Gaza, Hind Rajab case: “The paramedics sent to save her were also killed”

A group of Palestinian paramedics asked Israel for safe passage to save Hind Rajab, the 6-year-old girl who was trapped on January 29 in a car hit by the IDF in Gaza surrounded by the bodies of her dead relatives, but in the end they were all killed . And how much emerges from an investigation by Washington Postwhich retraces the last moments of the life of the little girl who was later found dead on February 10th.

Hind Rajab spent 3 and a half hours waiting for help in his family's car. A team from the Palestinian Red Crescent remained in telephone contact with her the entire time, reassuring her. The audio of the phone call in which she asked for help had shocked the entire world.

Last January 29, his family was fleeing from the ongoing fighting in northern Gaza: in the car, together with the little girl, were also his uncle, his wife and their four children. During the escape, the vehicle came under fire from the Israeli Armed Forces (IDF) and the little girl's relatives were all killed.

So Hind Rajab used a cell phone to call the Red Crescent and ask for help: “They are shooting at us. The tank is right next to us,” Hind shouted fearfully in the phone call that later went around the world. Meanwhile, a group of paramedics asked the Israeli authorities for safe passage to the Strip to reach her.

But when on February 10th the bullet-riddled car with the bodies of the little girl and her relatives was discovered, the ambulance was also found 50 meters away and was completely charred. Both paramedics, Yousef Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun, were dead.

Initially, the IDF claimed that there were no Israeli soldiers or armored vehicles nearby or within firing range that day.
of the car and that no safe passage had been requested to enter the area. The spokesperson of the US State Department
Matthew Miller, however, confirmed that “there were IDF units in the area” but that Israel “was not aware of or involved in the type of attack described.”

The Washington Post instead he discovered that Israeli armored vehicles were present in the area that afternoon. Furthermore, the shots heard while Hind called for help by telephone and the damage caused to the ambulance were consistent with the weapons used by the IDF.

“Hind Rajab's death is an unspeakable tragedy,” commented US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. “Something that should never have happened and must never happen.” “So what we're going to do is take the information in the Washington Post article, go back to the government of Israel and ask them for more information.”