Israeli military admit to firing on car carrying 5-year-old Hind Rajab and open investigation

The Israeli military have admitted, for the first time, to opening fire on the vehicle carrying a 5-year-old Palestinian girl, Hind Rajab, in Gaza and said they have opened a criminal investigation into the killing.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) previously denied their involvement in the killing, which occurred on January 29, 2024, saying months later that a preliminary investigation found their forces were “not present near the vehicle or within firing range.”

The case is one of two high-profile incidents into which the military have opened investigations, the other being the killing of 15 emergency and aid workers in March 2025. The military said they would not probe three other attacks from the early months of the war that killed aid workers.

Hind was one of seven family members traveling in a vehicle in northern Gaza when they came under Israeli fire. The young girl survived the initial attack but was pinned down in a car for hours, begging Palestinian medics over the phone to send help while her aunt, uncle and three cousins had already died. An ambulance dispatched to save her also came under fire and contact was lost.

Twelve days later, her body, along with her relatives and two ambulance workers, was found in a car riddled with bullets.

Hind’s death drew international attention after a recording of her last words was made public.

“The findings of the examination indicate that IDF troops fired at a vehicle that was approaching them,” the IDF said in a statement.

“Following review of the findings and due to apparent failures in the coordination of the movement of the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance, it has been decided to initiate a criminal investigation of the incident by Military Police Criminal Investigation Division.”

The investigation into the death is part of the IDF’s first comprehensive report on alleged war crimes since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.

The other incident being investigated occurred when 15 emergency and aid workers from the Red Crescent, Palestinian Civil Defense and the United Nations were recovered from a mass grave in the sand in the south of Gaza, UN officials said at the time.

A film about Hind's death, The Voice of Hind Rajab, was nominated for an Oscar and an Academy Award after winning the Silver Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival.