Israel’s military announced on Wednesday that it would 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. However, human rights organizations pointed out that such inquiries rarely result in convictions.
The military’s decisions to launch investigations came after assessments by its Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism, which looked into five incidents involving the fatalities of Palestinians. Notably, the examination of the deaths of seven aid workers with the World Central Kitchen charity in April 2024 concluded that there was no substantial evidence of criminal wrongdoing warranting a criminal investigation.
Stating the complexity of their operational reality, the Israeli military highlighted that they have been engaged in intense combat across multiple fronts for over a thousand days. As part of their obligations under international and domestic laws, the military mentioned that they scrutinize extraordinary incidents that occur during combat.
The international community paid attention to the killings of Hind Rajab in February 2024 and the 15 Palestinian medics in May 2025. Despite the investigations, Israeli rights groups expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of criminal misconduct probes involving Israeli troops in cases of Palestinian deaths, citing a lack of convictions and lenient sentences.
Reacting to the military’s announcement, Hind Rajab’s grandmother voiced disbelief in Israel’s ability to conduct a fair investigation and called for other countries to look into her granddaughter’s death and the situation of children in Gaza. She demanded accountability for the killing of Hind and stressed the rights of all Gaza children to justice.
Recent reports have shed light on the toll on Palestinian children in Gaza, with UNICEF revealing that at least 64,000 Palestinian children were killed or injured since the onset of the Gaza war in October 2023. Furthermore, a United Nations Human Rights Council report accused Israeli security forces of deliberately targeting and killing Palestinian children in Gaza, an allegation that Israel rejected as propaganda.
In a tragic incident during Israel’s offensive following a Hamas-led attack in October 2023, Hind Rajab found herself trapped in a car, pleading for help from Palestinian medics via phone while her family members lay dead nearby. The subsequent recovery of the bodies, including those of two ambulance workers, garnered international attention and recognition through a film on Hind Rajab’s story.
In March 2025, the discovery of 15 emergency and aid workers’ bodies from various organizations in a grave in the southern Gaza Strip raised concerns about their deaths at the hands of Israeli forces. While the military denied intentionally targeting civilians, UN officials demanded answers and justice for the deceased workers. The Red Crescent criticized the lack of protection for medical staff and urged for prevention of such tragic incidents in the future.