Who killed Hind?

The answer to this question shouldn’t be difficult for anyone but those who have since October 7 been denying that Israel has been indulging its wildest genocidal fantasies on the people of Palestine. Six-year-old Hind Rajab was with her family when their car came under unprovoked Israeli fire in Gaza City. As her family lay dead around her, the six-year-old called Red Crescent for help. The ambulance sent to rescue her also came under Israeli attack, and the six-year-old too did not make it. Hind Rajab makes a long and heartbreaking list of children killed by Israel as it unleashes the worst violence the world has seen in decades if not ever before. To date, at least 28,176 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza with at least 68,000 wounded.

Despite worldwide condemnation and despite South Africa’s brave attempt to hold Israel responsible on record at the ICJ, the Zionist state has refused to back down from its maniacal bloodlust. Now it is preparing a ground offensive on Rafah, something Hamas says will affect the captive exchange negotiations. While Israel refuses to listen to any word of caution, the UN, EU, US and Middle Eastern countries have warned the settler-colonial state that any such offensive would cause a humanitarian catastrophe. Palestinians in Gaza, meanwhile, wonder how long they will have to keep running from one place to another as Israel destroys their homes, their lives, their existence. Rafah is currently host to scores of Palestinian refugees. The situation there is dire enough for Unicef Executive Director Catherine Russell to also come out with a warning that any such offensive would be devastating for the people living in Rafah: “Some 1.3M civilians are pushed into a corner, living on streets or shelters. They must be protected. They have nowhere safe to go.”

Israel has since October 7 refused to listen to logic or compassion. In fact, it has sought to deprive Palestinians of even the most basic of help and aid. After unfounded and completely unsubstantiated allegations by Israel that 12 of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) employees participated in the October 7 attacks, around a dozen countries have suspended donating to the agency. Not content with that, Israel has also gone back to its favourite bogey-man: ‘hidden tunnels’. This time, Israel says Hamas operates a tunnel network under UNRWA’s Gaza headquarters. Needless to say, none of these allegations bears any resemblance to fact. As the 1.4 million Palestinians in Rafah await their fate, what is most terrifying is that four months on, Israel’s relentless massacre of Palestinians continues without any let-up. No amount of court cases or condemnation can help the people of Gaza if the world’s superpower and the Global North not only ignore a genocide but – in the case of the US – actively fund it.