The Heart-wrenching Ordeal Of 5-year-old Hind Rajab In Gaza

Empowering Weak & Oppressed

Khadijah Ali

Sha'ban 02, 1446 2025-02-01

Main Stories

by Khadijah Ali (Main Stories, Crescent International Vol. 54, No. 12, Sha'ban, 1446)

Image Source - AI-ChatGPT

As hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, clutching their meagre belongings, headed to northern Gaza, one little girl was not among them: five-year-old Hind Rajab. She had already joined heavenly company, killed by the Israeli army in the most bartual manner on January 29, 2024, that words fail to describe.

While there is nothing to return to in northern Gaza, because almost all the infrastructure has been destroyed by the Israeli army, the Palestinians refuse to abandon even their destroyed homes. Donald Trump’s call that Arab countries—Jordan, Egypt and others—take the Palestinians from Gaza has been categorically rejected by Arabian rulers.

Islamic Resistance movements in Palestine have been equally forthright. After enduring 15 months of Israeli genocide, with tens of thousands of martyrs and almost the entire infrastructure of Gaza destroyed, they refuse to leave their land. What the zionists could not achieve through genocide, they want to achieve through the false narrative of humanitarian relief.

The Palestinians refuse to fall for this ruse to ethnically cleanse them from their land, again. Most residents of Gaza are refugees or descendants of refugees from the Nakba of 1948. While Trump may be able to force the Arabian rulers to acquiesce to his demand, the Palestinians are not going to budge.

Let us, however, return to the tragic and heart-wrenching story of Hind Rajab’s execution-style killing by the Israeli army. On January 29, 2024, Hind along with six of her family members were fleeing from the Gaza City neighborhood of Tel al-Hawa. The residents had been ordered by the Israeli army to vacate the area.

Riding in her uncle’s black Kia, an Israeli army tank shot their vehicle, killing Hind’s aunt, uncle, and four cousins. Besides Hind, her 15-year-old cousin Layan Hamadeh survived the initial Israeli attack. The cousin called the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) on her cell phone for emergency help.

Scared and crying, Hamadeh told the PRCS dispatcher “They are shooting at us. The tank is right next to me. We’re in the car, the tank is right next to us.” While on the line, sound of machine gun fire was heard amid Hamadeh’s screams. Several bullets pierced her body killing her.

When the dispatchers called back, Hind answered the phone, stating that everyone else in the car was dead and that the tank continued to approach the car. She stayed on the line with the PRCS dispatcher for three hours. She kept pleading with the dispatcher, “I’m so scared, please come. Come take me. Please, will you come?”

Imagine what that poor little child sitting amid her dead relatives must have gone through during those terrifying moments. She was told to continue hiding in the vehicle as a PRCS ambulance was being dispatched to fetch her.

Since the area was besieged by the Israeli army, the PRCS had to work with the Gaza Health Ministry and the Israeli military to guarantee safe passage for their ambulance crew to rescue the little girl. After hours of waiting, the PRCS was given permission to send the ambulance along a designated route.

The two-member ambulance crew reported that they were being targeted by the Israeli military with laser lights.

After sounds of gunfire or an explosion, the connection with Hind was lost. The audio of the phone call between the PRCS, Layan Hamadeh and Hind Rajab was published by the Red Crescent Society on February 3, 2024.

The fate of Rajab and the paramedics was unknown until 12 days later on February 10, 2024. The family was able to get to the area only after the withdrawal of the Israeli military. What they discovered was heart-wrenching: the car with Layan, Hind and the rest of her uncle’s entire family had been brutally murdered.

There were 335 bullet marks on the car whose windshield and dashboard was smashed. Her grandfather later told reporters that Hind was hit with bullets in the back, hand and foot.

According to an initial investigation from the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, Hind and her relatives were killed by the Israeli army in a “planned execution”. A US-made missile was fired to strike the PRCS ambulance that also killed the paramedics sent to rescue the young child.

Shell fragments of an American-made M830A1 projectile were found at the site of the completely destroyed Red Crescent ambulance. When asked about the attack on the Kia car and the PRCS ambulance, the Israeli army said it had no knowledge of it. True to their lying nature, the zionists said their forces were not in the area.

In April 2024, The Washington Post carried out its own investigation that countered claims made by the Israeli military. The investigation, using satellite imagery, concluded that Israeli armored vehicles were indeed in the vicinity of the car where Hind was murdered, and the 300mm hole on the Red Crescent ambulance was consistent with an Israeli tank round. But consistent with most western media reporting, The Post tried to plant doubts that its findings were not definitive.

The Post did, however, confirm that the wreckage of the ambulance was found on a route provided by COGAT, an arm of Israeli defense ministry that coordinates safe passages for medical vehicles with the Israeli army.

In July 2024, independent experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council said that Hind Rajab’s killing might amount to a war crime.

Moved by the plight of Hind’s brutal murder, students at Columbia University in New York occupied, on April 30, 2024, Hamilton Hall and unfurled a huge banner renaming it “Hind’s Hall”.

During a segment on CNN that discussed the renaming of the hall, host Kasie Hunt explained to viewers: “Hind is a reference to a woman who was killed in Gaza.” A woman? How does a five-year-old child become a woman?

For the record, Ms. Hunt gave birth to a baby in the bathroom. Using her description of Hind, we will have to say, Kasie Hunt gave birth to a woman in the bathroom!

Belgian activists launched the Hind Rajab Foundation as the legal arm of their existing group. The lawyers are working to bring the perpetrators to justices. They are working for free.

On the foundation’s official social media, they wrote “We refuse to let Hind’s story be forgotten or dismissed. Her story is that of all the victims of this genocide.”

Neither should the rest of us forget Hind Rajab’s story.

Privacy Policy  |  Terms of Use
Copyrights © 1436 AH
Sign In
 
Forgot Password?
 
Not a Member? Signup

Loading...