[News] Israel Lies again about Hind Rajab Killing in a Public Relations Whitewash Maneuver

[Anti-Imperialist News]

palestinechronicle.com
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/israel-lies-again-about-hind-rajab-killing-in-a-public-relations-whitewash-maneuver/>
Israel Lies again about Hind Rajab Killing in a Public Relations Whitewash
ManeuverAugust 20, 2026
------------------------------
According to a new investigation, Sean Glass ordered the shelling of Hind
Rajab's car and Itai Shukerkov pulled the trigger. (Design: Palestine
Chronicle)

*By Robert Inlakesh
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/robert-inlakesh>*

Historically speaking, Israel has never once charged a single Israeli
soldier for killing a Palestinian in Gaza throughout any of its large-scale
assaults on the territory that began to ramp up in 2008.

The Israeli military made headlines again this Wednesday, after they
admitted for the first time to having fired upon the vehicle in which
5-year-old Hind Rajab was ruthlessly murdered in January of 2024. However,
this “admission” is being presented dishonestly and is a clear Public
Relations maneuver manufactured by Israel to whitewash their actions.

Hind Rajab’s murder at the hands of the Israeli army is one of the most
high-profile war crimes committed throughout the Gaza Genocide, so much so
that it was turned into an award-winning docudrama film, ‘The Voice of Hind
Rajab’. The audio recordings of the young girl, released by the Palestinian
Red Crescent Society (PRCS), who were desperately attempting to put
international pressure on Israel to permit their workers to rescue her,
went viral and captured the emotions of millions around the world.

Israel understands this well and has therefore chosen to strategically
place the event under a criminal investigation, in order to portray a sense
of accountability.

It was one of five incidents that the ‘IDF General Staff’s Fact Finding and
Assessment Mechanism’ claims to have investigated, three of which it chose
not to pursue further and absolved its forces of any wrongdoing in:

-The killing of the seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) humanitarian aid
workers in April of 2024 while they were operating in Deir al-Balah. The
victims were Australian, British, Palestinian, Polish, and dual
American-Canadian citizens, who were targeted in three clearly marked
vehicles. Some of the survivors attempted to flee in other vehicles and
were subjected to double-tap strikes.

-The February 2024 tank strike on a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) shelter
that was located in Khan Younis, killing two of its employees and injuring
others. Despite the location being known to be an MSF site, the Israelis
simply claimed ignorance; they never presented any evidence that they
struck a military target.

-The November 2023 strike on a clearly marked MSF convoy in Gaza City that
killed two other employees. It was a convoy that was attempting to evacuate
137 civilians and had coordinated with the Israeli military, even halting
at a crowded checkpoint for hours in order to receive the go-ahead from
Israel.

Another incident that Israel claims it is opening a criminal probe into is
the massacre of 15 Palestinian paramedics and first responders in Tel
al-Sultan, Rafah. On March 23, 2025, when contact was initially lost with
the emergency workers, Gaza’s media office believed the group had been
kidnapped and appealed to the international community. Israel refused to
acknowledge the incident had even occurred at the time.

Then by the end of the month, after the Israeli military had withdrawn from
the area, an unmarked grave was discovered, where the bodies of the 15
paramedics, emergency workers and ambulance drivers were found. Reports
indicated that the group was executed at close range, one by one, before
the Israelis had buried them and their ambulances in order to discard the
evidence.

Israel’s initial defense in late March was that a series of unmarked
vehicles had headed towards them with their lights off and in the absence
of emergency signals, prompting their forces to defensively open fire. This
account was later contradicted by video evidence that emerged in April
showing the opposite, prompting the IDF to change its narrative and claim
it had mistaken the emergency lights for a threat.

By late April of 2025, the Israeli military concluded, as a result of an
internal probe, that the incident could be attributed to “professional
failures” and “operational misunderstandings”. Later, the Israelis would
again shift their narrative by claiming, without any evidence, that six of
those killed had ties to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) armed group.

Now it is going with a separate narrative, based on its latest so-called
investigation, that the “firing conducted during the incident raises a
reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct.” Its forces were shown by
independent investigations, including one conducted by Forensic
Architecture, to have fired at least 900 bullets and carried out
close-range executions.
*Silencing the Voice of Hind Rajab*

Media outlets from across the spectrum have reported that Israel is now
launching an internal criminal investigation into the killing of Hind Rajab
and admits to firing upon the vehicle in which she was killed, along with
six of her family members. However, Israel’s internal investigation just
drew another conclusion that seeks to whitewash the entire event,
protecting its soldiers rather than taking accountability for its actions.

“The findings of the examination indicate that IDF troops fired at a
vehicle that was approaching them,” is what the Israeli military now claims
as a result of its latest investigation. “Following review of the findings
and due to apparent 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 the Military Police Criminal
Investigation Division.”

Keep in mind that this is precisely the same excuse given to run cover for
the executions carried out against 15 first responders and paramedics in
the Rafah massacre; they are now stating they will be subject to a criminal
investigation. It is an excuse that assumes that Israeli forces simply
acted in self-defense and fired towards what they interpreted as a threat.

Also, two vehicles were struck in the incident, not one. Two PRCS
paramedics were slain following a double-tap strike on their ambulance.

Numerous independent forensic and satellite investigations were conducted
into the specifics of the incident, including one by the Washington Post
and another by Forensic Architecture [in collaboration with EarShot and
Fault Lines], which demonstrated Israeli forces fired 335 bullets into the
Kia Picanto in which Hind Rajab and six of her family members were killed.

Evidence also shows that it was impossible for the vehicle to have traveled
south as the Israeli military claimed it should have, following their
instructions to locals that day, as the streets heading south from their
location had all been blocked. The investigations also concluded that the
car was fired upon from a short enough range for Israeli soldiers to see
the innocent civilians sheltering inside it.

Israel’s shots also penetrated the vehicle from its right side. Even if the
Israelis continue to claim the car was heading towards them – presumably
somehow being driven by a terrified 5-year-old girl – the vehicle was
clearly not shot from the front, meaning that it was conclusively not a
threat.

That said, the Red Crescent workers based in occupied Ramallah spent around
three hours on the phone with little Hind, desperately attempting to get
Israeli permission to rescue her. By this point, it had become an
international incident.

For 12-days, beginning on January 29 of 2024, Hind Rajab’s status was
officially considered to be “missing” and presumed dead, until February 10,
when her little body was recovered from the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood,
riddled with bullets.

When Israel was finally forced to address the issue, it claimed that its
forces were not even stationed in the area and that there were no
operations taking place at the time. It even launched an internal probe,
which produced the same excuse with different wording.

This narrative more or less held for around two and a half years, as
Israeli officials and the military periodically made small alterations to
their claims, despite the evidence that emerged to debunk them. Israel even
attempted to blame Palestinian fighters for the killings, another tactic
they have used countless times to explain away their war crimes.

Historically speaking, Israel has never once charged a single Israeli
soldier for killing a Palestinian in Gaza throughout any of its large-scale
assaults on the territory that began to ramp up in 2008.

The harshest sentence ever dealt to an Israeli soldier for their conduct
inside Gaza was to a member of the Givati Brigade in 2009, during what Tel
Aviv called “Operation Cast Lead”, landing the combatant a total of 7.5
months in prison. This was not for killing, raping or torturing
Palestinians; it was for stealing a credit card.

*(The Palestine Chronicle)*


*– Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. He
focuses on the Middle East, specializing in Palestine. He contributed this
article to The Palestine Chronicle. *
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