ANJALI KAMAT: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Anjali Kamat.

On Wednesday, Israel’s military admitted for the first time that its soldiers opened fire on a car carrying 5-year-old Palestinian Hind Rajab along with her aunt, uncle and five of their children, as well as Palestine Red Crescent Society medics dispatched to rescue them. Israel’s army fired more than 300 bullets in the attack in January 2024. In Gaza City, Hind Rajab’s grandmother responded to the announcement.

HIND RAJAB: [translated] We, as Hind Rajab’s family, do not trust the judiciary of the state of Israel. We hope that justice will be delivered for the entire world. We appeal to the international justice system as a whole.

ANJALI KAMAT: The Israeli military said it would also investigate the killing of 15 Palestinian paramedics whose bodies and crushed emergency vehicles were recovered from a mass grave in Rafah in March 2025. This is Ghada al-Attar, the widow of Anwar al-Attar, one of the 15 medics. She spoke while holding the couple’s young daughter.

GHADA AL-ATTAR: [translated] The truth will not come, and the wound will keep bleeding. The pain is still the same. The loss grows day by day. Every time this girl gets older and asks me where her father is, and I can’t answer her, the wound grows deeper. He was the pillar and support of the family. He’s gone. The investigation won’t achieve anything.

ANJALI KAMAT: Israel said it would not investigate three other attacks on Gaza that killed eight workers from World Central Kitchen and Doctors Without Borders, and Israel made no mention of thousands of other incidents where Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli forces.

For more, we go to Los Angeles, where we’re joined by Sharif Abdel Kouddous, award-winning journalist and the Middle East/North Africa editor at Drop Site News. He was correspondent on the Fault Lines documentary The Night Won’t End on Al Jazeera English that investigated the killings of civilians in Gaza by the Israeli military.

Sharif, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you talk about why these investigations have been announced, why these two particular cases, and why now?

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, so, firstly, these were five incidents out of apparently 150 that were reviewed by the Israeli military. I think it’s not a coincidence that all five of these were among the most widely covered incidents of the war. They were documented in real time, and they were very prominent cases, mostly massacres. We don’t know what happened to the other 145 incidents that they apparently reviewed.

Now, the two incidents that you mentioned that are being referred to military police for criminal investigations, you know, this seems to be nothing more than political theater, to be honest. You know, as numerous Palestinian and international human rights groups have documented for years, Israel’s internal investigations into the criminal conduct of its own soldiers are fundamentally flawed, and they can’t be regarded as credible mechanisms for accountability. And they instead function primarily to shield Israel from international tribunals or prosecution abroad, rather than delivering any kind of justice. The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has called these investigations a sham. It’s called them, quote, “a legal Iron Dome” to protect Israeli soldiers from international accountability.

And let’s remember that since the genocide began, Israel claims to have referred over a thousand incidents involving its soldiers to its fact-finding assessment mechanism, and, you know, it says it’s opened dozens of criminal investigations. There’s no comprehensive public accounting of the status or outcome of these investigations. There was a review by the NGO Action on Armed Violence of over 50 reported Israeli military probes. It found that 88% had been either closed or that a finding of wrongdoing — had been closed without a finding of wrongdoing, and they remained under review. Only one of them resulted in a prison sentence. So, you know, I think this is a lot more political theater, and it may be coming as Israel is coming under increasing international scrutiny, international criticism for the genocide in Gaza.

And finally, I’ll just say, it doesn’t matter what Israel says or what its investigation concludes in these two incidents. The responsibility for the murder of Hind Rajab and her family was well established long ago through multiple in-depth investigations by the media, by human rights groups, and the evidence is overwhelming. We know that an Israeli tank fired at least 335 rounds at a civilian car, at Hind Rajab, a 5-year-old, and six members of her family, from a range of just 13 to 23 meters away.

The Red Crescent, which had Hind on the phone for close to three hours, was waiting for approval to try and go rescue her. And finally, they get approval from the Israeli military. The Israeli military issues an approved route with a map. Two emergency workers with the Red Crescent go in an ambulance along that route. When they reach the destination, Israel fires a tank shell at them. It’s a direct hit and kills both of them and destroys the ambulance.

Then the Israeli military continuously lied afterwards. It repeatedly denied it had any tanks operating in the area, even though there’s clear satellite images that show multiple tanks in the area on that day, even though we hear a recording of Hind’s cousin Layan, 15-year-old Layan, saying there’s a tank right next to her, right before she starts screaming as a hail of bullets from the tank murders her. And then we have 5-year-old Hind, hours of recordings of her, saying also that there’s a tank right next to her, before her voice eventually fades away and she dies. So, we don’t need to wait for an Israeli investigation to know what happened here.

ANJALI KAMAT: Sharif, you’ve set that up so movingly. I want to turn to an excerpt of your Al Jazeera English documentary, The Night Won’t End, which takes an in-depth look at these attacks on civilians by the Israeli military in Gaza, including on Hind Rajab and her family. Let’s go to a clip.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Eventually, relatives were able to reach the Red Crescent in Ramallah to see if their team in Gaza could send an ambulance.

OMAR AL-QAM: [translated] We received an appeal that the car had been targeted at Fares gas station in Gaza City.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: When Omar called, it was Layan who picked up.

OMAR AL-QAM: [translated] Hello, dear.

LAYAN HAMADEH: [translated] They are shooting at us.

OMAR AL-QAM: [translated] Hello.

LAYAN HAMADEH: [translated] They are shooting at us. The tank is next to me.

OMAR AL-QAM: [translated] Are you hiding?

LAYAN HAMADEH: [translated] Yes, in the car. The tank is next to us.

OMAR AL-QAM: [translated] Are you inside the car?

LAYAN HAMADEH: [screaming]

OMAR AL-QAM: [translated] Hello? Hello?

A girl dies while she’s on the phone with you. I disassociated. I reached a stage where I was just mentally cut off. I’m trained for situations like this, but when it involves a child, your emotions get all mixed up. After calling back the same number that Layan answered, the voice sounded different this time. So I asked her, “The girl that was speaking with me, where is she?” She told me, “She’s dead.” Who am I speaking with now? Hind.

HIND RAJAB: [translated] Hurry!

OMAR AL-QAM: [translated] Hide. Hide. Where are you exactly, in the car?

HIND RAJAB: Huh?

OMAR AL-QAM: [translated] Are you in the car?

HIND RAJAB: [translated] Yes.

OMAR AL-QAM: [translated] Hide under the seats. So you can’t be seen at all.

HIND RAJAB: [translated] OK.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: After a few minutes, Omar asked other colleagues to help and speak with Hind.

HIND RAJAB: [translated] The tank is next to me.

RED CRESCENT DISPATCHER: [translated] The tank is where?

HIND RAJAB: [translated] Next to me.

RED CRESCENT DISPATCHER: [translated] The tank is next to you?

HIND RAJAB: [translated] Yes.

RED CRESCENT DISPATCHER: [translated] Is it moving or still? Did anyone come out of it?

HIND RAJAB: [translated] It’s moving.

RED CRESCENT DISPATCHER: [translated] It’s moving?

HIND RAJAB: Mmm.

RED CRESCENT DISPATCHER: [translated] OK. Is it moving next to the car, behind the car or in front of the car?

HIND RAJAB: [translated] In front of the car.

RED CRESCENT DISPATCHER: [translated] The tank is coming toward you from the front of the car?

HIND RAJAB: [translated] Yes.

RED CRESCENT DISPATCHER: [translated] Is it very close?

HIND RAJAB: [translated] Very, very.

RED CRESCENT DISPATCHER: [translated] And it’s moving?

HIND RAJAB: [translated] Yes. Come get me.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: As the Red Crescent dispatcher spoke with Hind, colleagues were trying to get an ambulance to her, something that would require coordination with and approval by Israeli authorities.

HIND RAJAB: [translated] Ask anyone to come get me.

RED CRESCENT DISPATCHER: [translated] My love, believe me, God willing, the coordination will happen.

NEBAL FARSAKH: Usually, ambulances in the whole world, once they get the call, they directly dispatch the ambulances and send to save people’s life. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Gaza.

HIND RAJAB: [translated] Come get me.

NEBAL FARSAKH: Any area that there is Israeli occupation forces, Israel considered as it is a military zone. That means even if there is wounded people, people who are killed and need to be evacuated, we are completely denied access to these areas. And if any ambulance try to reach, it will be targeted. That’s why in order to be able to save Hind, we had to coordinate our safe access.

ANJALI KAMAT: That last voice was Nebal Farsakh, the spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent, explaining how emergency medical teams in Gaza need to get clearance from Israeli authorities before going in to rescue Hind. They eventually do get clearance. Let’s turn back to the documentary The Night Won’t End to see what happened next.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Finally, nearly three hours after requesting clearance, the Red Crescent says Israeli officials gave the approval for the ambulance to go to the scene, and provided this map with an approved route.

NEBAL FARSAKH: We had to wait almost three hours until the green light was given. So, they sent a map with a route, which means it identified exactly which route the ambulance should take. And once we received the green light, the ambulance was dispatched.

RED CRESCENT DISPATCHER: [translated] Oh, the best news in the world from Uncle Omar.

OMAR AL-QAM: [translated] Hind! Hanoud! In one minute the car will reach you. It’s just moving slowly. Yes, the Fares gas station. Where are you now?

PARAMEDIC: [translated] I’m coming up to the gas station.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: The two paramedics who started driving to the scene were Ahmed al-Madhoun and Yusuf Zeino. By the time they left, the sun had set.

OMAR AL-QAM: [translated] Can you see the car?

PARAMEDIC: [translated] I can’t see a thing here.

OMAR AL-QAM: [translated] Do you have your siren and flashing lights on?

PARAMEDIC: [translated] Just the lights, not the siren. Oh, there it is!

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: The connection to the ambulance was lost right after that loud noise.

RED CRESCENT DISPATCHER: [translated] Hello, Hanoud? Hanoud? Are you OK?

HIND RAJAB: [translated] Yes.

RED CRESCENT DISPATCHER: [translated] Thank God. Thank God. She’s OK. Did they go down to her?

NISREEN QAWAS: They had to ask her, “Did you hear a bomb now? Did you hear anything around you?” And she said, “Yes, yes, I heard it.” Her “yes” means our colleagues who went to rescue her had died.

ANJALI KAMAT: That clip from the award-winning documentary The Night Won’t End. Sharif, as you said, so much about this case is very well known. Hind Rajab is one of the most visible victims of the genocide in Gaza. There’s even a feature — there’s even a film made about her, The Voice of Hind Rajab. Why now? What is so significant about — what is new about this new investigation? And how much does it have to do with the International Criminal Court’s investigation?

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: I mean, it’s unclear why now. You know, I think it’s because Israel is coming under more international scrutiny. There’s more criticism of the genocide. There is more political pushback from its backers in the United States and Europe, or, you know, from some corridors of power within those countries. And also, when a state says that it’s investigating itself, this shields it from international law accountability, if those investigations are found to be credible. So, it may just be a push around that. And again, as you mentioned, these are — you know, the Red Crescent massacre, the aid worker massacre and Hind Rajab are among the two most high-profile incidents.

And I think we should talk about, you know, the massacre of the aid workers, the other case that they’re looking at. This was 15 Palestinian aid workers from the Red Crescent, from Civil Defense, that were massacred in Rafah in March of 2025, and their bodies were buried in a mass grave. The ambulances and the fire truck and the vehicles that they arrived in to the scene were flattened and buried alongside them. And in the aftermath of this, the Israeli military again lied about it and was forced to change its story several times following the discovery of the bodies and the vehicles in this mass grave and the emergence of video and audio recordings taken from the bodies of the dead aid workers from their phones.

The group Forensic Architecture and Earshot did an incredible report around this just a few months ago using video and audio recordings about the incident and open-source material, as well as satellite imagery and interviews with two of the survivors, and they reconstructed what happened. And essentially, what happened was, an ambulance went to a scene, they were fired on, and then a five-vehicle convoy of ambulances and a fire truck and the rest of the aid workers went to go and try and find them and rescue them. And Israeli soldiers, over the course of a couple of hours, fired nearly a thousand bullets, a thousand bullets at these aid workers. And the findings show that they were slowly approaching the vehicles on foot, the Israeli soldiers, walking while they were shooting, until they were as close as one meter away, and essentially executing these aid workers in cold blood from very — from point-blank range, essentially.

Then, as I mentioned, the Israeli military lied about it. They claimed initially that the vehicles advanced, quote, “suspiciously” towards the troops without their headlights on or without their emergency signals on. Then the video emerges, first published by The New York Times, showing the vehicles with their lights on. So they backtrack. They admitted that their soldiers from the Golani Brigade did fire on these aid workers, but they said that they had approached suspiciously and that — you know, they blamed it on poor night vision or something, that they couldn’t really see them. And then they doubled down and said that six of the 15 aid workers were found to be Hamas terrorists, you know, just kind of ridiculous statements. And then it said, you know, it buried them in a mass grave to prevent harm and clear the vehicles to prepare for civilian evacuation. I mean, I don’t know how people are supposed to take this seriously.

And as you mentioned, again, these are just two of the most high-profile incidents out of countless war crimes in Gaza. We’re talking about over 20,000 children killed. We’re talking about starving Palestinians being gunned down as they’re searching for food, of an unprecedented number of journalists killed, over 270, many of them, you know, openly assassinated. We’re talking about displaced families being bombed in their tents, of hospitals, nearly every hospital, being attacked, of mass graves being found in the courtyards of the hospitals afterwards, of the torture of prisoners, of sexual assault. I mean, we could go on and on. So, I don’t think that these investigations that were announced are anything more than political theater, and I don’t think anyone’s really taking them seriously.

ANJALI KAMAT: Sharif, last week was the one-year anniversary of the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif, along with five of his colleagues. And a collective of media workers called the Writers Against the War in Gaza have launched an online memorial to Anas and over 250 journalists who’ve been killed. It’s called “The Living Record” and includes testimonies from Palestinian journalists in Gaza remembering their slain colleagues and friends. As we talk about accountability and the possibility of it within Israel for Israel’s crimes in Gaza, your final thoughts on, you know, what is going on in terms of investigating the deaths of journalists in Gaza?

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: I mean, very little is going on. What we’re seeing, and as was the case of Anas al-Sharif, one of the most prominent journalists to be openly assassinated, is that Israel has — keeps killing them in actually a more brazen way. Israel has reached the point where it is preemptively targeting journalists. So, it put Anas al-Sharif, for example, who was murdered on August 10th of last year in a media tent along with five of his colleagues outside of Shifa Hospital — it put Anas al-Sharif on a hit list in October of 2024, along with five other journalists from Al Jazeera, including our colleague at Drop Site News, Hossam Shabat, and it said that these are not terror — “these are not journalists; these are terrorists, these are militants. And we’re going to kill them.” And it has killed two of them. And after it killed them, it bragged about it. It bragged about killing this prominent journalist and said that this wasn’t a journalist. It said, “Don’t let the press vest fool you.” It did the same with Hossam Shabat. It just killed, during a so-called ceasefire, two brothers working for Al Jazeera, at different times, one a correspondent, one the cameraman, killed them both, called them both Hamas terrorists. So, it is not — there’s not even a semblance of an investigation. There is open bragging about the killing of these journalists.

And let me just say that that tribute site that was put together by Writers Against the War in Gaza is very moving. I would encourage many people to go to it. You can click. I think there’s, you know, over 50 now journalists who are profiled there. And you can listen to their colleagues, their mentors, their family members talk about them and discuss who they were and talk about their importance and what they meant to them. And so, it’s a very fitting tribute to these journalists in Gaza, Palestinian journalists, who have performed the most heroic act of journalism in our lifetime and should be remembered for their bravery.

ANJALI KAMAT: Sharif Abdel Kouddous is an award-winning journalist and the Middle East/North Africa editor at Drop Site News. Sharif, please stay with us. Coming up, we’ll look at how Israeli settlers are laying siege to the village of Qusra in the occupied West Bank.

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ANJALI KAMAT: “Tama,” “Greed,” by the Palestinian oud musician Huda Asfour, performing in our Democracy Now! studio.