by A six-year-old Palestinian girl and the two rescuers who went to look for her almost two weeks ago were found dead on Saturday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, ending a desperate effort to discover her fate.
Two Red Crescent rescuers were sent in an ambulance on the night of January 29 to find Hind Rajab, who was believed to be trapped in a vehicle in Gaza City with six dead relatives. The aid group said they had been killed by Israeli fire.
A Red Crescent statement on Saturday accused Israeli forces of bombing the ambulance as it arrived “a few meters from the vehicle containing the trapped boy Hind” and killing the two rescuers inside. He said this occurred “despite prior coordination” between the Red Crescent and the Israeli military.
The Red Crescent shared an image of the Charred and almost unrecognizable ambulance on social networks.
Neither the Red Crescent nor Hind’s relatives who were in the area when the ambulance arrived on January 29 reported fighting between Israeli forces and armed Palestinians there, although this could not be independently verified.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Red Crescent allegations. The military said last week it had no knowledge of the incident.
A Red Crescent spokeswoman said the girl’s family had discovered the bodies of her relatives and ambulance staff. It was not immediately clear how Hind died.
The Red Cross had issued a series of desperate messages since the rescuers disappeared, trying to draw attention to the harrowing situation.
The search was hampered by the constant presence of Israeli forces in the area, making it too dangerous to send more rescuers to the site, according to the Red Crescent.
Israel’s airstrikes and ground invasion of Gaza have left more than 27,000 people dead in Gaza in the past four months, according to the territory’s health authorities. According to Gaza authorities, more than 12,000 of the dead are children.
The U.N. children’s agency, Unicef, said Friday that more than 600,000 children and their families have been displaced to the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Israel’s war in Gaza began after Hamas organized a cross-border attack on Israel that Israeli authorities say killed about 1,200 people.
The two members of the ambulance team, Yousef Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun, were dispatched after a Red Crescent operator spent three hours on the phone trying to comfort Hind while she was trapped in the car.
The Red Crescent said it had coordinated ambulance movements with the Israeli military. Similar coordination is being carried out by other aid organizations operating in Gaza, including UN agencies.
Some aid groups have reported that convoys have been attacked.
The two rescuers confirmed having arrived at the location of the vehicle in Gaza City, in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood, around 6 p.m. on January 29. The Red Crescent then lost contact with them and has not heard from them since.
Tanks and Israeli army forces remained nearby, preventing the Red Crescent from sending other rescuers to the scene, the aid group said.
After the tanks withdrew, Hind’s family went to the area and saw that she was dead in the vehicle and that the Red Crescent ambulance had been hit, with the two rescuers dead inside, said Nebal Farsakh, spokesman for the Red Crescent. the Red Crescent. He added that the family notified the Red Crescent and sent them photographs.
“What can we say to the mother of 6-year-old Hind? What can we say to the families of our missing colleagues Youssef Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoon?” The Red Crescent final mail about the case said Friday, before the group received confirmation that everyone was dead.
“Every day for the past 11 days, they have endured heartbreaking uncertainty about the whereabouts of their loved ones. Their suffering makes us more determined to find out what happened. We must learn the truth.”
Rawan Sheikh Ahmad contributed with reports.
