The admission, issued Wednesday as part of the IDF’s review of roughly 150 “exceptional” incidents involving its troops during the war in Gaza, reverses the military’s previous denial that its forces were in the area when Rajab and her relatives from the Hamada family were killed in January 2024.
Rajab and her 15-year-old cousin Layan Hamada initially survived. Twelve days later, their bodies were recovered from the vehicle by rescue workers returning to the area, along with those of the five relatives who had been killed in the initial shooting.
“In the hours shortly after the firing, following a telephone call to rescue authorities, in which the two girls participated and later Hind alone, the movement of a Palestine Red Crescent ambulance was coordinated for the purpose of evacuating the casualties,” the Israeli military said.
In a statement on Thursday, Hind Rajab’s mother, Wesam Hamada, said, “I do not want a closed military investigation. I want an independent, transparent investigation and genuine accountability for everyone responsible.”
The girls contacted rescue authorities for help. Recordings released by the PRCS in February 2024 captured Layan speaking with an emergency dispatcher before gunfire was heard and the call ended.
The recordings later became central to Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab, which uses Rajab’s real voice and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best International Feature Film 2026.
“IDF troops fired at a vehicle that was approaching them while travelling contrary to the advanced notice that had been published in an announcement by the IDF Spokesperson to residents of the area,” the Israeli military said in its findings Wednesday. “As a result of the fire, five of the vehicle’s passengers were killed, and two survived: Hind Rajab and her cousin Layan Hamada.”
“Following review of the findings and due to alleged 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 IDF said Wednesday.
Days later, the bodies of all seven members of the Hamada family, including Rajab and Layan, were recovered from the vehicle, while the bodies of the two paramedics were found in the ambulance.
The IDF had previously denied involvement. In February 2024, it told The Times of Israel that “IDF troops were not present near the vehicle or within firing range of the described vehicle in which the girl was found.”
What else the IDF announced
The criminal investigation into the Rajab case was one of five decisions announced Wednesday involving incidents examined by the FFAM.
“They were killed in their uniforms. Driving their clearly marked vehicles. Wearing their gloves. On their way to save lives. This should never have happened,” said Jonathan Whittall, then head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territory, who helped coordinate the recovery mission. Whittall said that a U.N. vehicle, an ambulance, and a fire truck had been crushed and partially buried and that the bodies had been recovered from a mass grave.
The IDF also acknowledged that after the shooting, troops “decided to crush the vehicles and to cover the bodies with metal mesh.” The Military Prosecution, the legal body responsible for reviewing FFAM findings, concluded that “the firing conducted during the incident raises a reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct,” prompting the second criminal investigation.
In the World Central Kitchen case, the IDF said its review found “serious failures” that led Israeli forces to mistakenly conclude that Hamas operatives were traveling in the aid group’s vehicles, but determined that commanders’ decisions did not raise a reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct. Two officers had previously been removed from their positions and three others formally reprimanded over the strike.
More than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. In the absence of independent monitoring on the ground, the ministry is the primary source for casualty data relied upon by humanitarian groups, journalists, and international bodies. Its figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants and cannot be independently verified by TIME. Data from the IDF suggests a Palestinian civilian death rate of 83%.
An analysis by the Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din of complaints involving soldiers’ conduct in the West Bank between 2018 and 2022 found that just 0.4% of cases in which a Palestinian was killed and the fatality was brought to the military’s attention resulted in a prosecution—one prosecution for every 219 fatalities. B’Tselem, another prominent Israeli human rights organization, has cited Yesh Din’s 0.4% prosecution rate, saying it demonstrates the failure of Israel’s military and civilian legal systems to hold soldiers accountable for killing Palestinians.
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