Israel confirms soldiers fired at car carrying Palestinian girl, 5, opens criminal investigation into her death

For the first time, the Israeli military has acknowledged that its troops fired on the car carrying five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who was killed along with six family members in Gaza in 2024.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it has ordered a criminal investigation into the killings, according to BBC and The Guardian.

According to The Guardian, the IDF had repeatedly denied its troops were in the area at the time.

The phone call

On Jan. 29, 2024, Hind spent three hours on the phone with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, begging to be rescued. She did not survive.

The family's car had been hit as they tried to flee into Gaza City. Everyone else in the car was also killed.

Hind initially survived and answered the phone. In the recording, she described seeing tanks in front of the car, moving towards her.

Operators told her to hide under the seats to prevent anyone from seeing her.

Operator Rana Faqih stayed on the line for hours while the Red Crescent appealed to the Israeli military for permission to send an ambulance.

Faqih told BBC in February 2024 that the girl asked her again and again for someone to come.

She said: "At one point, she told me it was getting dark. She was scared. She asked me how far away my house was. I felt paralysed and helpless."

The ambulance

Three hours into the call, an ambulance was cleared to rescue Hind.

The paramedics, Yusuf al-Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun, told operators they were close to the location and were about to be checked for entry by Israeli forces.

Nothing more was heard from them, or from Hind. Both lines went dead.

The PRCS later confirmed both paramedics were killed when the ambulance came under fire.

The Guardian reported that the IDF also acknowledged its troops fired on the ambulance.

PRCS told BBC in a statement: "The [Israeli] occupation deliberately targeted the Red Crescent crew despite obtaining prior coordination to allow the ambulance to arrive at the scene to rescue the child Hind."

The bodies were only retrieved 12 days later, after Israeli troops withdrew.

What the IDF said

The IDF said its findings "indicate that IDF troops fired at a vehicle" that was "travelling contrary to the advanced notice that had been published in an announcement by the IDF Spokesperson to residents of the area.”

On its decision to investigate, it said:

"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 by military police criminal investigation division."

The IDF also said it had been engaged in intensive combat on multiple fronts for more than a thousand days, carrying out a wide range of military missions in what it described as an exceptionally complex operational environment.

Israel's military maintains that it does not deliberately target civilians in Gaza, and has accused Hamas of using civilians as cover for its fighters.

"No confidence" in the investigation

The Hind Rajab Foundation, a Brussels-based group that seeks to address alleged Israeli violations in Gaza, admitted that it had “no confidence” in the process, per BBC.

The foundation said in a statement that even if the investigations do take place, they should not be mistaken for a “genuine step towards justice.” It described Israel's internal investigations as “fundamentally flawed,” and said they could not be “regarded as credible mechanisms of accountability.”

The Guardian noted that such criminal misconduct investigations into Israeli troops seldom end in convictions.

A second criminal investigation

The IDF also said it would open a criminal investigation into the killing of 15 Palestinian medics and humanitarian workers near Rafah in March 2025.

According to phone footage and the sole survivor, troops lying in ambush first fired on an ambulance retrieving casualties, then on a series of emergency vehicles that approached their position.

The bodies and vehicles were then bulldozed into a mass grave. UN and rescue teams reached the site a week later.

Jonathan Whittall, a UN official who helped recover the bodies, said:

"They were killed in their uniforms. Driving their clearly marked vehicles. Wearing their gloves. On their way to save lives. This should never have happened."

The military's first account was that the vehicles had been approaching in a suspicious manner with no headlights or emergency signals switched on. It later abandoned that version, after footage surfaced of the convoy travelling slowly with emergency lights on and its markings clearly in view.

Munther Abed, a paramedic who survived the incident, said he hoped those who killed his colleagues would face "real justice.”

He said: "I want to say to the whole world, ambulances 101 is not a target and they must be protected."

The 101 refers to the speed dial number for the Red Crescent service in Gaza.

No investigations in other cases

The IDF decided against criminal investigations in other incidents.

One was the April 2024 airstrikes on a World Central Kitchen convoy, which killed seven aid workers.

The IDF said it had mistaken several people in the vehicles for armed Hamas operatives and that the convoy had deviated from a coordinated route, but concluded that "the decisions of the commanders did not raise reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct."

World Central Kitchen said it strongly disagreed.

The organisation said in a statement that there had never been any excuse or justification for the attacks, and that nothing in the IDF's account provided one. It described the decision as "inconsistent with the full truth and deeply offensive.”

The IDF also decided against action over the killings of four Doctors Without Borders workers in two separate incidents in Nov. 2023 and Feb. 2024.