“Come and take me.” These were the last words of six-year-old Hind Rijiab.
January 29, Bashar Hamada, a Palestinian man, loaded up his car in Gaza city with his family and young child, Hind. They were told to evacuate to avoid bombings and attacks, but they didn’t make it very far. Tanks surrounded their vehicle as they were attacked by Israeli military forces. Everyone in the car was dead, except for Hind. She was trapped in the car without food or water. Just the bodies of her family surrounding her.
The Red Crescent Society (PRCS) in Ramallah was sent to go find and rescue the family after the lone dispatcher that day stayed on a call with Hind for several hours, while she stayed hopeful that paramedics would arrive. When paramedics did arrive hours later, it was predicted that the Israeli military waited outside the car that held Hind and her decaying family’s bodies. The paramedics were murdered leaving Hind helpless and afraid inside the car.
“We got the greenlight… on arrival [the crew] confirmed they could see the car where Hind was trapped, they could see her. The last thing we heard was continuous gunfire,” Nibal Farsakh, a PRCS spokeswoman, said to CNN. The Red Crescent accused Israel of deliberately targeting the ambulance on January 29. “The [Israeli] occupation deliberately targeted the Red Crescent crew despite obtaining prior coordination to allow the ambulance to arrive at the scene to rescue the child Hind,” PRCS said. They explained it was a several hour process with a lot of careful coordination to even send the paramedics to Hind.
Hind’s mother, Wissam Hamadah, held out hope for days pushing off the idea of having to grieve even the probability of her loss, waiting for a call that they had found and rescued Hind. Twelve days later, Hind was found murdered. “The occupation had no mercy on her… they killed her twice,” Hamadah said in an interview with BBC. Hind was alive for an unknown amount of time, most likely left decaying for several days before she was found. The car was smashed beyond habitability, and riddled with bullet holes much like the people who were trapped inside. “How many more mothers are you waiting to feel this pain? How many more children do you want to get killed?” Hamadah said.
Under the rules of war, according to the Geneva Convention, injured people are supposed to be able to get their medical care to the fullest extent with least possible delay. The safe zones for children under 15, mothers of children under seven, expecting mothers, the elderly, and injured persons are supposed to remain unharmed. This makes the accusations towards Israel from the PRCS and Hamadah, as well as some of Israel’s previous actions, war crimes. There have been little to no statements from the IDF or Prime Minister of Israel about Hind or any other situation besides previous accusations of Hamas of hiding in medical vehicles and hospitals. Since October 7, the IDF has attacked and bombed 118 medical facilities and 291 ambulances in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. This has left 7-10 out of 36 hospitals semi function, potentially even less, the other 26 are completely uninhabitable or destroyed entirely.
Doctors are being forced to perform surgeries, amputations, and extractions with little to no anesthetic. These doctors are forced to let people die under their hands from lack of equipment, and sterilization and the extremity of attacks. Most doctors have had to listen to their own children’s pleas and screams while they accessed them if they were able to save them. Miscarriages aren’t getting care—after all, women can’t even get menstrual products—and premature babies are dying from lack of electricity in the partially functioning hospitals. All the aid and equipment being funded and donated to Gaza is being intercepted at borders or only partially let through with few exceptions.
Earlier in this one-sided war, the IDF forced nurses out of hospitals so they could not continue care of any patients inside including the premature babies, elderly and patients in the middle of procedures. IDF soldiers have been known to cut off the electricity to premature babies and threaten the nurses taking care of these innocent critically conditioned lives, leaving them to decompose. This has escalated to bombings with little to no warnings, extremely limited time to evacuate the hundreds of people and still the need to care for those injured, or help with their newfound disabilities, murdering thousands. The IDF is merciless in these raids and bombings many often seen mocking the children, injured, and disabled civilians in social media posts, bragging and joking about their attacks.
