In this edition of the Target Stream, Robert Inlakesh looks at how Hezbollah has hunted down the Israelis connected to the infamous killing of Hind Rajab in the Gaza Strip – investigating how the Lebanese resistance has managed to target senior officers, while also repelling recent attempts to advance.
On January 29, 2024, six-year-old Hind Rajab pleaded for help over the phone for three hours, trapped in a car surrounded by the bodies of her family. An Israeli invading tank opened fire from just 13 metres away in Gaza City’s Tal al-Hawa neighborhood, leaving the little girl in a state of shock. For hours she pleaded over the phone for the Red Crescent rescue workers to save her, but the request to send in a rescue team was denied by the Israeli military.
In a bid to put pressure on the Israelis to greenlight an emergency vehicle deploying to the area, Red Crescent workers based in the West Bank city of Ramallah published the audio from phone calls with Hind on social media. Quickly the situation became a major international story and eventually the greenlight was granted to permit an emergency crew to reach her. However, once the emergency vehicle reached the vicinity of the 6-year-old girl’s location, the Israelis organised a tank ambush that killed every living person on the scene.
Israel initially denied its troops were even in the area. Yet, then came the satellite imagery and a forensic investigation proving they what the world already knew: they lied — 335 bullet holes in Hind Rajab’s family car, a coordinated tank ambush, and two Palestinian Red Crescent paramedics, Yusuf Zeino and Ahmad al-Madhoun, had been deliberately killed after receiving Israeli-approved clearance to rescue her.