Hind Rajab’s ordeal and death reveals plight of Palestinian child victims

• Several dozen former soldiers calling themselves “Breaking the Silence” are exposing the cynicism of the Israeli defence forces’ mantra

A damning aspect of modern war is the deliberate targetting of children by those who are belligerent. Since the Israeli invasion of Gaza began in October 2023, at least 20,000 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli military actions, according to reports from the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry and Save the Children, while other sources put the figure as high as 30,000.

According to a report published by the National Library of Medicine, Maryland, USA, children are deliberately targetted by IDF snipers. 

The report says: “I noted that two thirds of all Palestinian child fatalities had been caused by small arms fire (from relatively close range), in fully half of the cases to the head or upper torso—the sniper’s wound’. 

The killing of five-year-old Hind Rajab, which took place in the Tel Al Hawa area of Gaza in January 2024, is particularly sickening

My statement that ‘clearly, soldiers are routinely authorised to shoot to kill children in situations of minimal or no threat’ has now been confirmed in emphatic fashion—the authority being Israeli soldiers who have committed these acts themselves. They refer to one of the cases I described. Several dozen former soldiers calling themselves “Breaking the Silence” are exposing the cynicism of the Israeli defence forces’ mantra that everything possible is done to minimise the risk to Palestinian civilians. These soldiers testify that they were ordered in briefings to shoot to kill unarmed civilians, including children, even when there was no threat and in periods of calm. They were ordered to “fire at anything that moved” and were told “every person you see on the street, `kill him.’ And we would just do it.” The attitude was, “So kids got killed. For a soldier it means nothing.”

A few months ago, social media carried a photo and story of a little girl walking with her hands raised and shot dead by an Israeli sniper. 

The killing of five-year-old Hind Rajab, which took place in the Tel Al Hawa area of Gaza in January 2024, is particularly sickening. She was with her uncle, aunt and their four children in a car, fleeing  the bombing and firing in northern Gaza, when they were fired upon by tankers from Israel’s notorious 52nd IDF battalion of the 401st armoured brigade operating in the Tel al Hawa area.

The firing killed all occupants of the car except six-year-old Rajab and one of her cousins who managed to call emergency services,  with the rest of family already dead inside the car, as a tank kept firing.  When responders from the Palestine Red Crescent reached the site, the cousin was dead, but they could hear Rajab’s terrified cries. These are excerpts from a recording made.

“Come and take me. Will you come and take me?”

“Do you want me to come and take you?”

“I’m so scared, please come.”

But the responders were fired upon by a tank, and Hind Rajab was killed in a hail of bullets inside the wrecked car even though the tank’s crew could clearly see and hear the little girl screaming inside.

Rajab was left stranded in the vehicle for hours as paramedics from PRCS attempted to rescue her, but they were fired upon. Firing on ambulances and medical rescue personnel, both in Gaza and southern Lebanon, is another abominable Israeli practice which continues despite international condemnation.

Hind Rajab and her uncle’s family were found dead after Israeli forces withdrew from the area.

Israel claimed that there were no troops present in the neighborhood and denied carrying out the attack. However, this was refuted by The Washington Post and Sky News’s investigations relying on satellite imagery and visual evidence, which concluded that a number of Israeli tanks were indeed present and one had likely fired 335 rounds on the car that Rajab and her family had been in, with tank operators being able to see that the car had civilians including children in it. The Forensic Architecture investigation also concluded that an Israeli tank had also likely attacked the ambulance that came for Rajab.

In the aftermath of the killing, Western media outlets were criticised for their coverage of the incident, including not stating clearly how Rajab and her uncle’s family was killed, and for their adultification of her. American student protestors occupied and renamed Hamilton Hall at Columbia University in Rajab’s honour.

The zealous may attribute this to divine retribution – but Hamas said Lieutenant Colonel Dor Gedalia Ben Simhon, commander of the 52nd battalion, 401st armoured brigade, was killed by a Hezbollah explosive drone or anti-tank missile strike that hit his tank in southern Lebanon on June 18, 2026. 

Israeli military radio reported that 32-year-old Ben Shimhon had two months ago replaced the previous commander of the 52nd battalion, badly wounded in southern Lebanon. This battalion has been dubbed ‘the vampire empire’ because of their brutality towards civilians. And that is saying something because the IDF in general has shown no mercy to non-combattants ever since it invaded Gaza Strip. 

IDF has the worst kill ratio

According to the American news channel The Young Turks (TYT), the IDF has a worse kill ratio of civilians than the militants they are fighting – Hamas or Hezbollah, or any other organisation anywhere in the world, a 83% kill ratio. Direct fire, bombs, missiles, shelling, and sniper fire are not the only weapons used to attack civilians. Israel has weaponised hunger-malnutrition, starvation and lack of health care, which have become indiscriminate weapons of war. The amount of hatred and dehumanisation reflected in this killing field of Gaza chills one to the bone. Israeli conduct in the Gaza has been described as fascist. I think it goes beyond that into Nazism, invoking images of German soldiers slaughtering entire families and communities in occupied countries, especially in Eastern Europe.