The fate of the Palestinian girl Hind, 6, and the Red Crescent team that went out to rescue her in Gaza City are still unknown, despite the passage of more than 110 hours.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said on X that, “More than 110 hours have passed, and the fate of the PRCS ambulance team, Yousef Zeino and Ahmed al Madhoun who went to rescue the 6-year-old girl, Hind, remains unknown.”
PRCS appealed to the international community to intervene immediately to pressure the Israeli occupation authorities to reveal the fate of the child Hind and the rescue crew.
It stressed that international humanitarian law provides for the protection of civilians and workers in the field of health care and humanitarian work.
On Monday, an ambulance crew from the Red Crescent went to rescue the two girls, Layan, 15, and Hind, 6, who were surrounded by Israeli army tanks and soldiers, inside a car with their family members.
On Tuesday, a number of PRCS’s crews shared a video saying that the location of the incident was in Gaza City, near the Fares gas station, west of the city.
On Tuesday, PRCS announced the killing of the child Layan, “while talking on the phone with the Crescent’s crew, calling for help, while Hind remained trapped inside the car surrounded by occupation tanks and soldiers.”
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced that 17,000 Palestinian children in Gaza have lost their parents or been separated from their families, according to Jonathan Krekes, UNICEF’s communications director in the Palestinian Territories.
“Each of these children has a heartbreaking story,” he added in a press conference.
He pointed out that he visited Gaza last week, and the families are suffering from hardship due to lack of food, water, and shelter, and that family members with their children are suffering to meet their needs.
Krekes added that children’s mental health was seriously affected by the events in Gaza, referring to the devastating war waged by Israel.
He explained that the current situation causes symptoms in children, such as severe anxiety, loss of appetite, and inability to sleep, or they experience bouts of emotional irritation or panic every time they hear the sound of bombing.
“We estimate that almost all children in Gaza today need mental health support.”
Over the past days, the Israeli occupation forces made a significant re-incursion into several areas of the Gaza Governorate, amid military operations and intense air and artillery bombardment, and ordered the evacuation of residents from several residential neighbourhoods.
Since October 7, 2023, the IOF has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, resulting in catastrophic humanitarian and health conditions, due to the continuous bombing and the prevention of supplies of food, water, medicine, and electricity.
The Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip constitutes a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and human rights, as it exposes the lives and property of civilians to extreme danger, which requires urgent intervention from the international community to stop the aggression and protect civilians in the Gaza Strip.
This international community must force the IOF to adhere to international laws and treaties on human rights and international humanitarian law. They must be obliged to protect the rights and lives of civilians, prohibit their targeting and preserve their safety, and punish the leaders responsible for committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere.
