ISRAEL is set to launch criminal investigations into two deadly attacks on Palestinians in Gaza, including the killings of five-year-old Hind Rajab and her family and of 15 Palestinian paramedics.
The military said it would not launch criminal investigations into three other attacks that killed aid workers from World Central Kitchen and Doctors Without Borders.
It released the news in a statement that said it had completed reviews of 150 incidents of troop conduct in Gaza and had made decisions on five cases.
The statement did not mention other high-profile killings that the military has pledged to investigate throughout the war.
It did not mention the Israeli strikes on a hospital in southern Gaza that killed five journalists in August 2025, including Mariam Dagga, a visual journalist who freelanced for The Associated Press and other news organisations.
Both the killing of Rajab in February 2024 and the killing of 15 Palestinian medics in May 2025 gained widespread international attention, with an exhibition unveiled in several Scottish cities which featured a replica of the Rajab's family car with 355 bullet holes etched into its exterior, as reports indicate this was how many hit the car when Israeli forces targeted it.
Hind was killed alongside her relatives while trying to flee Gaza City amid an Israeli offensive. Israeli troops opened fire on a vehicle carrying Hind and four of her cousins and her aunt and uncle.
Hind’s cousin, 15-year-old Layan Hamada, called the Palestinian Red Crescent paramedic centre, telling them that a tank was approaching and that her family had been killed.
Seconds later, more gunshots were heard, and Hamada's screaming stopped, according to the Red Crescent recording of the call.
At this point Hind was the sole survivor in the car.
The Red Crescent stayed in contact with her as they tried to get permission from the military to rescue her. Two paramedics attempted to approach the vehicle but were also killed by Israeli fire.
Contact was then lost with Hind, and 12 days later she as well as all five of her relatives in the car and the two medics were found dead at the site.
In the 2025 attack that killed 15 paramedics, Israeli troops opened fire on their vehicles in the southern city of Rafah, then buried them in a mass grave.
Israeli troops shot at a first ambulance that was driving to retrieve casualties from another Israeli offensive, then fired on several other emergency vehicles that were sent on a search and rescue mission to find the crew of the first ambulance, according to phone footage and the sole survivor of the shootings.
Troops then reportedly bulldozed over the bodies along with their mangled vehicles, burying them in a mass grave.
UN and rescue workers were not able to reach the site until a week later to dig out the bodies.
The Israeli military initially said it opened fire because the vehicles were “advancing suspiciously” on nearby troops without headlights or emergency signals.
But it backtracked from that account after the footage emerged, showing the Red Crescent and Civil Defence teams driving slowly with their emergency vehicle lights flashing and logos visible.
“We are not obligated to prove the truth because it is already proven to the whole world,” Eid Azizi, a Palestinian Red Crescent spokesperson, told The Associated Press.
“We shouldn’t have reached this point if they respected and followed the international humanitarian law.”
