Israel Opens Criminal Probes Into Two Gaza Killings
Israel’s military has opened criminal investigations into two high-profile Gaza incidents, including the deaths of 5-year-old Hind Rajab, members of her family and two Palestine Red Crescent paramedics. The decision, announced on August 19, 2026, also covers the March 23, 2025 deaths of 15 Palestinians, including medical personnel and paramedics, and a Palestinian United Nations employee.
The investigations followed an Israel Defense Forces review of approximately 150 incidents by its General Staff Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism. Opening a criminal investigation is not a finding of wrongdoing, a charge or a conviction. The practical test will be whether investigators identify suspects, prosecutors bring charges or authorities publish findings that answer the families’ questions.
What changed on August 19
The IDF said its Military Police Criminal Investigation Division would investigate the two cases after military prosecutors reviewed the fact-finding material. The announcement also said three other incidents would not receive criminal investigations: the April 2024 strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen employees and two incidents involving Médecins Sans Frontières employees.
The IDF presented the announcement as part of its domestic legal and military review process. It did not say that the two investigations had already established criminal liability.
The Hind Rajab case
The IDF said that on January 29, 2024, troops fired at a vehicle carrying members of the Hamada family in Gaza City. According to the military’s account, five passengers were killed and two survived: Hind Rajab and her cousin Layan Hamada.
The IDF said that, after a call to rescue authorities, the movement of a Palestine Red Crescent ambulance was coordinated to evacuate the casualties. It said allegations that a shell struck the ambulance, killing the two paramedics aboard, led to the decision to open a criminal investigation. The bodies of seven family members, including Hind and Layan, and the two paramedics were later recovered.
The case drew international attention after recordings captured Hind and Layan seeking help while gunfire could be heard around them. The IDF’s announcement acknowledged fire toward the family vehicle and the ambulance but said its criminal investigation would determine the relevant facts and responsibility.
The March 2025 deaths of emergency responders
The second investigation concerns three shooting incidents in the Tel al-Sultan area on March 23, 2025. The IDF said troops conducting an ambush against Hamas operatives fired at vehicles they believed were associated with Hamas. The vehicles were later identified as a fire truck, ambulances and a Palestinian U.N. vehicle.
Fifteen Palestinians were killed, including medical personnel and paramedics. The IDF’s fact-finding mechanism said six of those killed were identified as belonging to Hamas, while also concluding that the firing raised a reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct. The IDF said the decision to investigate was based on that finding.
The military also said troops later crushed the vehicles and covered the bodies with metal mesh. Those details are part of the IDF’s own published account of the incident; the criminal investigation is intended to examine whether individual conduct amounted to an offense.
Fact-finding is not a criminal case
The General Staff Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism and the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division have different roles. According to the IDF, the FFAM conducts factual assessments of exceptional operational incidents. Its work can help commanders decide on operational or disciplinary consequences and can provide material to military prosecutors considering whether a criminal investigation is warranted.
A Military Police criminal investigation is a separate evidentiary process. Investigators may question witnesses, collect records and examine whether individual conduct may constitute a criminal offense. Prosecutors then decide whether the evidence supports further action, including possible charges. The opening of an investigation does not determine the outcome.
Three other Gaza cases were not referred
The IDF said it would not open criminal investigations into three other incidents reviewed through the same process.
One involved the April 1, 2024 strike on a World Central Kitchen convoy in Deir al-Balah that killed seven employees. The military said its review found serious failures, leading to the removal of two officers and reprimands for three commanders. It nevertheless concluded that the commanders’ decisions did not raise a reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct.
The other two cases involved Médecins Sans Frontières employees. One concerned a February 20, 2024 strike on an MSF building in Khan Younis that killed two women and injured seven people. The other involved November 18, 2023 gunfire near an MSF convoy in Gaza City, in which two passengers were allegedly killed. The IDF said neither case met the threshold for a criminal investigation, while identifying operational faults or gaps.
The absence of a criminal investigation does not, by itself, establish that an incident was lawful. It reflects the military prosecution’s assessment of the available evidence and the legal threshold it applied.
Why families and aid groups remain skeptical
Rajab’s family and the Palestine Red Crescent Society have called for an independent international inquiry. In an Associated Press interview, Hind’s mother said the Israeli investigation was insufficient and questioned why the acknowledgment of the shootings and the decision to investigate came more than two years after the deaths.
The Red Crescent and other humanitarian organizations have also raised concerns about delay, transparency and whether an internal military process can independently examine the conduct of military personnel. Those concerns are not a legal finding about the new investigations, but they are central to whether families and aid groups will regard the results as credible.
The broader record adds to that skepticism. The Associated Press reported in August 2026 that a year after Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis killed 22 Palestinians, including journalists and rescue workers, no one had been held accountable. The Israeli military said that case remained under review and had not provided a public timeline for deciding whether to open a criminal investigation.
How international accountability fits
The new Israeli proceedings do not automatically halt international scrutiny. A 2026 report by the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry, A/HRC/62/22, urged transparent investigations and domestic or universal-jurisdiction proceedings in the broader context of unlawful violence and accountability in the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel. The report is broader than the two newly opened IDF investigations and is not a judgment on their merits.
The International Criminal Court’s Palestine situation is likewise a separate legal process. In a November 21, 2024 decision, the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber I rejected Israel’s jurisdictional challenges and stated that the court’s territorial jurisdiction in the situation extends to Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. That procedural decision concerned the court’s jurisdiction and related proceedings; it did not adjudicate the two incidents covered by the August 2026 IDF announcement.
Domestic investigations can affect how international bodies assess whether national systems are genuinely investigating particular allegations. They do not automatically remove the possibility of international action, especially when the scope, independence, timing and results of domestic proceedings remain contested.
What to watch next
The next meaningful developments are likely to be investigative findings, prosecutorial decisions and any disclosure of suspects or charges. Families, humanitarian groups and journalists may continue seeking records or independent inquiries even where the IDF declines to open a criminal case.
For now, the August 19 announcement marks a procedural change, not a final judgment on what happened or who bears criminal responsibility. Its credibility will depend on whether the investigations produce verifiable evidence, identifiable decisions and an account that can withstand scrutiny beyond the military institution that initiated them.
Sources
- Israel Defense Forces: Criminal Investigation Decisions Regarding Five Incidents
- Associated Press: Israeli military launches criminal probes into killings of Hind Rajab and Palestinian paramedics
- U.N. Commission of Inquiry: Report A/HRC/62/22
- International Criminal Court: Palestine jurisdictional decision
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