Mon 05 May 2025:

A human rights organisation has revealed the identity of the Israeli officer directly responsible for the killing of Palestinian child Hind Rajab, her family, and the two medics who tried to save her in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood, Gaza City, on 29 January 2024.

In a statement released on Saturday, the Hind Rajab Foundation, an independent NGO based in Brussels, said: “We now publicly name the commander responsible for killing Hind:

Lieutenant Colonel Beni Aharon

Commander of the 401st Armoured Brigade of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) at the time of the killing.”

The organisation said the identification followed a more than year-long investigation. It also confirmed it had identified the brigade’s soldiers, field commanders, and operations officers who took part in the attack under Aharon’s command.

The foundation asserted that it “has filed a war crimes complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague” to issue an arrest warrant for Lt. Col. Beni Aharon, adding, “we are preparing additional legal complaints against the battalion’s officers.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Al Jazeera English (@aljazeeraenglish)

The Hind Rajab Foundation is a legal and human rights branch of the March 30 Movement. It was established in memory of Hind Rajab and focuses on bringing Israeli soldiers accused of war crimes against Palestinians to justice.

Israeli military operations in Gaza, fully backed by the United States, have continued by land, sea, and air since 7 October 2023. More than 170,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured so far, with many still trapped under the rubble.

__________________________________________________________________________

https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAtNxX8fewmiFmN7N22

__________________________________________________________________________

Israeli tank fired at Hind Rajab family car from metres away: Investigation

An Israeli tank fired from a close distance at the family car of six-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, and a tank shell directly hit the ambulance that was dispatched to help, according to an investigation.

The killing of the child and her family in Gaza City in last year January prompted international condemnation.

Rajab, who survived the initial shooting, had begged for help as she bled out among the bodies of her dead relatives while on the phone with paramedics and her mother for three hours.

In a documentary on civilian killings in the war on Gaza, Al Jazeera TV’s Fault Lines provided a detailed reconstruction of the incident, compiled in collaboration with nonprofit investigative groups, Forensic Architecture and Earshot.

The investigation revealed the Israeli tank was likely just 13 to 23 metres (42 to 75 feet) away when it opened fire on Rajab and her relatives in their car.

Through interviews with family members, Palestinian Civil Defence workers and medical responders, the documentary provides the most comprehensive account on video of the incident to date.

It also reconstructs for the first time the likely position of the Israeli tank when it fired on the car, as well as the likely trajectory of the tank shell that struck the ambulance with a direct hit when it came to rescue Rajab.

The Israeli military refused to answer Al Jazeera’s questions on the details of the incident. However, the new evidence further disproves previous claims by the Israeli military that its forces were not present in the area.

The ambulance deployed to help Rajab was attacked after receiving approval from Israeli authorities, complete with a map and approved route.

Two paramedics, Yousef Zeino and Ahmad al-Madhoun, were killed in the attack on the ambulance.

‘Most difficult feeling’

It took 12 days before Palestinian paramedics and Rajab’s family managed to reach the site of the attack in Gaza City in the northern part of the enclave.

Rajab’s mother, Wissam Hamada, said the child’s voice grew fainter towards the end of the phone call.

Hamada said Rajab told her she could not speak because her mouth was bleeding, but she did not want to wipe it so her mother would not be troubled with cleaning it.

“I told her, ‘It’s OK, wipe your mouth and I’ll wash it, my sweetheart.’ She agreed. She wiped with her sleeve and the voice disappeared. It was exactly 7pm. The voice disappeared completely,” Hamada told Fault Lines.

“It’s the most difficult feeling in the world to hear my daughter ask me to go get her when I can’t reach her. My sweetheart, I swear, I couldn’t reach you. Forgive me, sweetheart.”

Rajab’s death caused global condemnation, including in the United States, which has been supporting Israel’s war on Gaza.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

__________________________________________________________________________

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

WhatsApp CHANNEL
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAtNxX8fewmiFmN7N22