Israel Probes Gaza Killings

PHOTO CAPTION: A picture of Hind Rajab is held on the red carpet during arrivals for the screening "The Voice of Hind Rajab" in competition, at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, Venice, Italy, September 3, 2025. REUTERS/Yara Nardi

JERUSALEM, Aug. 19 — Israel’s military said Wednesday it would open criminal investigations into the killing of Palestinian girl Hind Rajab in Gaza in January 2024 and the deaths of 15 emergency and aid workers in March 2025.

The decisions followed reviews by the military’s Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism and were among rulings released on five incidents involving Palestinian deaths. Israeli rights groups said investigations of alleged criminal misconduct by troops rarely result in convictions.

The military also reviewed the April 2024 killing of seven aid workers with the World Central Kitchen charity but said there was “no reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct that would justify the opening of a criminal investigation” in that case.

“For more than a thousand days, the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) has been conducting intensive combat across numerous fronts, carrying out a wide range of military missions in an exceptionally complex operational reality,” the military said.

“As part of the IDF’s obligations under international law and Israeli domestic law, the IDF examines exceptional incidents that occurred during combat,” it added.

Israeli rights group Yesh Din said criminal investigations involving troops accused of killing Palestinians seldom lead to indictments or convictions.

“Nearly zero indictments are served relative to the number of complaints of soldiers and commanders who commit offenses,” a spokesperson for the organization said. “In rare cases when commanders or soldiers are convicted, they receive ridiculously lenient sentences compared with the severity of the offence.”

(Source: Reuters)