Israel Opens Criminal Investigation Into Killings of Hind Rajab and Gaza Medical Workers
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Two high-profile cases that had spurred international condemnation of the country’s conduct in Gaza were transferred to the military police. Such investigations have rarely led to convictions.
Listen · 2:39 min Share full article A car where the bodies of Hind Rajab, a Palestinian girl, and her family were found in Gaza City after an Israeli strike in 2024. Credit... Reuters By Isabel Kershner
The decision to open the criminal investigations into suspicions of military misconduct during the war came after a lengthy review of the cases and followed widespread international condemnation of Israel’s conduct, with several rights groups and governments accusing the country of war crimes.
More than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to the territory’s health ministry, whose data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but has included thousands of children.
The Israeli military said in a statement on Wednesday that a fact-finding mission had completed a review of about 150 incidents during the war, which was waged after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 , and had transferred them to the military prosecution services for examination. Such investigations have rarely led to convictions.
The first of the two cases to be investigated involves the deaths of Hind Rajab and six members of her family who were killed in a car in Gaza City in January 2024, as well as the shelling of a Palestine Red Crescent ambulance that had tried to approach the vehicle, an attack that caused the deaths of two paramedics.
The second case involves the fatal shooting in March 2025 of 14 Palestinian medics and rescue workers in southern Gaza, as well as that of a U.N. employee who drove by after the others had been shot.
The military said that it had found no grounds for criminal investigation in three other cases, including the killing of seven employees of World Central Kitchen, a relief group, in April 2024. The military also declined to open a criminal investigation into a deadly strike on a building occupied by Doctors Without Borders in February 2024 or into the killing of two of the medical organization’s employees who were traveling in a convoy in Gaza City in November 2023.
An earlier version of this story misstated the age of Hind Rajab. She was 5, not 6.
We acknowledge mistakes in our reporting with corrections. If you spot an error, please let us know at corrections@nytimes.com . Learn more .
Isabel Kershner, a senior correspondent for The Times in Jerusalem, has been reporting on Israeli and Palestinian affairs since 1990.
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