The Israeli military admitted on Wednesday its troops had opened fire on a car carrying five-year-old Hind Rajab and six family members in Gaza in 2024, saying it had ordered a criminal investigation into the killing.

The death of Rajab and her family was one of the most high profile of a series of incidents involving civilian casualties during the first months of the Gaza conflict which prompted international outrage.

Rajab died after a desperate three-hour phone call to the Palestinian Red Crescent on 29 January 2024 in which she pleaded for rescue. The family’s Kia Picanto car had been hit as the family sought to flee a new Israeli offensive into Gaza City. All the other passengers were killed.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) repeatedly denied its troops had been present in the area near the incident, but investigations by media and others found evidence that strongly suggested nearby Israeli tanks were responsible.

Palestinian paramedics dispatched an ambulance to rescue Rajab and stayed on the line until contact was lost, but the ambulance too came under fire, killing two medics. The bodies of the casualties were only retrieved 12 days later when Israeli troops withdrew. The IDF also admitted Wednesday that troops had fired on the ambulance.

“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 by military police criminal investigation division,” the military said on Wednesday.

Criminal misconduct investigations into Israeli troops over the killing of Palestinians rarely lead to convictions.

The IDF published reviews on Wednesday into four other high-profile incidents in Gaza, saying it was also launching a criminal investigation into the killing in near the southern city of Rafah of 15 Palestinian medics and humanitarian personnel in March 2025.

Troops lying in ambush for Hamas militants initially shot at an ambulance that was trying to retrieve casualties from an Israeli offensive, then fired on a series of emergency vehicles which approached their positions, according to phone footage and the sole survivor of the shootings.

The soldiers then bulldozed over the bodies and vehicles, burying them in a mass grave. UN and rescue workers were only able to reach the site a week later.

“They were killed in their uniforms. Driving their clearly marked vehicles. Wearing their gloves. On their way to save lives. This should never have happened,” said Jonathan Whittall, a UN official who helped recover the bodies.

The Israeli military initially said it had opened fire because the vehicles were “advancing suspiciously” without headlights or emergency signals. But it backtracked from that account after footage emerged showing the Red Crescent and civil defence teams driving slowly with their emergency vehicle lights flashing and logos visible.

Munther Abed, a Palestinian paramedic who was present at the incident in which 15 of his colleagues were killed, said he hoped “those who killed ⁠my colleagues, who were like family to me, face justice, real justice”.

“I want to say to the whole world, ambulances 101 ​is not a target and they must be protected,” he said referring ​to the speed dial number for the Red Crescent service ​in Gaza.

The IDF said, however, that it had decided not to open a criminal investigation into the April 2024 airstrikes that hit a convoy of World Central Kitchen vehicles, killing seven humanitarian workers from the US-based aid group, which has distributed food in Gaza throughout the war.

The aid group said at the time that it had coordinated with the military over the movement of its cars. The vehicles, which had the group’s logo on their roofs visible from the air, were left incinerated and mangled, indicating a series of targeted strikes.

The IDF said on Wednesday that it had mistaken several individuals in the vehicles for armed Hamas military operatives, and that the convoy deviated from the previously coordinated route. But it concluded that “the decisions of the commanders did not raise reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct”. Two officers were removed from their positions at the time and three others reprimanded.

World Central Kitchen said it strongly disagreed with Israeli officials’ account of the airstrikes and their decision not to pursue a criminal investigation.

“There has never been any excuse or justification for the attacks, and there is nothing in this account that does so. The decision is inconsistent with the full truth and deeply offensive,” it said in a statement.

“At the time of the lethal attacks, the IDF knew that our team in Gaza was unarmed and posing a threat to nobody. It had full visual clarity on our clearly marked humanitarian vehicles during the extended, multiple airstrikes. It knew our team’s movements, identities and activities in advance.”

The military also decided not to take criminal action over the killing of four humanitarian workers from Doctors Without Borders in two separate instances in November 2023 and February 2024. Israel later effectively barred the medical charity from operating in Gaza.

Dan Owen, a researcher at Yesh Din, an Israeli rights organisation, 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”.

A UN report published in February described “a pervasive climate of impunity” by Israel in occupied Palestine “in relation to gross violations of international human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law … some constituting war crimes and possibly other international crimes.”

Israeli forces say they never deliberately target civilians in Gaza and accuse Hamas of using civilians to shield its militants.

The IDF said that as part of the its obligations under international law and Israeli domestic law, it examined “exceptional incidents that occurred during combat.”

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

The war began in October 2023 when Hamas launched a surprise attack into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 250. Israel’s ensuing offensives in Gaza have killed more than 73,000, mostly women and children, including more than 1,200 since a fragile ceasefire took effect in October.

On Wednesday, ⁠Israeli airstrikes killed ⁠seven Palestinians. Israeli military officials told local media one strike, which killed six, had targeted a meeting of Hamas commanders in Gaza City.