Child Hind: Israel executed her, Washington ashamed of accountability

ANKARA

The continuous Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip has left horrifying stories of civilian suffering, especially among children who have been deprived of their innocence by airstrikes, only to find themselves engulfed in a firestorm of death.

Among the stories etched in the world's memory is Hind Rajab -- a child who had not reached her seventh year before finding herself besieged by death, literally on all sides.

But the demand for accountability for her execution awaits an answer.

Hind pleaded with Red Crescent officials to rescue her from a car she was trapped in with her relatives -- all of whom were killed by Israeli army gunfire.

But the ambulance crew was unable to get to her because of the intensity of the gunfire and the targeting of anything that moved by the Israeli military.

The girl waited, and for three hours, she remained on the telephone with Red Crescent teams, where she expressed her fear amidst the bodies of her relatives in the car.

On Saturday, days after her last call, an ambulance team found Hind's body. She had died the day she made her plea, along with the bodies of the two paramedics who had gone to rescue her.

‘How many more must die?’

In a commentary on Hind’s murder, Catherine Russell, executive director of UNICEF, asked: “How many more children will suffer and die before this nightmare ends?”

Russell added on Sunday via X: “Heartbreaking news that the body of a little girl named Hind was finally found in Gaza today along with relatives and rescue workers who tried to bring her safely back to her mother.”

Despite the horror of the crime, Israel has yet to be held accountable for the killing of the little Palestinian girl, while the US merely states it is awaiting an investigation from Tel Aviv.

Israeli forces targeted a car on Jan. 29, that was traveling in search of shelter in Gaza City, where there was no safe place due to Israeli airstrikes.​​​​​​​

A spokeswoman for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), Nebal Farsakh, told Anadolu on Saturday that “family sources informed us that they found the child Hind dead inside a vehicle, with 6 bodies of her family members, including the child Layan, and some of the bodies were decomposed,” after 12 days of their disappearance.

PRCS announced that its “ambulance was discovered bombed in the Tal al-Hawa area of Gaza City, resulting in the killing of crew members Yusuf Zeino and Ahmed Al-Madhoun, who had been missing since a rescue mission for the child Hind Rajab 12 days ago.”

The Israeli army deliberately targeted the ambulance as soon as it arrived at the site, where the Red Crescent ambulance was found meters from the vehicle containing Hind.

A Palestinian Red Crescent team went out Jan. 29 to rescue Layan, 15, and Hind, after they were trapped by Israeli tanks and soldiers inside a vehicle with their family near the Fares fuel station in western Gaza City, according to a statement by the group at that time.

One day later, PRCS announced the killing of Layan while she was speaking on the telephone with a Red Crescent team to demand help.

“Hind remained trapped inside the vehicle surrounded by the occupation tanks and soldiers,” it said.

Hind's mother, Wissam Rajab, spoke to Anadolu about the details of a call she had with her daughter when she was inside the car.

“Layan was martyred immediately, and we thought Hind was too, but when we received a response from Hind on the call, she said: ‘They shot Layan ... mama, Layan is dead ... they're all dead ... come and take me, I don't want to stay alone,” said the mother.

She said Hind “was still alive, but she was injured in her hand, foot and back, and disappeared with the rescue team.”

Timid American role

A spokesperson for the US State Department, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Anadolu on Monday that “we were shocked by reports of Hind Rajab's death.”

“A very large number of civilians have been killed in this conflict, and we consider every civilian death in the context of this conflict a tragedy, but the death of a child is particularly tragic,” he said.

He urged Israel to “take all possible precautions to prevent harm to civilians and to protect humanitarian workers and to investigate credible allegations of violations of the laws of war and human rights.”

The American official claimed the US “asked the Israeli authorities to investigate this incident urgently.”

“We understand that the Israeli government is doing so, and we expect to see results once they are ready,” he added.

An Anadolu's correspondent asked State Department spokesman Matthew Miller on Tuesday about reports of American-made weapons in the targeted ambulance.

Miller responded by saying: “We were shocked by reports of Hind Rajab's death, and we asked Israel to investigate the incident immediately,” adding that he could not confirm the presence of American-made weapons.

Israel, which has targeted hospitals and ambulances hundreds of times in Gaza, has not provided an explanation or issued a statement regarding the attack.

After the US urged an investigation, the Israeli army announced that it began a preliminary investigation and could not provide additional information.

In the past few days, the Israeli army has re-entered several areas of Gaza, coinciding with military operations and intense aerial and artillery bombardment, and the evacuation of residents from residential neighborhoods.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala