Israeli military to open criminal probes into 2 Gaza attacks
Deutsche Welle · LC · trust 59/100
The investigations will focus on the killings of 5-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab and 15 emergency aid workers in Gaza. The decision came after a review of 150 incidents concerning the conduct of Israeli troops.
https://p.dw.com/p/5J59a Hind Rajab was killed, along with her family, in an attack by Israeli forces in January 2024 Image: Jonathan Fernandes/Sipa USA/picture alliance Advertisement The Israeli military has announced it will open criminal investigations into two high-profile attacks on Palestinians during the Gaza war .
In a report published Wednesday, the Israeli military said it had reviewed 150 incidents involving its troops in the Palestinian enclave and had made decisions about five of the cases.
The killings of 5-year-old Hind Rajab in 2024 and 15 Palestinian paramedics in 2025 would be subject to a criminal probe, the military said.
However, it said it would not take that step in the case of three other attacks in which aid workers from the charities World Central Kitchen and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) were killed.
On January 29, 2024, Israeli forces fired on a car approaching them that was carrying a 5-year-old Palestinian girl, Hind Rajab, and her relatives in Gaza City , the military said in its report.
Five of the passengers were killed, while Rajab and her 15-year-old cousin Layan Hamada survived. Layan called the Palestinian Red Crescent, telling them a tank was approaching and her family members had been killed. According to a Red Crescent recording of the call, gunshots were heard, and Layan went silent. Rajab then stayed on the phone with the Red Crescent for hours, trapped in the car, as they tried to get permission from the military to rescue her, but contact was lost.
An ambulance dispatched to the site was also allegedly hit by a shell as it arrived.
Twelve days later, the bodies of Hind and seven of her relatives were recovered from the scene, along with two paramedics. The case drew international outrage.
"Following review of the findings and due to alleged 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," the Israeli military said in its report.
On March 23, 2025, 15 emergency workers from the Red Crescent, Palestinian Civil Defense and the UN were killed when Israeli troops fired on their vehicles in Tel al-Sultan in northern Rafah.
Troops shot at a first ambulance that was driving to reach casualties, and then fired on other emergency vehicles that followed, according to phone footage and an account from the sole survivor.
The Israeli military said in its report that its troops were staging an early morning ambush against Hamas militants along a central access route and had fired at what they believed to be a Hamas vehicle . They then opened fire on other vehicles that arrived at the scene.
The troops then "decided to crush the vehicles and to cover the bodies with metal mesh," the military report said.
UN officials said that 15 bodies were recovered from a grave in the sand near vehicles that were wrecked and well-marked.
The military report said that "six of those killed were identified as belonging to Hamas."
It added that it would launch a criminal probe into the incident, "having found that the firing conducted during the incident raises a reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct."
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The military said it would not investigate the airstrikes on a World Central Kitchen convoy in April 2024 that resulted in the deaths of seven of the charity's employees.
The case drew international scrutiny, with the aid group saying it had coordinated with the military over the movement of its cars, whose roofs bore the group’s logo visible from the air.
The military said in its report that it had mistakenly identified several individuals in the vehicles as Hamas militants and that the convoy deviated from its planned route.
It concluded that "the decisions of the commanders did not raise reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct."
The military also decided not to take criminal action over the killings of four staffers from Doctors Without Borders in two separate incidents in Gaza City in November 2023 and Khan Younis in February 2024.
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Rajab's grandmother, who is also named Hind Rajab, said the Israeli investigation was not enough.
"An international investigation is required to uncover the truth and hold all those responsible accountable," she said in comments to The Associated Press on Wednesday. "We call for justice, not only for Hind, but for all Gaza children."
Meanwhile, speaking to Reuters after the report's release, Red Crescent media director Eid Aziz said the deaths should never have happened in the first place.
"More important than opening the investigation is that this should have been prevented," he said. "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."
Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike on a police station in Gaza City on Wednesday killed at least nine people and injured more than 20 others, according to Palestinian health authorities.
The Israeli military said the strike targeted a Hamas commander who it claimed was planning to carry out attacks against Israeli troops in Gaza .
Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital reported that a woman and a girl were among the dead.
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Israel said it had also…
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