STATEMENT – the British government must hold Israel to account over its murder of Hind Rajab and emergency service workers
Yesterday the Israeli military issued a statement admitting, at long last, that they were responsible for the killing of a 5-year-old Palestinian girl, Hind Rajab, who lay trapped in a car, alongside her deceased family members, awaiting medical support from paramedics who were also killed by Israeli forces as they attempted to rescue her.
In the statement, Israel has claimed it will be carrying out a ‘criminal investigation’ into this incident and another, separate, incident in March 2025 in which 15 Palestinian medics and firefighters were murdered. Forensic Architecture and Earshot have produced a detailed report on the killing of the paramedics and firefighters which shows that the Israeli military fired on clearly marked emergency service vehicles in a sustained attack, killing the paramedics traveling in ambulances and firefighters travelling in a fire engine. Some of the killings appear to have been undertaken at very close range. The Israeli soldiers then bulldozed over the vehicles and buried the bodies of the first responders in a mass grave.
Despite eyewitness accounts from survivors, satellite imagery and audio recordings, Israel have repeatedly denied their involvement or responsibility for these crimes, denying justice to the victims and to their family members.
The announcement of the investigation comes in a moment where international pressure and scrutiny on Israel is growing, as millions have witnessed the scale of the genocide being committed against the Palestinian people. The soldiers involved in these two incidents, out of thousands recorded, clearly did not act in isolation.
Last year the UN Commission of Inquiry concluded that statements from Netanyahu, and other senior government ministers, amounted to direct and public incitement to commit genocide against the Palestinian people.
Israel has a long-standing track record of refusing to prosecute or publish the outcome of these ‘criminal investigations’ against Israeli soldiers responsible for war crimes, as outlined by the Hind Rajab Foundation and deliberately misleading the public. From publishing statements lying about their involvement, working to discredit Palestinian witnesses and victims, to these so-called investigations, it is clear this is a system designed to provide institutional impunity from punishment.
No credible justice system would allow a country on trial for genocide to be responsible for investigating itself. Our concern is that the move by Israel is designed not to take accountability for these crimes, or to bring about the end of attacks on Palestinian civilians, but to rehabilitate its reputation in response to the growing international pressure.
We call on the British government to take steps immediately to hold Israel to account for these war crimes, including ending all arms sales to Israel, issuing comprehensive sanctions and to assist international criminal investigations, by handing over any intelligence Britain holds relating to potential war crimes committed by Israel to the International Court of Justice.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Fire Brigades Union
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