Al Jazeera documentary reveals new evidence in Hind Rajab family’s killing

Al Jazeera documentary uncovers caller grounds successful killings of Hind Rajab, her household and rescue squad successful Gaza City.

A documentary by Al Jazeera, successful concern with the Hind Rajab Foundation, has revealed caller grounds successful the sidesplitting of five-year-old Hind Rajab, her family, and the rescue squad that tried to scope them successful Gaza City.

The documentary, Ma Khafiya Aatham (Tip of the Iceberg), which aired connected Monday, discloses antecedently chartless details astir the sidesplitting of the Rajab household and others successful the last days of January 2024.

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Hind Rajab’s last hours – arsenic she pleaded for help pursuing the archetypal shelling that killed her uncle, aunt and 3 cousins successful their car – were wide circulated connected societal media aft the attack.

Defending its actions that day, the Israeli authorities initially claimed that nary of its forces was contiguous erstwhile the Rajab household was killed, aboriginal asserting that the 335 slug holes recovered successful the family’s car were the effect of an speech of occurrence betwixt Israeli troops and equipped Palestinian fighters.

However, a consequent probe of outer imagery and audio from that time by the multidisciplinary probe radical Forensic Architecture, based astatine Goldsmiths, the University of London, identified lone the beingness of respective Israeli Merkava tanks successful the vicinity of the Rajab family’s car and nary grounds of immoderate speech of fire.

The wide commandant of the tanks contiguous during the family’s sidesplitting was Colonel Beni Aharon of Israel’s 401 Armoured Brigade. Colonel Aharon is already the taxable of a transgression ailment astatine the International Criminal Court (ICC) filed by the Hind Rajab Foundation, which uses societal media footage captured by Israeli soldiers during operations successful Gaza arsenic the ground for warfare crimes prosecutions.

Investigations by the instauration person identified that, wrong the 401st Brigade, the institution known arsenic “Vampire Empire”, nether the bid of Major Sean Glass, was straight liable for sidesplitting the Rajab household and subsequently tampering with the transgression scene.

The Vampire Empire institution – its English sanction suggesting a multinational creation – is portion of the 52nd Armoured Battalion nether the bid of Colonel Daniel Ella, who the instauration alleges bears nonstop work for the killings astatine the tract level.

One of the company’s soldiers, dual Israeli-Argentine nationalist Itay Choukirkov, is presently being sued nether Argentinian instrumentality for his alleged relation successful the family’s murder.

According to the documentary, the 52nd Armoured Battalion, nicknamed Ha-Bok’im (The Breachers), was among the archetypal Israeli units to participate Gaza successful October 2023 and has since been progressive successful immoderate of the Israeli army’s astir lethal operations, including the demolition of respective hospitals.

An Israeli service Merkava vessel [File: Menahem Kahana/AFP]

“The authorities of Israel does not similar these campaigns financed by organisations supporting the Palestinians,” Israeli information adept Yossi Melman told Al Jazeera successful the documentary.

“Of people it worries them and gives Israel a atrocious sanction erstwhile immoderate Israelis – particularly subject unit – are prosecuted for warfare crimes successful immoderate parts of the world,” helium said.

Melman added that specified prosecutions are of interest not lone to the Israeli service but besides to its quality agencies – the interior Shin Bet and the outer Mossad.

The Hind Rajab Foundation is pursuing respective ineligible actions against idiosyncratic Israeli soldiers, including Shimon Zuckerman, a self-styled “war influencer” who filmed himself and different members of the 8129 Engineering Corps razing the colony of Khuza’a adjacent Khan Younis.

The instauration says Zuckerman’s societal media posts supply wide grounds of the genocidal intent that led to the sidesplitting of the Rajab family.