IDF Releases Findings on Deadly Gaza Incidents, Initiates Military Investigations

Since the outbreak of fighting, the IDF's Military Investigations Mechanism has reviewed approximately 150 exceptional incidents and referred them to the Military Prosecution for legal decisions. Recently, legal rulings were made on five high-profile cases that attracted public attention.

In a March 2025 incident in Tel al-Sultan, where 15 Palestinians including medical personnel were killed after fire targeted rescue vehicles and the UN, evidence suggested a reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing, prompting the case to be handed over to the Military Police Criminal Investigations Division (MPCID). Command measures included a reprimand for the commander of Brigade 14 and the dismissal of the deputy commander of the Golani Reconnaissance Unit.

The MPCID also ordered an investigation into a January 2024 event in Gaza City, where a Hamas family vehicle was hit, killing five occupants, followed by a second shell striking paramedics in an ambulance due to coordination failures.

Conversely, in the April 2024 attack on the World Central Kitchen convoy in Deir al-Balah, which resulted in seven worker deaths, although errors in threat assessment misidentified passengers as Hamas operatives, the decisions did not meet the criminal threshold, so no further investigation beyond prior command reprimands was opened.

Two other cases involving Doctors Without Borders (MSF) staff did not warrant MPCID investigations: a February 2024 strike on a building in Khan Younis that killed two women was deemed a military target despite intelligence gaps, and a November 2023 shooting in Gaza that killed two passengers in an uncoordinated convoy was judged to be warning fire, with deaths likely caused by shrapnel.

These findings reflect the IDF's ongoing efforts to scrutinize operational conduct amid complex combat conditions in Gaza.