Posted by: John Phoenix
The Cradle
An investigation by open-source analysis firm Forensic Architecture concluded that a six-year-old Palestinian girl, Hind Rajab, and several of her relatives were killed by an Israeli tank gunner opening fire on their car.
Hind and her relatives were killed on 29 January while fleeing their neighborhood in Gaza City after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders for the area. Their bodies were finally recovered 12 days later.
Forensic Architecture mapped a total of 335 bullet holes in the Kia sedan they were killed in.
The investigation, carried out in cooperation with Earshot and journalists from Al-Jazeera’s Fault Lines, also found that two Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) medics who tried to save Hind were also killed by Israeli tank fire.
While the deaths of most Palestinians killed by Israel in its genocidal war in Gaza pass unnoticed, Hind’s killing gained international attention when the PCRS published the audio of the call for help made by Hind’s cousin, 15-year-old Layan Hamadam.
After the adults in the car had been shot and killed, Layan desperately used a cell phone to call the PRCS dispatcher.
Layan said, “They are shooting at us. The tank is next to me. [We are hiding] in the car. We’re next to the tank.”
Layan screams until her voice stops abruptly twenty seconds into the call.
During the call, a total of 64 gunshots are heard within just 6 seconds, indicating a firing range of 750–900 rounds per minute. This range of rounds per minute is consistent with Israeli army-issued weaponry, such as the M4 assault rifle or the FN MAG machine gun on a Merkava tank.
Israel has tried to claim that its tanks were not in the area where Hind, Layan, and their relatives were killed. Israel instead suggested they were killed by gunfire from Hamas. But Forensic Architecture notes that the firing range observed in the call exceeds that of the AK-47 assault rifles most commonly used by Hamas.
By measuring the sound of the bullet traveling at supersonic speed and comparing it to the sound of the blast from the muzzle of the gun reaching the recording device at the speed of sound, Earshot was able to determine that the tank firing at Hind and Layan’s car was located between 13 and 23 meters away.
“At such proximity, it is not plausible that the shooter could not have seen that the car was occupied by civilians, including children,” Forensic Architecture writes.
The “ballistic analysis supports the final words of Layan Hamada: the gunfire came from a tank that was next to them.”
After the Israeli tank gunner killed Layan, six-year-old Hind was the only person left alive in the car. PCRS dispatchers sent paramedics Yusuf al-Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun in an ambulance to rescue her. When they reached the site of Hind’s car, they were immediately killed.
Forensic Architecture reported the ambulance was destroyed using a 120mm M830A1 High Explosive Anti-Tank Multi-Purpose-Tracer (HEAT-MP-T) round.
“Our assessment of the position of the tanks at the time of the attack, together with the direction of the shot, suggests that the ambulance was likely hit by ammunition from an Israeli tank,” Forensic Architecture wrote.
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