Hind Rajab Age, Death, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Hind Rajab

• On 29 January 2024, Hind Rajab’s mother and older siblings flee on foot from Tel al-Hawa, a neighborhood of Gaza City, when Israeli forces entered into the Tel al-Hawa.

• Hind Rajab went into a black Kia car with her aunt, uncle, and three cousins.
  

  A picture of Hind Rajab

• On their way, an Israeli army tank fired at their car and killed Rajab’s aunt, uncle, and two cousins.

• After that, Hind Rajab and her 15-year-old cousin, Layan Hamadeh, were the only survivors in the car.

• Layan then called the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) for emergency help. She was crying and said,
  

  They are shooting at us. The tank is right next to me. We’re in the car, the tank is right next to us.”

• During the phone conversation with emergency workers, Hamadeh was heard screaming and the machine-gun fire was heard hitting the car.

• When the emergency workers called back, Rajab answered the phone. She said that everyone else in the car was dead. Rajab added that the tank was still moving closer to the vehicle.

• Rajab remained on the phone with the PRCS for three hours. She told the emergency worker,
  

  I’m so scared, please come. Come take me. Please, will you come?”

• Later, her grandfather told the media reporters that Rajab had injuries on her back, hand, and foot. Rajab was told to keep hiding inside the vehicle. A PRCS ambulance was planned to rescue her.

• On 3 February 2024, the Red Crescent released the audio recording of the calls between the PRCS, Hamadeh, and Rajab.

• The area was under siege, and the PRCS worked with the Gaza Health Ministry and the Israeli military. When Hind Rajab called for emergency, they tried to ensure safe passage for an ambulance crew to rescue Rajab.

• After waiting for hours, the PRCS said that it received permission to send the ambulance on a fixed route. The ambulance crew reported that the Israeli military was targeting them with lasers.

• The contact of PRCS with the ambulance was lost after the sound of gunfire or an explosion.

• After that, the whereabouts of Rajab and the paramedics remained unknown for 12 days.

• During the 12 days when she was missing, Rajab’s case received international attention. Many activists and humanitarian groups called that she should be found and brought safely to home.

• Her mother requested the international community not to forget her daughter and to bring her home.

• The Palestine Red Crescent Society shared photos of Hind Rajab and the two paramedics for many days on its social media accounts. It also asked people for information about their locations.

• During this period, many news agencies contacted the Israeli military for comments about the incident.

• On 2 February 2024, the Israeli military told a noted media outlet that it did not know the incident. The media outlet contacted the military again after three days, it said that it was still looking into the matter.

• On 10 February 2024, Rajab’s family returned after the Israeli military withdrew from the area. On their way, they found the car with Rajab, Hamadeh, and the rest of her uncle’s family dead.

• According to Rajab’s family, the car windows had been blown out. Its doors were covered with bullet holes. The Red Crescent ambulance was found a few feet away and was completely destroyed.

• The two ambulance workers, Yusuf al-Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun, were also killed.
  

  A picture of Yousef Zeino, left, and Ahmed al Madhoun

• After Hind Rajab’s body was found, many pro-Palestinian figures criticized Western media outlets. They said that the media reported that Rajab had been “found dead” without saying that Israel was responsible for her death.

• They compared this coverage with the more sympathetic reporting on children killed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

• After her daughter’s death was confirmed, Rajab’s mother condemned the Israeli army. She said,
  

  How many more mothers are you waiting to feel this pain? How many more children do you want to get killed?”

• The Red Crescent then blamed Israel for the incident and accused it of deliberately targeting the ambulance crew.
  

  The remains of the car in which Hind was travelling with her relatives

• According to an early investigation by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, Rajab and her relatives were killed by the Israeli army in a “planned execution.” It also claimed that the IDF used a US-made missile to kill the Red Crescent paramedics who had gone to rescue the young girl.

• Some pieces of an American-made M830A1 projectile were found at the site where the Red Crescent ambulance was bombed while searching for Rajab and her family.

• A spokesperson for the U.S. government said in the media that the United States would wait for Israel to complete its investigation into the incident.

• After that, an IDF spokesperson stated that there were no IDF soldiers near the vehicle or within firing range. He said that because there were no troops in the area, ambulance coordination was not needed to rescue Hind Rajab.

• In response to the above statement, a noted media house Al Jazeera said,
  

  Israel has a history of swiftly clearing its troops of any wrongdoing in cases of abuse against Palestinians.”

• An investigation by Al Jazeera found that three Israeli tanks were near Rajab’s family vehicle at the time of the attack.

• After that, the case was then transferred to the General Staff Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism, which is as an independent military body that investigates unusual incidents during the war.

• The United States of America then urged the timely investigation into Rajab’s death. It stated that it was “devastated” by her death.

• The PRCS told The Intercept, a noted media house, that the Israeli military never contacted it about Rajab’s killing or the attack on its ambulances.
  

  The remains of the Red Crescent ambulance which was destroyed when in was on its way to save Hind Rajab

• In April 2024, The Washington Post published an investigation that challenged the claims made by the Israeli military by using the satellite images. It stated that Israeli armored vehicles were near the car in which Hind Rajab was killed.

• In October 2024, an international media, Sky News, reported that the damage to the ambulance matched the effects of a “large calibre weapon.” The report quoted an expert from Janes Information Services.

• The IDF had published a press release about its operations in the Shati and Tel al-Hawa neighborhoods. This press release was later removed from its website.

• A further investigation by Sky News found satellite images taken on 29 January 2024, the day of the attack. The images showed at least 15 military vehicles in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood. The closest vehicle was only 300 meters from the site where the ambulance was attacked.

• In June 2024, Forensic Architecture published its investigation. It used visual, audio, and other collected evidence to recreate the event.

• The investigation concluded that an Israeli tank had likely fired 335 rounds at the car carrying Rajab and her family. It also said that the tank operators would have been able to see that civilians, including children, were inside the car.

• The investigation also concluded that an Israeli tank had attacked the ambulance that came to help Hind Rajab.

• Soon after Rajab’s death, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to hold those responsible for her death accountable.

• On 13 February 2024, a human rights group named ‘Justice For All’ blamed the IDF for committing many war crimes in the killing of Rajab and submitted a case to the ICC.

• In April 2024, pro-Palestinian student protesters occupied Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall in New York City.

• They put up a large banner and renamed the building “Hind’s Hall” in memory of Hind Rajab.
  

  A banner renaming Hamilton Hall at Columbia University ‘Hind’s Hall’ after the Gaza Solidarity Encampment

• During a media discussion, the host of this protest, Kasie Hunt, described Hind as “a woman who was killed in Gaza.”

• On 16 May 2024, student protesters at the University of California, Berkeley, occupied the abandoned Anna Head complex and renamed the building “Hind’s House” in her honor.

• In May 2024, American rapper Macklemore released the protest song “Hind’s Hall” to honor Rajab and the student protests.

• Macklemore announced in a video that all money earned from streaming the song would go to UNRWA.
  

  The poster of the song Hinds Hall

• In August 2024, a journalist named Owen Jones wrote in an article that Rajab’s killing was part of a wider pattern of alleged Israeli atrocities. He said,
  

  Israel’s usual response after such incidents was to deny, deflect, deceive, and wait until public attention moved elsewhere.”

• In September 2024, he released another song titled “Hind’s Hall 2.” The money earned from this song also went to UNRWA.

• The song featured Palestinian rapper MC Abdul, Palestinian-American singer Anees, author and activist Amer Zahr, and vocals from the L.A. Palestinian Kids Choir, Lifted! Youth Gospel Choir, Tiffany Wilson, and Friends.
  

  The poster of the song Hind’s Hall 2

• On 29 January 2025, some Palestinian groups held a protest at Zuccotti Park in New York, a year after the killing of Rajab.

• Betar US announced a counter-protest and called the event a “jihad rally.” It said that it would record people attending the protest to try to get them deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

• According to a video posted by the group, protestors shouted,
  

  Show us your faces so we could get you deported” and “We’re with ICE.”

  They also repeatedly chanted,

  ICE, ICE, ICE.”

  

  A picture from a protest held by Palestinian groups at Zuccotti Park in New York

• After that, a social media personality named Rachel said that she had been in contact with Rajab’s mother.

• The Hind Rajab Foundation was created after her death. The foundation said that it did not believe in the investigation. It added that the investigation system of Israel was,
  

  Fundamentally flawed and cannot be regarded as credible mechanisms of accountability.”

• On 3 May 2025, which would have been Hind’s seventh birthday, the Hind Rajab Foundation said that it had identified the commander of the battalion that killed Hind.
  

  A picture of Hind Rajab Foundation

• The foundation named Lieutenant Colonel Beni Aharon of the 401st Armored Brigade and filed a war crimes complaint against him with the ICC.
  

  A picture of Lieutenant Colonel Beni Aharon of the 401st Armored Brigade

• In September 2025, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory released a report, which stated that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza.

• It included the killing of Hind Rajab and her family as an example of the genocidal act of killing members of a group.

• In 2025, three films on Hind Rajab’s life were released. Syrian-Dutch filmmaker Amir Zaza made a Dutch short film titled Close Your Eyes Hind, which premiered at the 2025 Netherlands Film Festival. The film won the Golden Calf Award for Best Short Film.
  

  The poster of the short film Close Your Eyes Hind

• After that, Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania made the feature film The Voice of Hind Rajab, which showed the events from the point of view of International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement volunteers.

• The film was premiered at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize of the festival.
  

  The poster of the feature film The Voice of Hind Rajab

• That same year, a Jordanian-Palestinian filmmaker named Naji Salameh made a Jordanian short film Hind Under Siege, which was premiered at the first Gaza International Festival for Women’s Cinema on 27 October 2025.

• The film won the Jury Award for Best Narrative Short Film.
  

  The poster of the short film Hind Under Siege

• In April 2026, a Palestinian restaurant named Hinds Hall opened on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Its name referred to Rajab and the 2024 occupation of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University.
  

  A Palestinian restaurant on the Upper West Side named Hinds Hall, in reference to Hind Rajab and the 2024 occupation of Hamilton Hall

• On 19 August 2026, the IDF announced that it had started a criminal investigation into the death of Rajab and the ambulance crew.

• In its statement, the IDF admitted for the first time that its soldiers had fired at Hamada’s car. It said that the vehicle was moving towards Israeli soldiers while travelling “contrary to the advanced notice.” It added that the Military Advocate General, the IDF’s top legal body, took the decision to attack.