TWO YEARS LATER, JUSTICE KNOCKS: ISRAEL OPENS CRIMINAL PROBE INTO THE DEATH OF HIND RAJAB
Two years after five-year-old Hind Rajab’s desperate calls for help, Israel admits its troops opened fire on the family car and launches a criminal investigation
August 20, 2026: More than two years after the terrified voice of a Palestinian child Hind Rajab echoed through an emergency telephone line, the Israeli military has acknowledged that its troops opened fire on the vehicle carrying five-year-old Hind Rajab and her family and has launched a criminal investigation into the deaths.
The admission marks a dramatic reversal. Israel’s military had previously denied that its forces were near the vehicle or within firing range. A subsequent internal review has now found that troops fired at the car as it approached them.
The horror began on January 29, 2024, as Hind’s family attempted to flee Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa area during an Israeli military advance.
Around 1 p.m., Hind’s 15-year-old cousin, Layan Hamada, told relatives that the family car was surrounded and that Israeli forces were firing at them. At approximately 2:30 p.m., Layan reached the Palestine Red Crescent emergency service.
Then came the gunfire.
An audio analysis by Earshot found 64 gunshots in just six seconds during the final moments of Layan’s call. The analysis concluded that the rate and characteristics of the gunfire were consistent with Israeli military weaponry and estimated the shooter was only 13 to 23 metres from the vehicle.
Layan was killed.
Hind, however, survived the initial attack.
She was trapped inside the bullet-riddled car beside the bodies of her relatives and remained on the telephone with Red Crescent operators for approximately three and a half hours, pleading for someone to rescue her. The Washington Post’s reconstruction found that Hind repeatedly described Israeli tanks nearby.
The vehicle was eventually found riddled with hundreds of bullet impacts. Forensic investigations documented approximately 335 bullet holes or impacts on the car. That number does not mean Hind herself was shot 335 times. It represents the extraordinary volume of fire directed at the vehicle.
At approximately 5:40 p.m., permission was reportedly obtained for a Red Crescent ambulance to reach Hind. Two paramedics, Yousef Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun, drove toward the location.
They never came back.
As the ambulance approached, heavy gunfire erupted. Communications with both the rescuers and Hind were lost. The ambulance was later found approximately 50 metres from the family car, destroyed and burned. Experts examining the wreckage said the damage was consistent with a projectile fired from a tank, although they cautioned that the evidence alone could not conclusively establish the weapon.
Twelve days later, on February 10, 2024, Palestinian rescuers finally reached the site.
Inside the car they found Hind Rajab and six members of her family.
Nearby lay the bodies of the two Red Crescent paramedics who had been sent to save her.
For more than two years, the case remained a symbol of the civilian suffering of the Gaza war. UN-appointed experts said Hind’s killing might constitute a war crime, while rights groups called for an independent investigation.
Now the Israeli military says its own review found that troops fired on the family vehicle and that a shell was later fired at the ambulance. It has referred the case for a criminal investigation.
Hind’s grandmother, however, says the family does not trust Israel’s judicial system and is demanding an international investigation.
The military has reviewed around 150 incidents involving alleged misconduct in Gaza. Criminal investigations have been opened into Hind’s case and the 2025 killing of 15 Palestinian emergency and aid workers, while other high-profile incidents, including the deaths of seven World Central Kitchen workers, have not been referred for criminal prosecution.
Hind’s story has since become the subject of the Oscar-nominated film The Voice of Hind Rajab, ensuring that her final hours are no longer merely a case file buried in the chaos of war.
She was five years old. She survived the first barrage. She spent hours waiting for rescuers. And now, more than two years later, the military that once denied its forces were there acknowledges that its troops fired on the vehicle.
The world heard Hind Rajab asking, “Come and take me.” Now the world is waiting to hear whether anyone will be held accountable.
JANPATH NEWS NETWORK (JNN)
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