Did you know that Truthout is a nonprofit and independently funded by readers like you? If you value what we do, please support our work with a donation.

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........

© Truthout