Director of Oscar-Nominated "The Voice of Hind Rajab" Calls Israeli Military Probe a "Smokescreen"
Kaouther Ben Hania, the Tunisian director behind the Oscar-nominated docudrama The Voice of Hind Rajab, has dismissed Israel's newly launched criminal investigation into the death of five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab as a "smokescreen" and a "public relations operation."
Israel's military announced on 19 August 2026 that it had opened a criminal investigation into Hind Rajab's death, acknowledging the probe publicly for the first time that week (The New York Times). The military said it had fired at the Rajab family's car and an ambulance dispatched to help them, killing all six people in the car and two paramedics, as the family tried to flee an Israeli invasion of Gaza City (The Hollywood Reporter).
Ben Hania was not mollified. In an Instagram post, she wrote that evidence from independent investigations, satellite imagery, ballistic analysis, and Hind's own recorded voice had existed for more than two years before the Israeli military launched its probe (The Hollywood Reporter). She questioned why the investigation was launched so late and said what is needed is justice delivered by an independent authority for Hind and for all victims of the genocide in Gaza (The Hollywood Reporter).
Hind Rajab's mother, Wesam Hamada, echoed the call for an independent investigation. She told the Associated Press that the probe is an attempt to distract from what is happening in Gaza and improve the Israeli army's image to the world (The Hollywood Reporter).
Hind Rajab was five years old on 29 January 2024, when the car she was travelling in — carrying her four cousins, her aunt and her uncle — came under fire from the Israeli military as the family tried to flee Gaza City, roughly three months into Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip (The Hollywood Reporter). The Palestinian Red Crescent Society released audio of Hind and her fifteen-year-old cousin Layan Hamada calling for help from the car. Those calls form the basis of Ben Hania's film, which excerpts the recordings (The Hollywood Reporter).
The Voice of Hind Rajab received Oscar and BAFTA nominations and won the Venice Film Festival's grand jury prize. Tunisia selected the film as its submission for the Best International Feature category at the Oscars. Brad Pitt and Joaquin Phoenix were among the film's backers (The Hollywood Reporter).
The case has reached Washington. U.S. lawmakers introduced the Justice for Hind Rajab Act, which demands a U.S. investigation into the killing (The Hollywood Reporter).
Asked earlier in 2025 whether there would someday be justice for Hind Rajab, Ben Hania told The Hollywood Reporter she hoped so. "The world cannot live without accountability," she said, "and cannot live in a world where just because you have the biggest gun you rule the world" (The Hollywood Reporter).
