The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Aug. 19 that it was launching criminal investigations into troop conduct that occurred during its war against the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza.
The IDF said on Wednesday that the military decided to launch criminal investigations into the killings of 5-year-old Hind Rajab and her family and the killings of Palestinian paramedics. The IDF also decided against launching criminal investigations into three other incidents.
The criminal investigations into Israeli troop conduct come as the IDF has been carrying out strikes against Hamas in Gaza for more than 1,000 days following Hamas-led deadly attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The IDF said the conflict has involved a wide range of military operations in an “exceptionally complex operational reality.”
The IDF confirmed on Aug. 19 that a criminal investigation was launched into troop conduct after a five-year-old girl, her family, and two paramedics were killed by Israeli troops in Gaza City on Jan. 29, 2024.
The IDF said that Israeli troops fired at an approaching vehicle, resulting in the deaths of five passengers, identified as the Hamada family. Two of the passengers, Hind Rajab and Layan Hamada, her 15-year-old cousin, initially survived and called the Palestinian Red Crescent paramedic center.
When a Palestine Red Crescent ambulance arrived at the scene of the shooting, Israeli troops fired at the ambulance, killing two paramedics. The IDF said the seven bodies of the Hamada family, including the 5-year-old and 15-year-old, and the two bodies of the paramedics were recovered several days later.
“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.
The five-year-old’s grandmother, who is also named Hind Rajab, told The Associated Press that the Israeli military’s investigation into the incident was not enough.
“An international investigation is required to uncover the truth and hold all those responsible accountable,” she said. “We call for justice, not only for Hind, but for all Gaza children.”
The United Nations Human Rights Council previously said that independent experts had indicated that the killings of Rajab’s family and the two paramedics “may amount to a war crime.” Human rights groups also filed war crimes complaints with the International Criminal Court following the incident.
The IDF also confirmed that it was launching a criminal investigation into troop conduct in a series of shootings that killed 15 Palestinians, including multiple paramedics and a United Nations employee, in Rafah, which is located in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, on March 23, 2025.
IDF troops positioned in an ambush against Hamas in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah fired at multiple rescue vehicles, including ambulances, a U.N. vehicle, and a fire truck. A review of the incident found that Israeli troops crushed the vehicles and covered the bodies of the 15 Palestinians with metal mesh following the shootings.
“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,” Johnathan Whittall, a U.N. official who helped recover the bodies, said at the time of the incident.
In the Aug. 19 announcement, the IDF said its General Staff Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism, which examines “exceptional operational incidents,” had reviewed about 150 incidents and transferred them for military prosecution review.
The IDF confirmed that it would not be launching criminal investigations into an April 2024 airstrike that killed seven employees of the World Central Kitchen, a U.S.-based non-governmental organization.
The IDF determined that despite “serious failures” that misidentified the World Central Kitchen employees as Hamas operatives, the decisions made by Israeli commanders did not raise “reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct.”
“We strongly condemn the Israeli military prosecutor’s account of the deaths of our seven colleagues on April 1, 2024. And we fundamentally disagree with their decision about criminal investigations into the IDF airstrikes that killed our team,” the World Central Kitchen said in a statement following the announcement of the IDF’s decision on Aug. 19.
The IDF also announced that there would be no criminal investigations into a February 2024 strike that killed two women who worked for Médecins Sans Frontières, a global medical charity, or the deaths of two Médecins Sans Frontières convoy passengers in November 2023.
The war between Israel and Hamas started on Oct. 7, 2023, when the Hamas terrorist group killed 1,200 people, most of whom were civilians, and abducted 251 others in southern Israel. Israel responded by launching operations against Hamas in Gaza. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish military and civilian casualty figures, estimates that the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 73,000 people, including more than 1,200 people since Hamas and Israel agreed to a ceasefire in October 2025.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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