Hind Rajab was a six-year-old Palestinian girl from Gaza whose plea for help during a twelve-day entrapment in a car under fire drew international attention to her tragic death alongside her family and the paramedics sent to rescue her. It is often used as a propaganda tool against Israel, which supposedly fired hundreds of rounds into the car.
Here is another perspective, which aligns with my research: The IDF was trying to protect Hind Rajab, rather than attacking her. The presence of an Israeli tank near the vehicle for several hours proves that the soldiers had no interest in harming the child. If the IDF had intended to destroy the car, they would have done so immediately rather than allowing the recorded phone calls to continue for hours.
Further, the audio from the distress calls is evidence of a defensive engagement. The gunshots heard were not directed at the car, but were fired from the area of the tank toward Hamas militants who were attacking the position. Hind, sitting in the car, was actually caught in a crossfire initiated by Hamas, while the IDF tank was effectively acting as a shield for the surrounding area while monitoring a humanitarian corridor.
Separately, the author argues the whole story could be a “Pallywood” fabrication, staged to frame the Israeli military.
Either way, Hamas was firing on civilians to prevent their evacuation. The IDF was the only force on the ground actually attempting to facilitate a safe passage for Gazans.
From @ Gazawood1 on X, 2/12/2024:
https://twitter.com/gazawood1/status/1757118955095749056?s=46
“📢 The tragic and fresh story of Hind Al Rajab was announced in the media, as usual, as one that IDF soldiers are guilty of – without any evidence of course, just as they claimed with the hospital bombing and tens of thousands of other cases here and there.
Is the media, which relies on pro-Palestinian reports, right about this?
🔎 Let’s check!
▶️Note 1: the attached video is a collection of relevant videos on the case and there is no need watch it all.
▶️Note 2: Since the post is long, those who are interested in the main part, should skip to the highlighted sentence, it is about five hundred meters below👇.
Summary of the story: On January 29 Hind Al Rajab, and “Layan Hamadeh” her cousin, call the “Red Crescent” and beg for help. She says that there is a tank next to the vehicle she is in, and that they are being shot at. Suddenly shots are heard, then silence. Layan is dead.
After that there is a conversation with Hind Al Rajab who is still alive at this point, and she begs for them to come to her rescue. For three hours, the Red Crescent had to hold Hind Al Rajab, and this is because since there is fighting in the area, they need to make sure that the IDF will allow them passage. After three hours, the IDF approves entry, and the ambulance sets off. When the ambulance reaches a distance of 100-150 meters from Hind Al Rajab (not a few meters as claimed in the news), the contact with the ambulance is lost.
Almost two weeks later, on February 10, Hind Al Rajab’s family returns to the area and finds Hind Al Rajab dead inside the vehicle, and the paramedics are also apparently dead in the burned ambulance.
📰 3 different things were reported in the news: in some places (including Wikipedia) it was claimed that the vehicle in which Hind Al Rajab was hit by a tank. In other news it was reported that the vehicle was attacked with gunfire, and I even found places where it was reported that the vehicle was run over by IDF bulldozers – but we will focus on the reports that at least claim to be serious.
I will emphasize in advance that in this story we had to use shooting professionals this time and not doctors, and their opinions were very clear:
🚗There are 3 types of damage in the car: 1. A bunch of shots (at least two types of guns). 2. Collision of the vehicle with a small stone fence on the driver’s side. 3. Either a heavy object that hit the front window and twisted it inward, or a strong blow from the front of the vehicle.
💥In other words, the vehicle was not shot by a tank.
In addition: according to the published photos of the vehicle and other logical evidence, there is no chance that the vehicle was hit by a tank, and here are some pieces of evidence:
- The vehicle is punctured by cluster fire.
- The chassis of the car would not have survived, and in the pictures it did.
- The car was supposed to catch fire, and it didn’t. The car was even filled with completely intact items, including Hind Al Rajab’s bag.
- If a tank shell had hit the vehicle, no one would have survived, certainly they would not have been able to call the Red Crescent.
- In the recorded phone calls, gunshots are heard in the background (we will expand on them soon. You can hear them at minute 5:27 in the attached video).
If so, Hind Al Rajab’s vehicle was hit by some gunfire🔫.
Whose shooting?
⏩ Let’s move on to details that most of the public does not know: in the days leading up to January 29, the IDF realized that the area of Tel al-Hawa and its surroundings, where Hamas was defeated and the IDF had already managed to leave, is beginning to be filled again with Hamas terrorists – and this is because the IDF has not yet taken care of an alternative government that will control the place of Hamas. In the news of the days before January 29, there are many reports of this, and also of the fact that in Tel al-Hawa, Hamas returns to fire (and even Commander Abu Khaled, the spokesman for the Martyrs’ Forces, Omar al-Qasim, issued a military statement and said that the mujahideen managed to shoot at planes from this area, which means that Hamas has really returned to the environment).
🪖A decision is made by the IDF to re-enter the area in the form of extensive divisional raids in the same points where Hamas is trying to regain control, and on January 29 the IDF scatters from the air announcements calling on the residents to evacuate to “Deir al-Balah” through the humanitarian corridor and pass through al-Rashid (al-Bahar) street. – And this is actually where Hind Al Rajab’s family decides to obey and run away, when Hind Al Rajab joins her aunt’s car, while her mother and brother flee on foot.
Attached is a screenshot of the IDF on Twitter calling on the Palestinians to flee the area before the fighting resumes (found at minute 8:46).
(And by the way, if the IDF wants people to leave the place, let’s think about what Hamas’ interest would be…
They will want the people to stay put.
If so, Hamas has two goals: to prevent people from leaving, and to prevent the IDF from returning and taking over the area it left).
🗺️ And now for the location of the vehicle: from the photos it is clear that the vehicle lost control and went onto the sidewalk (most likely because of the shooting).
After the vehicle was damaged and most of the family members were already killed except for two, Layan and her little sister, Layan calls the Red Crescent and says that there is a tank nearby and that there are shots. That there was a tank near the vehicle can be confirmed by the marks on the ground around the vehicle that you see in the videos, the ground is full of marks of tank wheels.
🕵️♂️ So if Layan says that there is a tank next to her, and then suddenly you hear gunshots, the most logical thing to assume is that someone is shooting at the tank and hitting the car.
But – and here comes the main evidence:
🟠 In the conversation of the 6-year-old girl to the Red Crescent, more shots are heard… the sound of shots being fired, not the sound of shots hitting… I mean, someone is near the girl’s car and is shooting from the area of the car in another direction… and who is near the car?
The Israeli tank.
That is, whoever is next to the vehicle shoots from there on towards someone who is attacking him, and does not shoot at the vehicle – which means that the IDF does not shoot at the vehicle.
🟠 More than that: the front window is crushed inward. And if the tank is near the car, and if we know that it wasn’t the tank that shot the car because the car is intact, what could cause a window to be crushed inward? or the fall of a heavy object (and there is no such thing around the vehicle in front), or the top of some missile near the vehicle in front. And if a tank is standing next to a vehicle, there is nothing more appropriate than saying that a missile was fired at the tank, and its explosion, whether it managed to hit the tank or whether it was the IDF’s windshield protecting the tank that managed to blow it up a meter before it hit the tank, that’s what crushed The window faces inside.
In other words, those who are near the vehicle are the Israelis, at whom someone is shooting. And whoever shoots them, inevitably shoots and hits the vehicle in which Hind Al Rajab is located.
🟠In addition: pay attention to the attached photo at the end of the video, where you can clearly see the left side of the vehicle (minute 8:22). In the photo where you see the driver’s door dislodged and pierced by gunfire, it is understood that someone hid behind the vehicle and shot at him.
We know who it is – an IDF soldier.🟠 In addition, but not really important, a tank and soldiers are near the vehicle with the girl for hours, this means they are not interested in harming her.
So far it is enough, and from here we will continue for people who want to quibble only.
🚑We will move to the ambulance: the ambulance was damaged at least 3 hours later. There is no doubt about the following fact: the ambulance experienced an engine explosion.
Pro-Palestinian news claimed that the paramedics were able to tell that the IDF was aiming a laser at them (published on most news sites, see the photo at minute 8:43).
However, although in the movies we are shown vehicles exploding from gunshots, such a thing can hardly happen.
The ambulance was not hit by gunfire.
🤔So by whom?
This can happen by firing an RPG missile🚀, or by a medium/small tank warhead missile.
Israel is bringing tanks into Gaza that have windbreaker protection, a Merkava tank. 120 mm chariot tank shell.Anyone who has seen the result of a tank shooting from a car will understand that this ambulance was not hit by a tank, unless it was really muscular and lucky. If a tank shell had hit the ambulance from the front, the back of the ambulance would not have remained standing as it is in the pictures (minute 8:31). Beyond that: the ambulance would have turned into more pieces.
Another option heard around Twitter for people who want to go deeper: the car windows have nylons that were instead of windows. why? Some claim that it is a rider brought from a scrap yard, and two more evidences of this are the too new objects inside the vehicle (among them a too clean pink bag), and also the very fact that there is no blood or body parts in the vehicle. In addition, clean clothing placed on the roof of the vehicle. And also, the very fact that in some videos, when the photographer is filming the vehicle, people try to open the doors of the wrecked vehicle, even though the bodies are already behind them on the floor. Whoever connects to the claim that it’s staged, have fun.
More details for people who haven’t had enough or are self-hating and trying to bore themselves to death:
6 family members are laid out in the street and wrapped in a blanket (photo at minute 8:49). However, apart from the 6 members of the family, there is another person crushed next to the driver, it is very difficult to see him. But for some reason it is intact, as if it was crushed recently and not two weeks ago. It is strange.
-During all the days of absence of the pair of paramedics and the girl, the pro-Palestinian news did not stop counting the days of this girl’s absence, including her name and story. On the other hand, regarding thousands of other missing persons according to them, they did not make any noise. why? Maybe because they knew that a #Pallywood plot was brewing about this girl?
-The Red Crescent claims to have kept the conversation with the girl for three hours until it was disconnected. A fully charged cell phone may survive a long call without the battery running out, but when the reception is weak, the cell phone needs a lot of battery. Plus, it’s hard to say the phone was fully charged. That’s weird too.
-A good word about the mother who knows the story better than anyone: the mother, who looks really hurt in the interview, was smart enough not to blame the IDF, at least in the parts I heard.
-Another detail: behind the girl’s vehicle, there is a sword structure, which was destroyed only after the vehicle had passed, otherwise the vehicle would not have passed (unless the vehicle was brought to the scene). Why is there a sword structure there? Because fire was fired at the IDF from the building, and apparently a tank hit the building – but the building was only damaged after the vehicle had already passed by, otherwise the vehicle would not have been able to pass, since the building blocks the way to the location where the vehicle is.
-In addition: dozens of videos have already been published in which IDF tanks are seen monitoring a humanitarian corridor with tanks, alongside many videos of Hamas shooting Gazans trying to escape through the same humanitarian corridor. It is likely that Hamas were the ones who shot civilians, when, although it is hard to hear for many Folks, the IDF is the one trying to protect her.”
Writing by Dr. Dannielle Blumenthal 