The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced Wednesday it has opened a criminal investigation into the January 2024 killing of 5-year-old Hind Rajab and her family members in Gaza City. The military acknowledged for the first time that its troops opened fire on the vehicle carrying the family, reversing a previous claim that no forces were in the area at the time.
The decision followed a military review of more than 150 incidents involving Israeli troops in Gaza. The IDF stated that the investigation by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division was initiated due to findings that troops fired at a vehicle approaching them and "apparent failures" in coordinating the movement of a Palestine Red Crescent ambulance sent to rescue the child.
Rajab was trapped in a car with six family members who had been killed by gunfire while attempting to flee Gaza City. Audio recordings captured her 15-year-old cousin, Layan Hamada, describing an approaching tank before her call ended in gunfire. Rajab remained on the phone with emergency operators for hours, pleading for rescue, but her body and those of two paramedics sent to help her were not recovered until 12 days later.
The IDF also ordered a criminal probe into the March 2025 killing of 15 Gazans, including rescue workers and a U.N. staffer, in Tel al-Sultan. While the military initially claimed the vehicles were "advancing suspiciously" without lights, it retracted that account after cellphone video showed Red Crescent and Civil Defense teams driving slowly with flashing emergency lights. The military confirmed troops bulldozed the bodies and vehicles, stating Hamas operatives were present.
Simultaneously, the military announced it would not launch criminal inquiries into several other high-profile incidents. These include the April 2024 deaths of seven World Central Kitchen employees and the killings of four Doctors Without Borders workers between November 2023 and February 2024. The IDF attributed some of these deaths to "bullet ricochet" from warning fire and stated no criminal misconduct was involved in those cases.
A person living in Gaza or working for an international NGO would notice the immediate impact of these military decisions on their safety protocols and legal rights. The military's acknowledgment of "coordination failures" suggests that even when safe passage is granted to ambulances, as was reported in the Rajab case, field conditions may remain life-threatening. The precedent set by these investigations is notable because, according to an August 2025 report by Action on Armed Violence, 88% of 52 previous IDF investigations into Gaza-related allegations were closed without findings, with only one resulting in a criminal sentence.
What happens next involves the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division gathering evidence to determine if individual soldiers or commanders will face charges. While the IDF has set a precedent by admitting to firing on the Rajab vehicle after a year of denials, the timeframe for completing these criminal probes is not yet known. The Palestinian Red Crescent has stated that international humanitarian law must be followed, while the IDF maintains that some actions, such as crushing vehicles in Tel al-Sultan, were operational decisions based on the presence of Hamas operatives.