An Tel Aviv Tribune investigation showed three Israeli tanks surrounding the car where a six-year-old girl was killed after hours of pleading for help.
However, the Israeli army denied the report on Saturday, saying its troops were not in the area on January 29, the day Hind Rajab and her family were killed.
Here is the full story, what Israel claims and how Tel Aviv Tribune investigators placed Israeli tanks at the scene of the murder:
What happened to Hind?
Hind’s story went viral when a phone recording of what is now believed to be his and his family’s final moments went viral on social media.
During the call, which lasted about three hours, Hind pleaded with emergency responders to come and save her after the family’s car was fired upon and she became the sole survivor, trapped inside with his deceased loved ones.
Two Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) dispatchers sent to rescue her were also killed.
The PRCS accused Israel of deliberately targeting the medical team despite exchanges between the organization and the army as doctors tried to obtain permission to evacuate Hind.
Hind and his cousins are just some of the thousands of children killed in Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza, in violation of international law. Nearly 30,000 people have died in Gaza since October 7.
What did Israel say?
According to a Times of Israel report, Israeli officials said an initial investigation showed that troops were not present in the Gaza City suburb of Tal al-Hawa on January 29, when Hind and five other members of his family were killed.
“It appears that … troops were not present near the vehicle or within firing range of the described vehicle in which the girl was found,” reads an Israeli army statement. .
This statement directly contradicts the evidence recorded in the phone call circulating between PRCS and Hind.
“Furthermore, given the lack of forces in the area, it was not necessary to individually coordinate the movement of the ambulance or other vehicle to collect the girl,” said the statement, which goes to: Contrary to the PRCS’s statement that it had worked to coordinate with the Israeli army.
The statement goes on to claim that doctors are moving without restrictions throughout the Gaza Strip, which goes against several testimonies from Gaza.
What did Tel Aviv Tribune discover?
Sanad, Tel Aviv Tribune’s investigative unit, analyzed phone records and satellite images to prove that there were Israeli troops near the car belonging to Hind’s family that day.
The vehicle, according to the investigation, was stopped by the Israeli army near a gas station in Tal al-Hawa early in the afternoon of January 29.
A phone call from Hind’s uncle to a relative in Germany triggered the PRCS’s intervention. Tel Aviv Tribune obtained messages between the relatives, time-stamping the final hours of the deadly ordeal while Hind and one of his cousins, Layan, 15, were still alive.
Layan, who was the first to speak with PRCS, identified Israeli tanks near the car, saying: “They are shooting at us; the tank is next to me. Within minutes, a volley of what sounded like gunfire erupted and a screaming Layan fell silent.
When Hind picked up the phone and spoke to PRCS, she also identified Israeli military vehicles near the family car. “The tank is next to me. (It’s) coming from the front of the car,” she said. About three hours later, the connection to Hind was cut.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s analysis of satellite images taken at midday on January 29 corroborated Hind and Layan’s accounts, and placed at least three Israeli tanks just 270 m (886 feet) from the family’s car, their weapons pointed towards her.
When rescuers found the remains of Hind and his family on February 10, the car was riddled with bullet holes likely coming from multiple directions.
What happened to the ambulance?
Doctors Yusuf Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun arrived on the scene around 6 p.m. on January 29, after hours spent by the PRCS trying to obtain permission from the Israeli military.
“I’m almost there,” Zeino told his colleagues as the ambulance approached Hind. But the two rescuers never reached her. “We heard gunshots, we couldn’t imagine they would shoot at them,” Rana Faqih, the PRCS official who held the line with Hind, told Tel Aviv Tribune. After the shots, there was complete silence.
It was only 12 days later, on February 10, that the remains of the two men were found, following the withdrawal of the Israeli army. The ambulance was destroyed and appeared to have been run over by a tank, according to Sanad’s analysis.
After that ?
The United States, Israel’s main ally, has called for investigations into the killing of Hind, his family and the doctors.
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters: “We have asked Israeli authorities to urgently investigate this incident. »
After initial findings on the Hind case were released on Saturday, Israeli officials told local reporters that the investigation had been transferred to the General Staff’s fact-assessment mechanism for further analysis.
Similar Israeli investigations have not been straightforward. Authorities denied for several months the killing of Tel Aviv Tribune journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in May 2022, before admitting that Israeli gunfire had killed the veteran journalist, saying it was “not intentional.”