THE ISRAELI MILITARY has announced an investigation into the killing of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old girl whose death sparked international outrage and featured in a recent film named after her. 

Hind’s body was found in a car riddled with bullets in the Gaza Strip in 2024.

She had been speaking to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society by phone for hours while surrounded by the bodies of her uncle and cousins on 29 January that year. 

A Red Crescent Ambulance had attempted to navigate the destroyed streets and Israeli soldiers in Gaza City. It had been cleared by the Israeli army to drive to the car Hind was hiding in, but was later discovered completely destroyed not far away. 

The two medics, Yusuf al-Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun, were also killed. 

Hind’s body and those of the medics were found almost two weeks later, when her family was able to get to the area after an Israeli withdrawal.

The agonising wait for the ambulance to be given clearance and the conversations Red Crescent workers had with Hind in the meantime formed the basis of a film called The Voice of Hind Rajab, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award.

The film, directed by Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania, used real audio of Hind speaking to the aid workers by phone. 

A still from the film The Voice of Hind Rajab Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

She can be heard pleading for the ambulance to come and get her while telling the Red Crescent workers she is scared. 

“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 Israeli military said today.

Hind’s killing became a focal point for people around the world protesting Israel’s genocidal war in the Gaza Strip, which came after the Hamas-led attack of October 2023. Recreations of the car in which she was found, featuring 335 bullet holes, appeared in a number of cities around the world.  

Artist Emmalene Blake puts the finishing touches to a mural of Hind Rajab outside Dalymount Park in Dublin Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Israel denied killing Hind and her six family members and said its forces were not in the area at the time, a claim that was refuted by a number of media outlets that analysed satellite images. 

Today, in Gaza City, an Israeli strike on the municipal police headquarters killed seven people and wounded another 22, adding to the death toll of more than one thousand since a nominal ceasefire agreement was reached in October last year.

This week, Israeli cabinet minister Itamar Ben Gvir said:

“I think targeted eliminations should be carried out in Gaza every night. Take out 30 or 40.

“Not only those who endanger you right now. These are people who shouldn’t be alive,” he said.

“I’m paying them a compliment by calling them humans.”