By Rami Ayyub and Nidal al-Mughrabi
JERUSALEM/CAIRO, Aug 19 (Reuters) - 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.
PROBES RARELY LEAD TO CONVICTIONS, RIGHTS GROUPS SAY
A film about Hind Rajab's death won an award at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award.
Her grandmother, speaking to Reuters in a displaced persons camp in Gaza City, said that she and the girl's family "do not trust the judiciary of the state of Israel."
"We hope that justice will be from the entire world. We appeal to the international justice system as a whole," said her grandmother, Hind Rajab, after whom the girl was named.
Israeli rights groups say that criminal misconduct investigations into Israeli troops over the killing of Palestinians rarely lead to convictions.
Dan Owen, a researcher in the Yesh Din rights organization, said that over the last decade only a "tiny" proportion of investigations had led to indictments, while growing political pressure "further deters Israeli law-enforcement authorities from holding those responsible accountable, even when clear evidence does exist."
Israel's military, which says its attacks target Hamas and Hezbollah militants, opens investigations into some of its attacks when they involve the deaths of civilians, including medical and aid workers or journalists.
More than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since the start of the Gaza war in 2023, with thousands more killed in its military operations in southern Lebanon. The dead include aid workers, doctors, journalists and others.
The Gaza ceasefire declared last October halted major fighting in Gaza but Israeli attacks have continued. Israel has said its ongoing strikes aim to thwart imminent attacks by Hamas and other Gaza militants.
More than 1,200 Palestinians and four Israeli soldiers have been killed since the truce, according to Gaza health authorities and the Israeli military.
(Additional reporting by Pesha Magid, Emily Rose and Ali Sawafta; Writing by Michael Georgy and Rami Ayyub; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Toby Chopra and Rosalba O'Brien)
