Hind Rajab, Israeli impunity and the international community

Over two years of denial will likely now translate into a new form of impunity. Israel has announced it will be investigating the killing of five year old Hind Rajab, who was trapped in a car among her dead relatives as the Israeli military opened fire on the vehicle on 29 January 2024. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society was unable to rescue Hind, having been blocked by the military from reaching the site. 

The Israeli military said it “fired at a vehicle that was approaching them”. Hind’s family were trying to follow evacuation orders, as her family had been forcibly displaced that same day from Gaza city. 

Israel’s admission that its military killed Hind is no precursor to justice. Three cases have so far been dismissed: Israel’s attack on the World Central Kitchen’s vehicles in 2024 which killed seven humanitarian workers, a strike in 2024 on a building that was used by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and the killings in 2023 of two MSF workers who were part of a five car convoy travelling from Gaza City to Khan Younis.

The case against WCK was dismissed due to Israeli troops believing that Hamas was controlling the aid trucks, the 2024 strike was justified because the Israeli military did not have updated information about the use of the building, while the 2023 killing perceived the returning convoy as “real threat” as it was driving in the opposite direction of Israel’s evacuation orders. 

All that has been accomplished so far is a reversal of the earlier narrative regarding Hind’s murder. Accountability for the murder, however, is a completely different scenario. Israel’s military will protect itself at all costs; its credibility is already tarnished by the earlier denial. 

READ: Hind Rajab Foundation has ‘no confidence’ in planned Israeli probe into girl’s killing

Hind’s grandmother has called for an independent international investigation. More importantly, and perhaps in direct confrontation with Israel’s tactics, she said that the family is not “demanding justice only in Hind’s name as a child from Gaza, but in the name of all our child martyrs in Gaza.”

Justice for Hind is already a process filled with doubts. However, the family’s call for all children killed in Israel’s genocide in Gaza points towards a bigger culpability. It positions Israel as responsible for all the killings, and refuses to turn Hind into a symbol to be exploited.

For Israel, the focus on Hind Rajab detracts from the rest of the Palestinian children torn to shreds by bombs, burned alive, buried under rubble, or dying as a result of wounds from the bombings. Lack of prominence, however, should not equate to an absence of accountability.

In calling for justice for all children killed by Israel in Gaza, Hind’s family has taken the first step, which is more than the international community has accomplished in almost three years since the genocide started. 

Silence from the international community preserves Israel’s impunity, and opening an investigation into Hind’s murder feeds into international approval. What also gained the international community’s approval, however, was the genocide that killed Hind, along with thousands of other Palestinian children. Investigations and approvals, therefore are part of the same murderous cycle. 

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