For 3-and-a-half lengthy hours on Jan. 29, the cellphone in 6-year outdated Hind Rajab’s arms was the closest factor she needed to a lifeline. Alone within the again seat of a automotive exterior a Gaza Metropolis gasoline station, she was drifting out and in of consciousness, surrounded by our bodies, as she instructed emergency dispatchers that Israeli tanks have been rumbling nearer.
From the operations room of the Palestine Crimson Crescent Companies (PRCS), roughly 50 miles away within the metropolis of Ramallah, the crew on responsibility had finished their finest to avoid wasting the kid. Paramedics have been on their means, the dispatchers saved telling her: Maintain on.
The paramedics have been driving to their deaths.
Twelve days later, when a Palestinian civil protection crew lastly reached the realm, they discovered Hind’s physique in a automotive riddled with bullets, in line with her uncle, Samir Hamada, who additionally arrived on the scene early that morning. The ambulance lay charred roughly 50 meters away (about 164 toes) from the automotive, its destruction in step with the usage of a spherical fired by Israeli tanks, in line with six munitions consultants.
In an announcement, the Israel Protection Forces stated they performed a preliminary investigation and that its forces have been “not current close to the automobile or throughout the firing vary” of the Hamada household automotive. Nor, they stated, had they been required to supply the ambulance permission to enter the realm. The State Division stated it has raised the case repeatedly with the Israelis. “The Israelis instructed us there had, in actual fact, been IDF models within the space, however the IDF had no information of or involvement in the kind of strike described,” stated spokesman Matt Miller.
A Washington Submit investigation discovered that Israeli armored autos have been current within the space within the afternoon, and that gunfire audible as Hind and her cousin Layan begged for assist, in addition to in depth injury brought on to the ambulance, are in step with Israeli weapons. The evaluation is predicated on satellite tv for pc imagery, contemporaneous dispatcher recordings, pictures and movies of the aftermath, interviews with 13 dispatchers, members of the family and rescue employees, and greater than a dozen navy, satellite tv for pc, munitions and audio consultants who reviewed the proof, in addition to the IDF’s personal statements.
The Palestine Crimson Current Society (PRCS) in addition to representatives from Euro-Med Monitor and the Civil Protection who visited the scene on Feb. 10 supplied visuals to The Submit, which it verified by independently confirming the situation utilizing satellite tv for pc imagery, open-source maps and eyewitness interviews.
The Submit’s overview additionally discovered that the ambulance was found alongside a route supplied by COGAT, an arm of the Israeli Protection Ministry that usually coordinates secure passage for medical autos with the IDF. COGAT initially referred particular questions concerning the ambulance to the IDF. In mid-March, Elad Goren, head of Coordination and Liaison Administration at COGAT, instructed The Submit that the company “coordinated every part … together with the ambulance that wished to go and discover Hind,” however stated he was “not conscious” of the specifics. COGAT didn’t reply to repeated requests to make clear.
The IDF denied that any coordination had taken place, repeating its assertion that its forces weren’t within the space. It didn’t touch upon two detailed timelines of the incident, or on the skilled findings, supplied by The Washington Submit.
It was not doable to succeed in Hamas’s navy wing for touch upon the incident.
Humanitarian officers have warned {that a} system of coordination with Israel’s navy, designed to guard their support deliveries and lifesaving ambulance maneuvers, is damaged. Israeli strikes on a World Central Kitchen convoy that killed seven support employees in Gaza on April 1 and stirred international outrage got here after failed deconfliction efforts.
Greater than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed throughout Israeli navy operations in Gaza, in line with native well being authorities. Amid a warfare of unyielding horror, Hind’s case touched a nerve world wide, largely as a result of her recorded cries for assist supplied a glimpse into the terrors confronted by civilians.
9:32 a.m.
Generations of the Hamada household had lived on al-Wahda Avenue within the northern a part of Gaza Metropolis for many years. All the things modified on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants stormed border communities in southern Israel, killing some 1,200 folks, together with civilians of their properties and younger folks at a live performance, and taking about 240 hostages again to Gaza. The assault drew a punishing response from Israel which insists its marketing campaign is critical to destroy Hamas’s navy capabilities.
Greater than 75 p.c of Gaza’s 2.2 million inhabitants has been displaced by the combating, a lot of them a number of instances, in line with the United Nations Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The Hamada household fled their homes; some went south, whereas others sheltered nearer to residence, within the close by Tel al-Hawa neighborhood in western Gaza Metropolis.
However late on Jan. 28, Israeli forces returned to western Gaza Metropolis in numbers. Posts on social media present heavy gunfire and airstrikes in that a part of the town simply after midnight native time. At 9:32 a.m., the IDF issued a name in Arabic on X, the social media platform previously often known as Twitter, asking residents within the west of Gaza Metropolis — together with the Tel al-Hawa space — to evacuate instantly.
Hind’s uncle, Bashar, and his spouse packed her into the automotive alongside together with her 4 cousins, Bashar’s brother Samir stated. They deliberate to drive north, out of the evacuation zone and again towards the household residence in northern Gaza Metropolis.
The woman screamed, and the decision dropped. ”Hi there,” Qam shouted. “Hi there?”
Whereas Qam spoke to Layan, 62 gunshots are audible over six seconds in two bursts of fireside on a recording of the decision, in line with Earshot, a nonprofit that conducts investigations utilizing audio proof.
Steven Beck, an acoustic analyst who consulted with the FBI for greater than a decade, examined the recording on the request of The Submit, and located the variety of rounds per minute fired was quicker than an computerized AK-patterned rifle, which Hamas fighters typically use. The speed, he stated, was extra akin to weapons generally issued to Israeli forces. Earshot additionally discovered the speed of fireside to be quicker than an AK-patterned rifle.
The decision, which started round 2:30 p.m., resulted in lower than a minute.
A satellite tv for pc picture captured by Planet Labs roughly an hour later, at 3:31 p.m., exhibits a minimum of 4 Israeli armored autos round 300 meters up the highway from the ladies.
Hind Map
Will Goodhind, an imagery analyst with Contested Floor — an open-access satellite tv for pc analysis group targeted on navy, humanitarian and worldwide affairs — who examined the satellite tv for pc imagery on the request of The Submit, stated the armored autos on the intersection closest to Hind are “tactically positioned” and seem to supply a “outstanding, seen presence to discourage (and reply to) enemy assaults,” amid ongoing floor operations.
Greater than a dozen different Israeli armored autos are seen inside a quarter-mile of the Hamada household automotive, the picture exhibits.
The autos match the approximate measurement and have turret-like buildings just like a minimum of 4 Israeli tracked autos, in line with Goodhind. Of these, solely the Merkava tank has been seen in motion in Gaza, in line with Sonny Butterworth, senior analyst with the protection intelligence agency Janes. The equally sized Namer armored personnel service and Puma fight engineering automobile have additionally been seen in motion in Gaza, however lack the turret-like construction.
The Merkava, the Namer and the Puma all have 7.62 caliber machine weapons, Butterworth stated. The weapons can hearth at a charge in step with what Beck and Earshot concluded was heard within the audio of Layan’s final name.
After Qam’s name with Layan ended, the PRCS operations room known as again instantly and Hind answered. Layan was lifeless and tanks have been shifting towards the automotive, she instructed one other dispatcher, Rana Faqih. Hind described the presence of tanks a minimum of 5 extra instances all through the decision.
5:40 p.m.
The Palestine Crimson Crescent routinely coordinates the passage of its ambulances with Israeli authorities, within the hope of securing secure entry to areas the place the state of affairs on the bottom is probably harmful.
Fathi Abu Warda — a liaison between the Palestinian Authority’s well being ministry in Ramallah and COGAT, an arm of the Israeli Protection Ministry that oversees the Palestinian territories — stated that permission for an ambulance to proceed to Hind arrived within the type of a route map from COGAT. Abu Warda despatched the map to the PRCS dispatch crew on WhatsApp at 5:40 p.m., in line with messages reviewed by The Submit.
The map, reviewed by The Submit, seems to have been made in Google Maps and has a transparent blue line, instructing the ambulance drivers to comply with an oblique route that averted a lot of the evacuation space.
Ismail Al-Ghoul, a correspondent with the Al Jazeera information company, stated he was sitting with the paramedics, Yousef Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun, at Al-Ahli hospital, after they obtained the map. The paramedics headed out shortly to the situation the place Hind was trapped. It was roughly two miles away — down Beirut avenue, then proper, and onto Al Majdal Avenue.
“The main points have been utterly clear,” Ghoul stated.
The inexperienced laser — often known as a dazzler — would usually counsel that the ambulance was recognized however not essentially focused by a floor unit working forward of the armed autos, in line with Avihai Stollar, a researcher with Breaking the Silence, an advocacy group composed of Israeli military veterans that oppose the occupation that compiled testimonies from former troopers.
The IDF, in response to questions from The Submit, didn’t make clear if the inexperienced dazzler belonged to its forces and what sign it might have been meant to ship.
Social media posts from 2018 counsel that Hamas and different Palestinian resistance teams have additionally used inexperienced dazzlers to obscure Israeli troopers’ eyesight. Ashka Jhaveri, a researcher on the Institute for the Examine of Battle, a bunch that intently displays conflicts, stated she had not noticed the usage of inexperienced dazzlers by both aspect on this battle.
6 p.m.
As the decision with the paramedics drops at 6 p.m., a bang is audible on the decision with Hind.
However the name with the woman continued, suggesting that cellphone service was not minimize.
Crimson Crescent dispatchers had managed to patch Hind’s mom, Wesam, into the decision within the hope that it’d calm the kid.
When the bang echoed out via the cellphone line, Wesam cried out: “Hanood, are you okay?”
A second later, Hind replied.
“Sure,” she stated.
By this level, everybody on the decision with Hind — her household, the dispatchers — have been praying they’d not lose her too. She was falling silent for lengthy durations. The crew did what they may to maintain her speaking, but it surely was clear that the kid’s ideas had begun to loop. She simply saved saying, “Come get me, shortly.”
If the cellphone ran out of battery, Faqih instructed her, she was to remain within the automotive, the place they may nonetheless discover her. “If evening comes and we don’t come, shut your eyes so that you simply don’t see the tanks.”
They misplaced contact together with her quickly after 6 p.m., spokeswoman Nebal Farsakh recalled.
Nobody spoke a lot after that. The room felt muffled with shock. They tried to name Hind many times, Farsakh stated, however nobody answered.
Twelve days later
The ambulance had come to a cease the place a darkish spot resembling a scorch mark first appeared in satellite tv for pc imagery taken at 10:21 a.m. on Jan. 30 — the morning after contact with the paramedics and Hind have been misplaced.
When the IDF withdrew from the realm practically two weeks afterward Feb. 10, Palestinian residents, together with Samir, Hind’s uncle, and a civil protection crew discovered a haunting scene.
The door and items of the hood of the household automotive had been torn off. Samir described his brother’s physique as “dangling” from the motive force’s seat. The stench of decomposing corpses clung to the automobile. He struggled to have a look at the our bodies of the 5 youngsters sandwiched on the again seat. Hind sat to the suitable of Layan, who was behind the motive force. A web page from what seems like a coloring e book was crumpled the place the their toes would have rested. The our bodies have been so decomposed that it was not doable instantly see the place the gunshots had hit them, Samir stated. “We have been solely in a position to deduce their identities,” he recalled.
Holes within the Hamada household automotive have been in all probability made by a 7.62 caliber machine gun, a weapon fastened to the Merkava, Namer and Puma, stated Andrew Galer, head of the land platform and weapons crew at protection intelligence agency Janes, who examined pictures and video of the aftermath.
Armored autos, together with some that roughly match the scale of these seen within the Jan. 29 satellite tv for pc imagery, have been additionally current in the identical location a number of instances within the following 12 days.
A fraction of a U.S.-made 120mm spherical, which could be fired by the Merkava, was seen in video and pictures after rescue crews searched the scenes.
The Submit was not in a position to decide precisely the place simply north of the ambulance the fragment was initially discovered or if it was instantly related to the ambulance strike given the time elapsed and the continuing combating.
The ambulance was a burned out shell, video exhibits, and virtually nothing remained of the paramedics’s our bodies. There was a gap roughly 300 millimeters in diameter adjoining to the place the license plate would have been.
“The injury to the rear does appear to be the exit of a projectile,” Chris Cobb-Smith, a safety marketing consultant and former artillery officer within the British military, wrote in a message, noting that it seemed to be “focused with a direct hearth munition” and was “roughly the scale of a tank shell.”
N.R. Jenzen-Jones, the director of Armament Analysis Companies, added it appeared to exit “the automobile comparatively degree to the bottom,” which suggests it was “fired from floor degree on a reasonably flat trajectory, fairly than an air-delivered or indirect-fire munition.”
A spherical fired by a tank is only one risk, Jenzen-Jones and a number of different consultants cautioned, noting that there’s little information on craft-produced Hamas munitions and few checks have been finished to foretell what would occur if different munitions have been used in opposition to a thin-skinned automobile. Frequent rocket launchers utilized by Hamas are in a position to hearth totally different antitank rounds, together with the usual PG-7, which couldn’t create the noticed injury, in line with munitions consultants.
Not one of the six munitions consultants interviewed by The Submit may say definitively what munition brought on the injury or killed the paramedics based mostly on the ambulance alone due to the time elapsed and the complexity of city fight. They agreed, nonetheless, the injury to the ambulance was in step with the potential use of a spherical fired from Israeli tanks that match the autos captured in satellite tv for pc imagery within the space that day.
The seven our bodies of the Hamada household have been buried at al-Shifa Hospital. There was no medical report, Samir stated.
“All that mattered to us at that second was to retrieve them and bury them in a good means.”
About this story
John Hudson in Washington, Hazem Balousha in Amman, Sarah Dadouch in Beirut, and Jarrett Ley in New York contributed to this report.
Satellite tv for pc imagery supplied by Planet Labs. Graphics by Jarrett Ley. Design and growth by Irfan Uraizee.