Israel's military admitted for the first time on Wednesday that it opened fire on a vehicle in Gaza carrying 5-year-old Hind Rajab as a criminal probe was launched.
Internal probes were launched into the January 2024 killing of Rajab and the deaths of 15 aid workers in March 2025, CNN first reported.
"For more than a thousand days, the IDF (Israel Defense 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 announced in a statement. "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 also revealed they are not launching a criminal investigation into the deaths of seven aid workers under World Central Kitchen in April 2024. The aid workers were killed in an airstrike in Gaza. The IDF said there is "no reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct that would justify the opening of a criminal investigation."
The paramedics and rescue workers in March 2025 were killed after Israeli forces opened fire in the city of Rafah. The aid workers were reportedly buried in a mass grave only to be dug out by United Nations rescue workers a week later.
Rajab was traveling in 2024 with multiple family members, including her aunt, uncle, and cousins, when Israeli forces reportedly opened fire on the vehicle. The wounded Rajab ended up on the phone with paramedics for hours, pleading for assistance. An ambulance was reportedly dispatched and came under fire, and Rajab was found dead 12 days later, along with her family and two dead ambulance workers.
A film, titled The Voice of Hind Rajab, about the killing of Rajab and the phone call, was released in 2025 and nominated for an Oscar for Best International Feature Film.
The IDF initially denied any involvement in Rajab's death in 2024, claiming their forces were "not present near the vehicle or within firing range" of the vehicle carrying the child and her family.
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