A routine Europol conference in The Hague has escalated into a political flashpoint after it emerged that the EU's policing agency invited the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) -- a Brussels-based organisation documenting alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza -- to speak at its annual meeting.
The invitation, extended on 22 October 2025 and disclosed by HRF in a statement published on 19 November, has drawn fierce criticism from pro-Israel lobby networks, even as human-rights lawyers say it signals a notable shift in how European institutions are preparing for potential war-crimes prosecutions arising from the Gaza genocide.
But behind the political drama lies the story that gave HRF its name: the killing of six-year-old Hind Rajab, the desperate three-hour plea for rescue she made from a shattered car in Gaza City, and the two paramedics sent to save her -- who were themselves killed.
It is this case, one of the most fully documented civilian killings of the 2023-2024 Gaza war, that HRF now brings directly into Europe's law-enforcement arena.
At Europol's headquarters in The Hague, HRF's senior leadership -- including General Director Dyab Abou Jahjah, Head of Litigation Natacha Bracq, Operational Director Karim Hassoun, and Board Member Haroon Raza -- addressed national law-enforcement delegations from across Europe.
According to HRF, Europol invited the foundation to present its evidence-collection methodology and discuss potential mechanisms for sharing data relevant to international crimes.
Bracq delivered a detailed presentation explaining how HRF compiles case files on alleged Israeli war crimes -- material the group says is being prepared for European universal-jurisdiction units. Abou Jahjah addressed delegates on the need for cooperation between civil society and law enforcement in "ending Israel's impunity."
HRF says delegations from several EU states expressed "strong interest," with some reportedly holding bilateral discussions about sharing HRF's case files, especially information on individuals accused of war crimes who travel to or hold citizenship in EU member states.
If accurate, this places HRF within the early stages of Europe's evolving system for investigating cross-border atrocity crimes -- an area that has expanded rapidly over the past decade with cases relating to Syria, Yemen, Myanmar, and Ukraine.
Within 48 hours of HRF's statement, a network of pro-Israel lobby organisations and friendly media launched a coordinated backlash, accusing Europol of collaborating with what they described as a "radical," "biased," or even "terror-linked" NGO.
These groups have spent months attempting to undermine HRF's credibility as the organisation files complaints against Israeli political and military officials across multiple jurisdictions.
HRF dismissed the attacks as predictable and politically motivated.
"The fact that lobby groups defending or denying the genocide are angered by this cooperation is no surprise. They seek to obstruct justice; we seek to allow justice to take its course." -- HRF Statement, 19 Nov 2025
The foundation also said Europol's invitation is itself a rebuttal to the defamation campaign:
"A law-enforcement agency would never extend such an invitation if it had even the slightest doubt about the foundation or its leadership."
HRF further criticised "foreign governments and foreign lobby groups" for attempting to influence how European agencies conduct their work.
To understand why HRF's Europol appearance matters -- and why its critics are so determined to undermine it -- you must return to the incident that inspired the foundation's creation: the killing of Hind Rajab on 29 January 2024, one of the most haunting cases to emerge from the Gaza war.
Hind, aged five or six depending on reports, was fleeing the fighting with her uncle, aunt, and three cousins in Gaza City's Tel al-Hawa district. Their car came under intense fire -- investigators say from Israeli tanks. Six members of her family were killed instantly. Hind survived, trapped in the destroyed vehicle.
Her 15-year-old cousin, still alive, called the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS):
"They are shooting at us... The tank is right next to me."
The line fell silent when the cousin was killed. Then a small, shaking voice -- Hind's -- picked up the phone.
For nearly three hours, Hind stayed on the line with PRCS dispatchers.
"I'm so scared... Please come. Come take me. Will you come?"
The PRCS coordinated with Gaza's health authorities and with the Israeli military through the COGAT liaison channel. They were granted clearance to send an ambulance.
When the area became accessible weeks later, investigators found:
Independent forensic investigations -- including a high-profile reconstruction by Forensic Architecture -- concluded that Hind's car may have been hit by hundreds of tank rounds, and that the ambulance appeared to have been deliberately struck.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights later stated that the killings "may amount to a war crime."
Israel denies responsibility, saying no units were present at the time, though independent mapping contradicts this.
The Hind Rajab Foundation was established months later, named to honour the child whose final hours were broadcast to the world in real time. HRF's mission is to document cases like Hind's with the forensic detail needed for prosecutions in European courts and -- eventually -- international tribunals.
Today the foundation is preparing dozens of case files on incidents involving:
The Europol invitation represents, for HRF, a recognition that such evidence may play a central role in future prosecutions.
Civil-society organisations have long played a key role in documenting mass atrocities -- in Rwanda, Bosnia, Syria, and beyond. But cooperation with Europol, even at an exploratory stage, signals an unusual degree of institutional openness to examining the Gaza war within a European legal framework.
For pro-Israel lobby groups, this is precisely what they fear: that European law-enforcement is preparing for a wave of universal-jurisdiction cases against Israeli military personnel and political officials.
For human-rights advocates, it is overdue.
The EU has been under increasing public pressure to confront Israeli war crimes -- pressure that is often at odds with the diplomatic positions of member states.
If Europol were to formalise cooperation with HRF or national war-crimes units began acting on HRF's evidence, it would mark the EU's most consequential intervention yet in the legal reckoning for Gaza.
EU officials have not commented publicly on the meeting.
But HRF's involvement suggests that, beneath the political surface, European institutions are preparing for the possibility that victims of the Gaza war -- like Hind Rajab -- may one day have their cases heard in European courts.
What began as a technical exchange between an NGO and a policing agency has now exposed Europe's deepening divide over Gaza, universal jurisdiction, and the extent to which civil society should shape future war-crimes inquiries.
For the Hind Rajab Foundation, the controversy only strengthens its resolve.
"The Hind Rajab Foundation remains fully focused on its mission: bringing war criminals to justice and ending Israel's impunity."
For the family of Hind Rajab, and for the medics who died trying to save her, that mission is more than political. It is personal. It is forensic. And it is now, for the first time, moving onto the desks of European law-enforcement officials.
Whether that leads to formal cooperation, new investigations, or sustained political pressure remains to be seen.
But the case that started with a little girl whispering into a phone in the dark may yet shape Europe's legal response to one of the defining atrocities of the 21st century.