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JERUSALEM/CAIRO:
Israel’s military acknowledged on Wednesday that its troops had opened fire on a car carrying 5-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab and her family members in Gaza in 2024 and said it had opened a criminal investigation, though rights groups say such probes rarely lead to convictions.
Hind Rajab’s killing was one of the most high-profile incidents involving civilian deaths during Israel’s military assault in Gaza, launched following the 2023 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel.
She died after being pinned down in a car for hours, begging Palestinian medics by mobile phone to send help, while her aunt, uncle and three cousins already lay dead.
An ambulance was dispatched, but soon after it arrived at the scene the dispatchers lost contact with both the girl and the responders. Twelve days later, the bodies of the girl, her relatives and two ambulance workers were recovered from the area.
The military previously denied its troops had been in the area near where she was killed. On Wednesday, it said that following a months-long probe by an internal fact-finding mechanism, it found that troops opened fire at her vehicle as it was approaching them.
It said a shell was later fired at a Palestine Red Crescent ambulance that had been dispatched to save her.
“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,” the military said in a statement.
The military said the Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism would also open a criminal probe into the killing of 15 emergency and aid workers in March 2025.
In three other incidents, including the killings of seven aid workers with the World Central Kitchen charity in April 2024, the military said it found no basis upon which to open criminal investigations. Reuters
