Israel’s military announced on Wednesday that it will conduct internal investigations into the deaths of Palestinian girl Hind Rajab in January 2024 and 15 emergency and aid workers in March 2025 in Gaza. Rights groups expressed skepticism about the outcomes of such investigations, citing a lack of convictions typically seen in cases involving Israeli troops.
The military’s decisions to launch investigations were based on findings from its Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism, which reviewed five incidents involving Palestinian fatalities. Notably, the military concluded that there was no basis for a criminal investigation in the case of the seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen charity who were killed in April 2024.
Highlighting the challenges faced by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in a complex operational environment, the military emphasized its commitment to examining exceptional incidents during combat in accordance with international and domestic laws.
The killings of Hind Rajab in February 2024 and the 15 Palestinian medics in May 2025 garnered international attention. However, Israeli rights groups raised concerns about the low conviction rates for soldiers and commanders accused of misconduct in such cases.
A spokesperson for the Israeli rights organization Yesh Din criticized the lack of indictments and the leniency of sentences when convictions do occur. Hind Rajab’s grandmother expressed disbelief at the announcement of the investigations, calling for accountability for her granddaughter’s death and urging other countries to investigate the situation in Gaza to protect the rights of all children.
Recent reports by UNICEF and the United Nations Human Rights Council have highlighted the high number of Palestinian children killed or injured in Gaza since the conflict began in 2023. While the UN report accused Israeli security forces of intentionally targeting and killing Palestinian children, Israel dismissed the findings as propaganda.
During the Gaza conflict, Hind Rajab pleaded for help over the phone while trapped in a car as her family members lay dead nearby. The subsequent recovery of the bodies of Hind Rajab, her relatives, and two ambulance workers drew international attention, leading to a documentary film that received critical acclaim.
In a separate incident, the bodies of 15 emergency and aid workers were discovered in a grave in the Gaza Strip in March 2025. UN officials condemned the killings by Israeli forces and demanded justice. The Israeli military, which denied targeting civilians intentionally, facilitated the retrieval of the bodies from the combat zone but did not address specific questions about the circumstances of the workers’ deaths.
The Red Crescent criticized the lack of protection for medical staff and called for preventive measures to safeguard humanitarian workers in conflict zones.
