Israeli military launches criminal probes into killings of Hind Rajab and Palestinian paramedics

Israel’s navy stated Wednesday (August 19, 2026) it could launch legal investigations into two high-profile assaults on Palestinians throughout the warfare in Gaza, together with the killings of 5-year-old Hind Rajab and her household and of 15 Palestinian paramedics.

The navy stated it could not launch legal investigations into three different assaults that killed support employees from World Central Kitchen and Docs With out Borders.

It launched a press release asserting that it had accomplished critiques of 150 incidents of troop conduct in Gaza and had made choices on 5 instances.

The assertion didn’t point out different high-profile killings that the navy has pledged to research all through the warfare. It didn’t point out the Israeli strikes on a hospital in southern Gaza that killed 5 journalists in August 2025, together with Mariam Dagga, a visible journalist who freelanced for The Related Press and different information organisations.

Each the killing of Rajab in February 2024 and the killing of 15 Palestinian medics in Might 2025 gained worldwide consideration.

Rajab was killed alongside her kin whereas making an attempt to flee Gaza Metropolis amid an Israeli offensive. Israeli troops opened fireplace on a automobile carrying Hind and 4 of her cousins and her aunt and uncle.

Hind’s cousin, 15-year-old Layan Hamada, referred to as the Palestinian Pink Crescent paramedic centre, telling them {that a} tank was approaching and that her household had been killed. Seconds later, extra gunshots had been heard, and Layan’s screaming stopped, in keeping with the Pink Crescent recording of the decision.

Hind was the only survivor within the automotive. The Pink Crescent stayed in touch along with her as they tried to get permission from the navy to rescue her. Contact was misplaced. Hind, her 5 kin and two medics had been discovered useless 12 days later.

The 15 paramedics had been killed when Israeli troops opened fireplace on their automobiles within the southern metropolis of Rafah, then buried them in a mass grave. Troops shot on the first ambulance that was driving to retrieve casualties from an Israeli offensive, then fired on a number of different emergency automobiles that went out to search for the primary one, in keeping with telephone footage and the only survivor of the shootings.

Troops then bulldozed over the our bodies together with their mangled automobiles, burying them in a mass grave. UN and rescue employees had been solely in a position to attain the location per week later to dig out the our bodies.

The Israeli navy initially stated it opened fireplace as a result of the automobiles had been “advancing suspiciously” on close by troops with out headlights or emergency indicators. Nevertheless it backtracked from that account after the footage emerged, exhibiting the Pink Crescent and Civil Defence groups driving slowly with their emergency automobile lights flashing and logos seen.

“We’re not obligated to show the reality as a result of it’s already confirmed to the entire world,” Eid Azizi, a Palestinian Pink Crescent spokesperson, instructed the Related Press in a telephone name. “We should not have reached this level in the event that they revered and adopted the worldwide humanitarian regulation.”