Hind Rajab’s body was recovered from a car riddled with bullets in Gaza City days after she was last heard from in a desperate, hours-long phone call to the Palestinian Red Crescent on January 29, 2024.
The Israeli military had previously denied its troops were present in the area near the incident.
“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 Israeli military said on Wednesday.
Alongside the Hind Rajab case, the military published reviews into four other high-profile incidents in Gaza, saying it was also launching a criminal probe into the 2025 killings of 15 Palestinians including medics and humanitarian personnel.
Hind Rajab had made the emergency call after her family’s car came under fire during an attempt to flee Gaza City amid an Israeli advance in the Palestinian territory’s north.
Her body was eventually recovered along with those of six relatives and two Red Crescent rescue workers sent to find her.
Her death sparked international outrage and calls for an independent investigation, and the original audio recordings of her emergency call were incorporated into the Oscar-nominated feature film “The Voice of Hind Rajab”.
Upon publishing its review into the incident on Wednesday, the Israeli military said its findings indicated troops had “fired at a vehicle that was approaching them while travelling contrary to the advance notice” that had been given to residents in the area.
“As a result of the fire, five of the vehicle’s passengers were killed, and two survived: Hind Rajab and her cousin Layan Hamada,” it said.
The military said that following a call to rescue authorities in which the girls participated, the movement of a Palestine Red Crescent ambulance had been coordinated in order to evacuate the casualties.
“However, according to the allegations raised, upon the ambulance’s arrival at the scene of the incident, a shell was fired toward it, resulting in the deaths of the two paramedics travelling in it,” it added.
The Hind Rajab Foundation, a Brussels-based legal organisation seeking to address alleged Israeli violations in Gaza, said it had “no confidence” in the move by the Israeli military.
“These reported investigations, even if they do occur, should not be mistaken for a genuine step toward justice,” it said in a statement, adding that Israel’s internal investigations were “fundamentally flawed and cannot be regarded as credible mechanisms of accountability.”
The military said criminal investigations would not be launched into three other incidents it reviewed, involving the killing of employees from the World Central Kitchen and Doctors Without Borders (MSF), both of which drew international scrutiny.
It said it had ordered a criminal investigation into the death of 15 Palestinians, including medical personnel, in southern Gaza in March 2025, in another incident that drew international condemnation.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said at the time that a team of first responders was killed by Israeli forces on March 23, 2025 and that other emergency and aid teams were hit one after another over several hours while searching for their missing colleagues.
Those killed included eight Red Crescent staff, six members of the Gaza civil defence agency and one employee of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
The bodies were found buried near Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah in what OCHA described as a mass grave.
“On March 23, 2025, three shooting incidents occurred toward different rescue vehicles, including a fire truck, ambulances, and a UN vehicle, during an ambush carried out by IDF troops against operatives of the Hamas terrorist organisation” the military said.
It said 15 Palestinians were killed including medical personnel and paramedics, claiming “six of those killed were identified as belonging to Hamas.”
It said troops had then decided to “crush the vehicles and to cover the bodies with metal mesh.”
“Following review of the findings, having found that the firing conducted during the incident raises a reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct, it has been decided to initiate a criminal investigation of the incident,” it said.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said at the time that the incident raised “further concerns over the commission of war crimes by the Israeli military.” (AFP)
