A six-year-old girl who went missing in Gaza City last month has been found dead, along with several of her family and two paramedics who attempted to save her, after they appear to have been targeted by Israeli tanks.
Hind Rajab was escaping the city in a car with her aunt, uncle, and three cousins at the time.
Audio records of calls between Hind and emergency call operators indicate that the six-year-old was the only one alive in the car, hiding from Israeli forces among her relatives’ remains.
Her cries for help were cut short as the phone line was severed amid the sound of additional gunfire.
On Saturday, paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) were able to approach the area that had previously been blocked off as an active battle zone.
They discovered Hind’s black Kia automobile, with the glass and dashboard broken and bullet holes spread across the side.
A few metres away were the remains of another vehicle completely burnt out, its engine spilling onto the ground. This, the Red Crescent says, is the ambulance sent to fetch Hind.
In a statement, the PRCS accused Israel of deliberately targeting the ambulance, as soon as it arrived at the scene on 29 January.
The PRCS said that it had taken several hours to coordinate access with the Israeli army, in order to send paramedics to Hind.
Recordings of Hind’s conversations with call operators shared publicly by the Red Crescent sparked a campaign to find out what had happened to her.
Hind’s mother told us before her body was discovered that she was waiting for her daughter “any moment, any second”.
Now she is demanding that someone be held accountable.
The rules of war say medical personnel must be protected and not targeted in a conflict, and that injured people must be given the medical care they need to the fullest practical extent and with the least possible delay.
