By Ashir Naveed
July 3, 2026
A young Palestinian man looking out from a window over buildings destroyed by an Israeli airstrike at the Shati refugee camp located in Gaza City. Photo credit: Ramadan Abed via Savage Minds substack
“They are dead. The tank is next to me. It’s moving.”
“Is it very close?”
“Very, very. Will you come and get me? I’m so scared.”
Should a 6 year old have to witness her family killed? Should she have to witness an Israeli tank rumbling towards her? Hind Rajab, a 6 year old Palestinian girl did, before she herself was shot dead.
On January 29, 2024, Hind’s grandfather Bashar Hamadeh was driving his car with his wife and 3 children, along with Hind. Layan (14), Raghad (13) and Mohammed (11) were his children along with Hind (6) who was his granddaughter. They were leaving their homes upon orders from the IDF to evacuate. Along the way, Israeli tanks invaded the “Financial Roundabout” area in Tal al-Hawa neighborhood in southwestern Gaza City and targeted Hamadah’s car near Faris Gas Station, where he tried to seek refuge from the tanks. Israeli tanks targeted a clearly marked civilian vehicle. The emergency call to the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) began with Layan Hamadeh after her parents and siblings were killed.
“They are shooting at us. The tank is next to me”
“Are you hiding?”
“Yes, in the car. We’re next to the tank”
“Are you inside the car?”
After this moment, Layan’s screams were abruptly silenced by Israeli gunfire. The line went dead before Hind continued the call, injured by the gunfire that killed her family. Listen to the voice of Hind, and imagine the pain and terror she is feeling. The unbearable grief her mother felt once she heard her daughter’s words for the last time. Imagine the emotional weight that tens of thousands of Palestinian mothers who do not get the chance to say goodbye to their children carry.
”They are dead”
“Are they dead?”
“Yes.”
Hind continued to plead for help, with the bodies of her family lying around her in pools of blood. The Palestinian Red Crescent sent an ambulance with 2 heroic paramedics inside to rescue Hind – Yusuf al-Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun. According to PRCS spokeswoman Nibal Farsakh, the ambulance “got the green light,” from the IDF. However, “On arrival, [the crew] confirmed that they could see the car where Hind was trapped, and they could see her. The last thing we heard [was] continuous gunfire.” Hind believed that help was arriving. She believed that she would survive. The paramedics believed that they would live to see another day.
They were all wrong.
Hind’s body along with her relatives’ bodies were found decomposed in the car— its windshield and dashboard smashed and riddled with bullet holes 12 days later. Their blood was everywhere in the car along with charred parts of their bodies. Not too far away, the PRCS ambulance was in the same state. Later investigations revealed that 335 bullets had been used on the car. Traces of the IDF’s tanks could be seen in the area and next to the civilian car and ambulance, without the IDF offering to help.
The world praises the Israeli Military, calling them the “most moral army” in the world. But how can an army that uses 335 bullets to kill a 6 year old and her family be considered moral? Hind wasn’t an unfortunate victim of war. Her death came as a result of systems built upon years, dehumanizing Palestinians and Muslims by framing them as ‘terrorists’. This is what allows the deaths of thousands of people like Hind to go unnoticed.
This kind of tragedy doesn’t just happen spontaneously.
The foundation for the system that killed Hind and thousands of others was laid in 1948, following the end of British control in Historic Palestine. David Ben-Gurion, founder and first prime minister of Israel, declared independence to create a Jewish homeland. This followed the UN’s 1947 plan to partition Palestine into 2 separate states. Around 55% of Palestine’s land would be taken for the Jewish people to create Israel, despite the Jewish people making up only ⅓ of the population. This plan was accepted by Jewish leaders but rejected by their Arab counterparts, leading to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and forcing thousands of Palestinians away from their homeland.
During the Arab-Israeli War, the zionist forces carried out 31 military operations and 70 massacres. By the end of the war in 1949, Israel had taken 78% of Palestine – pushing out over 750,000 Palestinians and taking more than they were originally allowed. By 1954, over 15,000 Palestinian buildings and over 60% of fertile land now belonged to Israel.
Over time Israeli authorities have taken more and more land and specifically targeted the Palestinians. This is shown in the West Bank, where Israel has built over 280 illegal settlements for around 600,000 Jewish citizens since 1967, not building a single one for the Palestinian people.
Meanwhile, Israel targets Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories through freedom of movement and political power. Israeli citizens are allowed to move freely anywhere in the country with the exception of the Gaza Strip. However, Palestinians require Israeli approval to move about the country or leave. Additionally, around 5 million Palestinians who live in the occupied territories cannot participate politically and are severely limited in their political freedoms.
And this is not just in the past. In March of 2026, Israel passed its new “death penalty for terrorists” law, in which any Palestinian man or woman declared guilty of killing an Israeli citizen by an Israeli court will be put to death by hanging. However, this law explicitly targets Palestinians and doesn’t apply the same for Israeli citizens, who often do not face any repercussions for their actions in the killing of Palestinians through illegal settlements.
Israel has created an environment where the suffering of Palestinians has become law.
The discrimination that is a result of this system doesn’t stay in one place – it travels. The logic that Muslim lives are disposable apply everywhere across the world, even in modern day schools.
As a Muslim student, I have seen how stereotypes and dehumanizing bias shape how people react to Muslim suffering firsthand.
In school, I have been called “Osama.” People who I thought were my friends have called me a terrorist. I have had to endure jokes of people saying that I have a bomb. People have accused me of causing 9/11. One time in New York, an Islamaphobic man yelled at my family. Every day, I hear the words of my religion insulted and mocked. I have heard the name of my god be used as a joke.
These moments, although minuscule compared to the war and suffering of Palestinians, show how Muslim lives are dehumanized as terrorists and monsters, and how that allows for the deaths of innocent children to go unnoticed. The same logic that turns me into a 9/11 joke is what allows for the final desperate pleas of a 6 year old girl to become background noise.
Many people argue that Israel is not committing genocide because they have a right to defend themselves after Hamas attacked them on the 7th of October.
However, this claim disregards an essential part of that argument: Israel’s actions go far beyond self defence. As of January of 2026, 71,439 people have been killed in Gaza and 171,324 people have been injured. 21,289 of those killed have been children. According to Amnesty International, nearly all of Gaza’s population is displaced and around 20% of Gaza’s population have permanent, life altering disabilities. A UN article from March of 2024 found that despite being in the first 4 months of the war, Israel killed more children than the past 4 years of global conflict combined. Many human rights groups and legal scholars have determined that Israel’s actions bypass the need for self defence.
Meanwhile, the war has devastated the people and institutions that try to bring help. Journalists and detainees recount the torture and psychological abuse they went through in detention facilities like Sde Teiman.
Additionally, hospitals – which are considered safe places for people to heal – have been greatly affected. As of February 2026, No hospital in Gaza is fully functional and 50% of hospitals are partially functional. Humanitarian missions inside the Gaza Strip face regular access restrictions and mission denials. Israel restricts humanitarian organizations from bringing in basic supplies and medical equipment, such as respirators, ventilators, or incubators.
According to data from September of 2025, around 1,600 health care workers have been killed. Almost 90% of water and sanitation facilities in the Gaza Strip are now inoperable. Hundreds of schools have been bombed, as has every single one of Gaza’s 12 universities. There has been no electricity for 23 months. Israel targets those who try to bring help and makes sure that they cannot. Even the paramedics who tried to save Hind. Israel heavily restricts aid, making sure that the people inside Palestine suffer. The Gaza Strip has been in a man-made famine for months, with kids starving to their deaths.
This is no longer self defence. The children are the ones who pay the cost of war, not those who wage it. Hind’s voice matters. The voice of the people matters. Behind every statistic there are kids, teens, adults who went through the same experience as Hind. They all believed that help would arrive. Except it didn’t.
I write this so that the next time you hear about the number of children killed in the war, the next time you see a video or article on Israeli violence, you recognize the dangers of remaining silent and the effects of dehumanization. Listening to this and staying silent is no longer an option. We must demand our lawmakers to do something about this. We must stop sending weapons to Israel. I write this piece so that the next time you see me, you see the face of a boy who refused to stay silent as the Palestinian people were being erased, and not the face of a terrorist.
Hind Rajab died alone, in the darkness of a car stained with the blood of her family. She witnessed the deaths of her loved ones knowing she was next. She will never grow up. She will never accomplish her dreams. How can you listen to her voice and stay silent? I hear her voice. My only question is – Why can’t you?
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