Sunday, February 11, 2024

After 12 Days of Unanswered Pleas, Hind and Her Rescuers Found Dead and Decayed: This is not a Netflix horror thriller; this is the reality in Gaza "Updated"

For nearly 12 agonizing days, many Palestinians, as well as Arabs, have been haunted by a single question: Where is little Hind Ragab? 

Tragically, the answer has surfaced in the most harrowing of ways. Left to perish alongside members of her family, despite her desperate pleas for help, Hind's final moments were marred by fear and abandonment.

Injured and terrified of the encroaching darkness, she cried out for adults to rescue her from the looming threat of Israeli tanks. However, her calls for aid went unanswered, sealing her fate.

 Even the valiant efforts of paramedic rescuers, who tirelessly sought permission from the Israeli Army to evacuate her to safety, ended in tragedy as they too became victims of the Israeli army’s brutality. 

Hind Ragab, a 6-year-old from Gaza, unwittingly became a symbol of yet another appalling war crime perpetrated by the Israeli army, her final hours a grim testament to the atrocities endured by innocent civilians during a complete world silence.

Her mother let her go with her uncle’s family to seek supposed safety after the Israeli army issued a warning on Monday that it would target West Gaza and that Palestinian residents should head to Deir El-Balah.

But there was no safety on their way.

Hind went with her 44-year-old uncle, Bashar Hamada, and his 43-year-old wife, Anam, along with her four cousins, including 15-year-old Layan, 13-year-old Sana, 12-year-old Mohamed, and 4-year-old Sarah.

They were driving a black Kia Picanto, and imagining all those people in this small car made me feel more stressed.

While they were allegedly heading for safety, the Israeli army’s tank opened fire.

Only Layan and Hind survived but were injured.

To get help, bleeding Layan called her uncle Mohamed Salem Hamada, who lives in Germany’s Frankfurt.

From Germany, her uncle Mohamed called the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) in the West to start a saga that would suit a Netflix horror thriller, but unfortunately, it is not fiction. It is real life in Gaza.

The PRCS got hold of Layan, who told them at 2:28 PM on Tuesday that an Israeli tank was firing at their car before a burst of fire was heard in the telephone call record released by the PRC in a sad first.

After this fire burst, Layan screamed, and the line went dead.

The next time the PRCS dispatcher called, little 6-year-old Hind answered, as Layan had passed away.

He asked her to hide and not to show up.

The PRCS dispatcher, upon hearing her small voice, brought his colleague to the call centre, Rana, to calm down the little girl as a woman.

“Come and take me, please,” the little girl pleaded. It is heartbreaking 

The PRCS call centre, which presented a masterclass honestly considering everything in speaking with Hind, got the head of the mental health department, Dr Nisreen Qawwas, to speak with her for a while.

Hind Hamada
Hind at her the first day of school in happier times in Gaza

The PRCS found Hind’s mother in Gaza, Dr Wissam Hamada and she managed to speak with her. A pscyhologist , Wissam tried to calm down her daughter was injure and surrounded by dead bodies. 

In an interview with Al-Jazeera, Hind’s mother mentioned that she heard the car door open the last time she spoke with her daughter.

During that, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah made calls with the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) in the Israeli Ministry of Defense to send an ambulance to the area.

The COGAT referred them to the Israeli Army.

At 5:40 PM, the PRC was told by the Palestinian Health Ministry that they got the okay from the Israelis to send the nearest ambulance and paramedics to Hind, along with a map to follow.

The PRC sent paramedics Youssef Zeino and Ahmed El-Madhoun to get Hind, who was injured in her hand and seemed to be getting weaker. 

The two paramedics sent to Hind 

The last thing the operators in Ramallah heard was heavy fire before Hind pleaded with them to come and get her. 

The communications with Zeino and Madhoun were also lost.

Since Monday, 7 PM, most of the world knows nothing about the fate of Hind or paramedics Zeino and Madhoun.

All this happened within four hours.

The Israeli Army denied any knowledge about the whole affair in a statement to The Post, despite the statements of both the PRCS and the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The Hamadas' car’s last known stop is at Fares Oil station in Tal Al-Hawa area , 


I had been asking for days on Twitter if there are journalists who have access to Planet.com and Maxar.com live satellite imagery who can help because they have the latest and most accurate, as well as the closest satellite imagery.

I located the exact street, location, and street from Google Earth/Map.

Google Earth’s imagery is taken from a few weeks ago but not last week. I just hope to see if they can spot a small black car and the ambulance.

I was worried that Hind was captured by the Israeli army and joined an unknown, scary number of Palestinian children who have been abducted by Israeli officers and did not return.

Up till now, we do not know the fate of the Palestinian baby girl who was abducted by an Israeli captain who was killed in Gaza.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry demanded the baby's return. Palestinians know that it was not the first time that children were kidnapped by Israelis.

It has been happening since 1948, and Palestinian authors like Ghassan Kanafani have spoken about it in Palestinian literature.

As we wonder about the fate of Hind, Zeino, and Madhoun, I also wonder about the role of the International Red Cross and whether it is only to serve one side in the war. Why do they not offer help? How many times will the International Red Cross fail the Palestinians in Gaza in this war? What is it doing for them already?

Hind and the two medics sent to save her are obviously either captured by the Israeli army, injured, or worse, dead. In any of these scenarios, the Red Cross could save much time by fulfilling its primary role during wars: attempting to reach them.

On Saturday, February 10, Hind’s family arrived early where the Hamadas’ car was reportedly at Fares oil station in Tel Al-Hawa as the Israeli army withdrew from the area and it became safer for a little bit. 

They found the black Kia Picanto riddled with bullets and inside it, they found the dead bodies of six people in decay including little Hind Rageb, her uncle Bashar Hamada and his daughter Layan Hamada. 

In a Twitter thread, Hamze Attar analyzed the screenshots showing the bullets' entry and exit holes and this preliminary twitter investigation shows how the car was targetted. 

The exist and entry bullet holes in the front seat of the car "Hamze Attar"

This gives you a hint about what happened to this car.

They put the body of Hind in a red blanket. 

Dr Wissam was not able to see her little daughter for one last second. Wissam Hamada had a lot to say to the world as well as the Israeli people.

They also found the ambulance the PCRS sent with on its board Youssef Zeino and Ahmed El-Madhoun or what remained from the ambulance that was shelled. 

This is what remained from the ambulance that had on its board Youssef and Ahmed as sent by the PCRS after hours of coordinating with Ramallah HQs that coordinated with the Israeli army. 


This is the last photo for Youssef and Ahmed as released per the PRCS

Late Youssef and Ahmed

The world failed Hind, Youssef and Ahmed. I do not know if it has to do that they were born in the wrong camp or not.

Updated : 

On February 15, the PRCS released another clip featuring a portion of the telephone call between its operator , Rana and Hind. 


Rana made Hind recited a Sura from the Holy Quran, the Fatiha to calm her. The Fatiha is the easiest and the most known by heart by all Muslims as we recite it in every prayer. It is among the first thing a Muslim child learns in Islam besides praying. 

On February 18, the PRCS released another clip featuring a portion of the telephone call between its operator, Rana, and Hind. Hind, who was sitting among dead bodies with a tank nearby, was afraid of the dark. Rana tried to comfort her.

Rana is probably one of the best emergency operators in the Arab world and she handled the matter in both humane and professional way. Yet I believe she will be huanted with Hend's voice as she begged her to stay her on the phone and then to come and take her.

The voice of Hind, that child’s frightened voice, will haunt me and, I believe, other Arabs for some time.

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3 comments:

  1. Anonymous2/10/2024 05:21:00 AM

    Probably kidnapped. Being raped daily. You should put up posters. Oh and
    Release
    The
    Hostages
    !

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous2/20/2024 03:08:00 PM

    Zeinobia xenophobia do you have any pictures of the Israeli terrorist that had his first birthday whilst a guest of the gentle loving Muslims in Gaza? Hypocrite . Give them back Give them back you sub humans!

    ReplyDelete

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