient sentences for convicted personnel compared to the severity of their offenses. Hind Rajab’s grandmother expressed shock at the announcement of the investigations, calling for accountability for her granddaughter’s death and advocating for thorough international scrutiny of the situation in Gaza.
Notably, UNICEF reported in October that over 64,000 Palestinian children had been killed or injured since the onset of the Gaza conflict in October 2023. Furthermore, a United Nations Human Rights Council report in June accused Israeli security forces of deliberately targeting and killing Palestinian children in Gaza, an allegation that Israel vehemently denied as propaganda.
The tragic circumstances surrounding Hind Rajab’s death, where she pleaded for help while trapped in a car during an Israeli offensive in response to a Hamas-led attack, captured international attention. The subsequent recovery of her body and those of her deceased relatives and ambulance workers further underscored the human toll of the conflict in Gaza. The incident was depicted in a film that received critical acclaim and brought the issue to a wider audience.
In March 2025, the discovery of the bodies of 15 emergency and aid workers buried in the sand in southern Gaza prompted demands for answers and justice from UN aid chief Tom Fletcher. While the Israeli military maintained its stance of not targeting civilians intentionally, questions remained about the circumstances of the workers’ deaths and the response to the incident.
Eid Aziz, the media director for the Red Crescent, condemned the tragic loss of life among medical personnel, stressing the need for their protection under international laws as they carry out vital humanitarian work.