Hind Rajab’s Family Says Israel’s Investigation Into Hind’s Death Just a PR Ploy

Hind Rajab’s mother has dismissed the Israeli military’s announcement this week that it is opening a supposed criminal investigation into the killing of her 5-year-old daughter, saying that it is nothing more than a PR move meant to distract from Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.

“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?” Wesam Hamada, Hind’s mother, told the Associated Press on Friday. “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.”

On Wednesday, Israel’s military acknowledged that its soldiers played a role in the horrific series of events in January 2024, in which Hind, her 15-year-old cousin, and five members of their family were killed.

The military admitted to the slaughter of her adult family members, but did not take responsibility for the killing of Hind or her cousin Layan Hamada specifically, despite numerous independent investigations finding that they were shot by Israeli soldiers in a tank. Israeli soldiers have been found to be targeting children in Gaza, often with gunshots to the head, countless other times since Hind’s killing.

“I don’t trust the Israeli authorities, I don’t trust their government, and I don’t trust any justice system they have,” Hind’s mother said in an interview with NBC. “I don’t want an investigation used to whitewash anyone’s image.”

Hind’s grandmother, who is also named Hind Rajab, similarly dismissed the investigation. “For us this is not an admission but rather an attempt by the Israeli army to justify to the world how it committed the crime and how they executed Hind,” she told AFP. “The army is trying to justify its position to the world, claiming that what happened was a mistake and that the soldiers who committed it will be prosecuted.”

An Israeli tank sprayed the car carrying Hind and her family members with hundreds of bullets, despite having a clear line of sight to the children inside, an investigation by Forensic Architecture found.

After her family was killed, Hind remained trapped in the car with their bodies for hours, a tank looming nearby, as Palestinian Red Crescent workers waited for the Israeli military to give clearance for them to rescue her. In those hours, she spoke with rescuers and her mother on the phone. Recordings from the Palestinian Red Crescent documented the terrifying last hours of the little girl’s life before she was gunned down.

“I’m so scared, please come. Please call someone to come and take me,” Hind said to emergency dispatchers.

Rajab noted that Israel only acknowledged Hind’s killing because her harrowing phone call to rescuers became so widely known, pointing out that there are many other similarly horrific killings that Israel will never follow up on.

Hind’s family still mourns her death.

“She died with the most heartbreaking sound I’ve ever heard,” Hamada told NBC. “Even now, all I hear is her crying, ‘I’m scared,’ and her plea: ‘Come here, Mama, take me.’”

Hamada has demanded an independent investigation that will actually lead to answers. “I want to know who killed my daughter, who killed my family members, and who killed the paramedics who went to rescue her. Who gave the orders? Who fired the shots?”