Buried in the ruins of Gaza are the victims of this war and with them are buried the stories of how they died.
More specifically, 1 year since the October 7th attack, many have questioned the killing of civilians by the fierce clashes between Israeli forces and Hamas in Gaza.
OR 5χρονη Hind Rajab from Palestine was killed along with six members of her family in a car while trying to escape fighting in Gaza City in January 2024. Her mother is demanding justice.
Her heartbreaking cries for help were recorded on phone calls to emergency services.
“I call on the whole world to stand by us … so that those who committed this brutal crime are held accountable,” her mother, Wissam Hamada, told Skynews from her temporary home in Gaza. “I need justice for my daughter.”
“Will you come and get me? I’m afraid”
On January 29, the family of 5-year-old Hind Rajab decided to flee to escape the fighting in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City.
The girl got into a car with her uncle, his wife and their four children as fighting raged in northern Gaza.
Hind’s younger brother Eiyad didn’t want to get in the car and at the last minute didn’t.
The car, a small black Kia, came under Israeli fire near a gas station 10 minutes after it set off.
“We saw them when they shot the car, but we didn’t think they were targeted, or we didn’t want to believe it.” said the girl’s mother.
The family returned to their apartment. When they felt safe, they went out again, unsure of what had happened to Hind and the rest of the family. Wissam was frantically trying to call those in the car.
At noon, 15χρονη Layan answered the phone. She said everyone in the car was “sleeping” and that both she and Hind had been injured.
“We told her to take off her scarf, tie it around the wound and stop the bleeding,” Wissam says. But Layan couldn’t move because the car was full of dead bodies.
Layan handed the phone to Hind. When Wissam asked her daughter if she could get out of the car, Hind replied: “I wish, Mom, I wish. They’re all around me, mom.” Screams followed. “They’re getting so close, so close”Hind said to her mother in a panic. Then the line went dead.
Photo credit: REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne
The family then contacted the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), which attempted to call the girls in the car. After a few tries, Layan answered.
“They’re shooting at us,” Layan said. “The tanks are next to us.”
Shots were fired while a PRCS member waited in line. “There was no response from the child I was talking to. I didn’t even manage to learn her name,” he said.
The conversation ends with a scream of anguish echoing through heavy gunfire. With the phone line cut, the Palestinian Red Crescent mobilized again. This time Hind answered. She was alone in the car, everyone else was dead.
For three hours and amid several calls, another PRCS representative, Rana Faqhi, tried to keep Hind on the line as he comforted her.
“Please stay with me until someone comes, please don’t hang up,” Hind pleaded with Rana.
“I will stay with you. I won’t close it. I will stay with you” Rana told her.
Wissam was also talking to her daughter on the phone. “I told her, keep your voice down or they’ll shoot you like they shot Layan.”
The Red Crescent then organized a group call and Wissam was in contact with her daughter, who kept asking for someone to come get her. As night fell, Hind, who was afraid of the dark, became increasingly restless.
“Will you come get me?” he begged. “I’m so scared, please come.”
While all this was happening, the Palestinian Red Crescent was frantically trying to coordinate a rescue, asking Israeli authorities for permission to send an ambulance.
After hours of waiting they succeeded. PRCS says permission finally came and got the green light to send an ambulance.
The ambulance left Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City at 5.40pm. The two paramedics on board the ambulance, Yusuf Zeino and Ahmed al Madhoun, remained in contact with PRCS members throughout the journey.
By 6pm the ambulance crew were near the family’s car and were reporting that the lights had been left on.
“There she is (the girl),” said a paramedic, shortly before the call was cut short by gunfire. Both wounded men were killed.
On February 10, once access to the area became safer, both the ambulance and the car carrying Hind and the Hamada family were located.
One of Hind’s uncles, Sameer Hamada, was faced with the ultimate tragedy.
“I found their car. I found my brother. His wife was next to him and we found Layan, Raghad, Sarah, Mohammad and Hind in the back. (Their bodies had) decomposed due to the long time,” said Sameer.
He also found the burnt-out ambulance, which contained “only bones”. Sameer took the dead out of the family’s car and buried them in a graveyard near their home.
Information from Skynews
Source: www.diaforetiko.gr
