Kaouther Ben Hania, director of the Oscar-nominated docudrama “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” called out Israel’s decision to launch an investigation into the killing of five-year-old Palestinian Hind Rajab in Gaza.
“Following the Israeli military’s announcement that it is opening a criminal investigation into the killing of Hind Rajab, many journalists have reached out to me. I do not wish to give interviews, but I want to say this,” Ben Hania wrote in a statement shared on Instagram. “This announcement is a smokescreen.”
She continued: “For more than two years, the evidence has been there: independent investigations, satellite imagery, ballistic analysis. And there was the most devastating evidence of all: Hind’s own voice, describing the Israeli tanks circling around her. What more did we need?”
As Ben Hania went on, she questioned whether individuals really needed to “wait for the accused to decide to investigate itself” before the case “could finally be taken seriously.”
Additionally, Ben Hania suggested that the Israeli military was addressing Rajab’s case and others as they were “ones that international public opinion has made impossible to ignore.”
“What is needed now is not a public relations operation. What is needed is justice (delivered by an independent authority) for Hind and for all the victims of the genocide in Gaza,” she concluded.
You can read her full statement below. A representative for the Israeli Defense Forces did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Ben Hania’s statement came a day after the Israeli military acknowledged that its troops did open fire on a vehicle carrying Rajab and her family, and an ambulance sent to aid them, in Gaza City back in January 2024. The update reversed Israeli Defense Forces’ prior stance, which had previously claimed its troops had not been in the area at the time of the attack.
“Following review of the findings and due to alleged failures in the coordination of the movement of the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance, it has been decided to initiate a criminal investigation of the incident by military police criminal investigation division,” the Israeli military said in a statement.
“The Voice of Hind Rajab,” which featured the five-year-old’s call for help before her death, received critical acclaim following its debut at the Venice International Film Festival. It went on to win the Grand Jury Prize, as well as six other prizes. Later on in awards season, the docudrama was nominated for the Best Non-English Language Film Golden Globe, the Best International Feature Film Academy Award and the Best Film Not in the English Language BAFTA Award.