More than two years after a five-year-old Palestinian girl and her family were killed by Israeli fire in Gaza City, the Israeli military announced criminal investigations into the incident. The victim’s family and humanitarian groups immediately dismissed the probe as an image-softening distraction.
The mother of Hind Rajab wants an independent inquiry into the killing, which drew global outrage after emergency dispatch audio captured the child’s final moments during a January 2024 phone call. Wesam Hamada rejected the military’s newly announced proceedings, arguing that internal reviews fail to deliver accountability.
Dispatches From a Tragic January 2024 Phone Call
The killing of Hind Rajab became one of the most prominent casualties of the ongoing conflict after the Palestinian Red Crescent Society published recordings of phone calls made by the child and her 15-year-old cousin, Layan Hamada. As gunfire echoed across the background, Layan pleaded for help before her screaming abruptly stopped.
Ambulance dispatchers called back and connected with Hind, who reported that her cousin was dead and that Israeli tanks were advancing. The Red Crescent dispatched an ambulance and maintained contact with the five-year-old for more than three hours.
“All I remember is her voice pleading, ‘Mama, I’m scared. Mama, I’m hungry. Mama, I’m hurt.’ Her voice keeps repeating in my ears.”
Wesam Hamada, Mother of Hind Rajab
Rana Al Faqih, the dispatcher who stayed on the phone with Hind, recalled the helplessness of the hours-long ordeal. I couldn’t physically reach Hind, embrace her or help her feel safe,
she said in an interview at the Red Crescent headquarters in Ramallah, noting that her voice was the only comfort she could offer.
Twelve days later, Hind and five of her relatives were found dead inside the family car. The two paramedics sent in the rescue ambulance were also found dead nearby, their vehicle blackened and destroyed.
Military Probes and Institutional Skepticism
The Israeli military announced this week that it would open criminal investigations into the shooting at the family’s fleeing vehicle and the subsequent firing toward the dispatch ambulance. The decision comes after a review of roughly 150 incidents, with files moving to military prosecutors who will decide whether to pursue indictments.
Yet, advocacy groups and the victim’s family remain deeply skeptical that the internal process will yield results. The Belgium-based Hind Rajab Foundation stated that an internal military investigation should not be mistaken for a genuine step toward justice.
Data compiled by the Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din illustrates the steep hurdles facing military prosecutions. According to their analysis of cases from 2014 through 2022, just 0.17% of reviewed incidents resulted in indictments.
“Why did the investigation and the acknowledgment of the shooting at Hind’s car and at the paramedics come only after more than two years? It’s an attempt to distract from what’s happening in Gaza and improve the (Israeli) army’s image to the world. That’s it.”
Wesam Hamada, Mother of Hind Rajab
Independent Findings and Unresolved Demands
While Israeli authorities initially stated that troops were not operating in the area during the incident, independent investigations reached contrasting conclusions. A United Nations commission of inquiry alongside an investigation by the research group Forensic Architecture both placed Israeli forces near the vehicle and attributed the attack to them.
The case gained renewed cultural visibility through The Voice of Hind Rajab,
an Oscar-nominated film that excerpted the distressing emergency calls. For Wesam Hamada, however, the global attention and the belated military probes do not ease a broader grief shared across the territory.
The pain is like the pain of every mother who has lost her child in Gaza,
Hamada said, emphasizing that her daughter had dreamed of becoming a doctor.
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