Israel admits its troops killed 5-year-old Hind Rajab in Gaza, opens criminal probe

Israel’s military will open internal investigations over its troops’ killings in Gaza of five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab in January 2024 and 15 emergency and aid workers in March 2025, it has said, although rights groups warn such probes rarely lead to convictions.

The military said on Wednesday the investigation decisions followed probes by its Fact-Finding and Assessment ‌Mechanism. It released 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 said 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 said.

“As part of the IDF’s obligations under international law and Israeli domestic law, the IDF ⁠examines exceptional incidents that occurred during combat.”

Israeli rights groups say that criminal misconduct investigations into Israeli troops over the killing of Palestinians rarely lead to ‌convictions.

“Nearly zero indictments are served relative to the number of complaints of soldiers and commanders who commit offences. In rare cases when commanders or soldiers are convicted, they receive ridiculously lenient sentences compared with the severity of the offence,” said a spokesperson for ‌the Israeli rights organisation Yesh Din.