Hind Rajab's family says criminal probe attempt by Israel army to 'justify' killing

The grandmother of Hind Rajab told AFP her family had no faith in a criminal probe into the five-year-old’s death in Gaza in 2024, calling it little more than an attempt by the Israeli military to “justify” her killing.

Hind Rajab’s body was recovered from a car riddled with bullets in Gaza City days after she was last heard from in a desperate, hours-long phone call to the Palestinian Red Crescent on January 29, 2024.

Her death sparked international outrage and calls for an independent investigation.

The Israeli military on Wednesday admitted its troops fired on the car carrying Rajab and her family, after previously denying soldiers were present in the area.

It said it had ordered a criminal investigation by the military police following a “review of the findings and due to alleged failures in the coordination of the movement of the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance”.

“We were surprised by the statement issued by the Israeli army,” Hind Rajab’s grandmother, also called Hind Rajab, told AFP, acknowledging it was the first time the military had “admitted its mistake”.

“But for us this is not an admission but rather an attempt by the Israeli army to justify to the world how it committed the crime and how they executed Hind,” she added.

“The army is trying to justify its position to the world, claiming that what happened was a mistake and that the soldiers who committed it will be prosecuted.”

Five-year-old Rajab made the harrowing emergency call after her family’s car came under fire during an attempt to flee Gaza City amid an Israeli advance.

Her body was eventually recovered along with those of six family members and two Red Crescent rescuers sent to find her.

The original audio recordings of her plea for help were incorporated into the Oscar-nominated feature film “The Voice of Hind Rajab”.

 ‘Justice for children of Gaza’

Israel’s foreign ministry said the opening of the criminal investigation showed that the country was a “law-abiding democracy”, which Rajab’s grandmother disputed.

“We do not trust Israel’s justice system, we don’t trust them because they have committed numerous crimes,” she told AFP.

“They acknowledged the Hind incident because it was documented, but many more crimes have occurred in Gaza that have not been documented.”

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 73,300 Palestinians since October 2023, according to figures from Gaza’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

The devastating war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

READ MORE: Israel army admits firing on car in the murder of five-year-old Hind Rajab

Despite a ceasefire in effect since October, the Israeli military controls more than 60 percent of the territory and the bloodshed there has continued, with its forces continuing to target Palestinians it says are militants.

On Wednesday, the military also published reviews into four other high-profile incidents in Gaza, saying it was launching a criminal probe into the 2025 killing of 15 Palestinian medics and humanitarian personnel.

In the three other cases, involving the killing of seven employees from World Central Kitchen and four from Doctors Without Borders (MSF), it said criminal investigations would not be launched.

In the family’s home in Gaza City, Rajab sat quietly beside a collection of her granddaughter’s toys, flicking through old photos on her phone.

“We call upon the countries that witness the daily crimes of the occupation to stand with the Palestinian and Gazan people,” she told AFP.

“We demand justice not only for Hind’s case, but also for the children of Gaza, whose rights are violated, whose right to life is lost, and who are the most targeted group in Gaza.”