Israel opens criminal probes over killings of Hind Rajab and Gaza rescue workers, military says

Israel opens criminal probes over killings of Hind Rajab and Gaza rescue workers, military notes.

Key points

• They included an examination of the killings of seven aid workers with the World Central Kitchen charity in April 2024.
• Hind's story and the recording of her emergency call afterwards became the basis for the docudrama "The Voice of Hind Rajab" by Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania.
• The military remarked the investigation decisions followed probes by its Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism.
• "I am so scared, " she had remarked in a desperate phone call to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS).

Israel opens criminal probes over killings of Hind Rajab and Gaza rescue workers, military notes. Reuters Published August 19, 2026 Updated August 19, 2026 05: 36pm. Add Dawn as a trusted source.

Israel's military will open internal criminal investigations over its troops' killings in Gaza of Hind Rajab in January 2024 and 15 emergency and aid workers in March 2025, it remarked on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the military remarked the investigation decisions followed probes by its Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism. It published decisions regarding five incidents involving the deaths of Palestinians.

They included an examination of the killings of seven aid workers with the World Central Kitchen charity in April 2024. On that incident, the military asserted there was "no reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct that would justify the opening of a criminal investigation."

"For more than a thousand days, the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) has been conducting intensive combat across numerous fronts, carrying out a wide range of military missions in an exceptionally complex operational reality, " the Israeli military remarked.

"As part of the IDF's obligations under international law and Israeli domestic law, the IDF examines exceptional incidents that occurred during combat, " the military remarked.

After her family's car came under fire in war-ravaged Gaza City, leaving her alone, frightened and injured, surrounded by the bodies of her dead relatives, in January 2024, six-year-old Hind pleaded to be rescued.

"I am so scared, " she had remarked in a desperate phone call to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS). "Call someone to come get me, please."

After more than two weeks of frantic efforts to reach her, Hind's body, along with those of her relatives and two PRCS workers who had been dispatched to rescue her, was recovered.

Notably, an independent investigation by the London-based research group Forensic Architecture analysed satellite imagery and visual evidence, concluding that a number of Israeli tanks were near the vehicle and that one fired 335 rounds at the car carrying Hind and her family. The group additionally suggested that a tank probable attacked the ambulance.

Meanwhile, the film was nominated for best international feature film in the Academy Awards this year. The film incorporates real audio from Hind's call to Red Crescent emergency workers.

In March this year, US lawmakers introduced legislation demanding a US investigation into Hind's killing.

For now, israel opens criminal probes over killings of Hind Rajab and Gaza rescue remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.