What Happened
On Wednesday, 19 August 2026, the Israeli military announced it has initiated its first internal criminal investigations into troop conduct during the war in Gaza. The probes specifically target two high-profile incidents: the killing of five-year-old Hind Rajab and her family in January 2024, and the deaths of 15 aid workers in Rafah on 23 March 2025.
In a statement released that day, military officials confirmed they had completed reviews of more than 150 incidents involving Palestinian casualties. While the decision to open criminal probes was made for these two cases, authorities explicitly declined to launch similar investigations into three other attacks that killed aid workers from World Central Kitchen and Doctors Without Borders.
The announcement marks a significant shift in the military’s approach, moving beyond previous administrative reviews to formal criminal inquiries. However, the scope of this review remains selective; the statement did not mention other high-profile killings, such as the strike on a hospital in southern Gaza that killed five journalists in August 2025.
The Timeline
The investigation into Hind Rajab’s death traces back to events on 29 January 2024. The child was trapped inside a family vehicle in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City while under fire, an incident that claimed the lives of six relatives including her aunt and uncle.
Hind managed to contact the Palestine Red Crescent for assistance. After hours of route coordination, paramedics Youssef Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun were dispatched in a marked ambulance. Communication with the team was lost as they approached the location.
Twelve days after the initial call for help, the bodies of Hind and her relatives were discovered in their vehicle. The remains of Youssef and Ahmed were found in their nearby, destroyed ambulance. Independent investigations using satellite imagery and audio recordings have contested the military’s initial assertion that no forces were present in the immediate vicinity during the attack.
The second criminal investigation focuses on the deaths of 15 aid and emergency workers in Rafah on 23 March 2025. The group included eight Palestine Red Crescent medics, six Palestinian Civil Defence workers, and one United Nations employee. These individuals were operating marked ambulances, a fire vehicle, and a UN vehicle while searching for missing colleagues when they were fired upon by Israeli troops.
Days after the encounter, the bodies of the workers were recovered from a mass grave alongside destroyed emergency vehicles. The military initially claimed that the vehicles had approached without proper signals or headlights. This assertion was challenged by recovered phone footage from a medic, which appeared to show the vehicles displaying active emergency lights prior to the start of sustained gunfire.
Who Said What
Rajab’s grandmother, also named Hind Rajab, told The Associated Press by phone that the Israeli investigation is not enough. She called for an international probe into the killing of her granddaughter and all of the hundreds of children killed in Gaza during the war.
“An international investigation is required to uncover the truth and hold all those responsible accountable,” she said. Her statement reflects a broader sentiment among rights groups, which remain skeptical that previous military inquiries have resulted in significant disciplinary measures or indictments.
The military admitted on Wednesday, 19 August 2026 that troops had fired toward the ambulance carrying Hind’s family, killing the two medics who were attempting to reach them. In a separate admission regarding the Rafah incident, the military stated that one deputy commander had been directed to step down following the event.
Despite these admissions, the Palestine Red Crescent has rejected the military’s internal review and requested an independent international investigation into whether the strike constituted a war crime. The International Criminal Court operates under the principle of complementarity, which grants states the primary responsibility to investigate potential crimes, though it retains authority to intervene if a nation is deemed unwilling or unable to conduct a genuine investigation.
Why This Matters
The selective nature of these reviews highlights the tension between domestic legal standards and international expectations. Israeli authorities state that this specific review process demonstrates adherence to legal standards during combat operations, yet the decision not to probe World Central Kitchen strikes or other incidents suggests a complex filtering mechanism.
Total casualties across these two distinct events account for 17 rescue and aid workers killed. This figure includes the two paramedics who died while attempting to reach Hind in January 2024 and the 15 workers killed in the Rafah convoy attack in March 2025. These totals do not include Hind Rajab and her relatives.
The military’s statement comes nearly three years after the war began, during a period when strikes continue in Gaza despite a fragile ceasefire. The fact that these investigations are being launched now, rather than immediately following the incidents, underscores the delayed nature of accountability mechanisms within the conflict zone.
What Happens Next
The military said in a statement on Wednesday, 19 August 2026 that the criminal investigation into Rajab’s killing was decided on following a review of the findings “and due to alleged failures in the coordination of the movement of the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance”.
Following his meeting with Wong, Israeli Ambassador Hillel Newman expressed “deep sorrow and grief” to Frankcom’s family but insisted that Israel had no intention to attack or injure the aid workers. The military continues to review additional incidents as part of its broader fact-finding mandate, though specific outcomes for those other cases have not been announced yet.
People here who are hearing about the investigation are sceptical that it will bring any justice to Hind and her family. As the probes move forward, the focus remains on whether these internal reviews will lead to indictments or if they serve primarily as a procedural formality within the ongoing conflict.