The total image of the tragedy that befell the household stays incomplete. Some particulars couldn’t be confirmed. What’s past dispute is that their automobile got here below fireplace; the mother and father and a lot of the kids have been killed; a 6-year-old lady begged for hours to be rescued; paramedics have been dispatched; then communications have been misplaced.
The Washington Submit reconstructed the occasions of that day by interviewing three members of the family, 5 members of the Palestine Purple Crescent Society (PRCS) and reviewing audio of telephone conversations between dispatchers and kids within the automobile. The household’s story is emblematic of the continuing risks confronted by civilians in northern Gaza — at the same time as Israel says it’s winding down its army mission there — and the depth of their isolation from the skin world.
Requested for remark a number of instances, the Israel Protection Forces stated, “We’re unfamiliar with the incident described.” The Submit offered particular coordinates and extra particulars to the IDF on Tuesday morning and has not acquired a reply.
Within the operations room of the PRCS in Ramallah, the landline was ringing. It was 2:28 p.m. Omar al-Qam, the lone dispatcher on responsibility that day, picked up.
From 2,000 miles away, in Frankfurt, Germany got here the regular voice of Mohammed Salem Hamada: “My members of the family are trapped in Gaza Metropolis,” he instructed Omar. “They have been driving a black Kia Picanto and the automobile was focused. A number of the folks have been killed inside.”
Mohammed gave Omar the telephone quantity for his 15-year-old niece, Layan, who had referred to as her uncle in southern Gaza to sound the alarm. The uncle, combating patchy cell service, referred to as his cousin in Germany, hoping he may discover assist.
The uncle relayed what Layan had instructed him: The Israeli military had opened fireplace on the household’s automobile. Her mother and father and all 4 of her siblings have been lifeless — Sana, 13, Raghad, 12, Mohammed, 11 and 4-year-old Sarah.
Layan instructed her uncle she was bleeding. And that her cousin Hind, 6, was the one different survivor.
Omar, in Ramallah, referred to as Layan. She sounded terrified.
“They’re firing at us,” she screamed into the telephone. “The tank is subsequent to me.”
“Are you hiding?” he requested.
Then got here a burst of fireside. Layan screamed. The road went lifeless.
In shock, Omar stated he went to search out his colleague, Rana Faqih, in one other room. He was trembling, she recalled.
Rana stated she walked him again to his chair within the dispatch room and stood subsequent to him as he dialed once more.
It was Hind who answered this time.
“Are you within the automobile now?” he requested her.
“Sure,” got here the small voice on the opposite finish.
Rana took the telephone, telling the 6-year-old she would keep on the telephone till assist arrived.
Hind’s voice was so quiet, it was unattainable to make out her reply.
“Who’re you with?” Rana requested.
“With my household,” Hind instructed her.
Rana requested if she had tried to get up her household. Hind responded: “I’m telling you they’re lifeless.”
Rana requested her how the automobile had been hit.
“A tank,” Hind stated. “The tank is subsequent to me … it’s coming in direction of me … it’s very, very shut.”
Rana’s voice was robust and clear and reassuring. Hind’s was faint and shaky. Rana urged her to maintain speaking. They prayed collectively. Rana learn to her from the Quran.
Don’t cry, she instructed the little lady, although Rana was additionally combating again tears.
“Don’t be scared,” she instructed Hind. “They’re not going to harm you. … Don’t depart the automobile.”
Minutes handed. Hind appeared to drop the telephone. The silences have been longer now.
“If I may get you out I’d,” Rana stated. “We’re making an attempt our easiest.”
Rana was crying now, however tried to maintain her voice regular.
“Please come get me,” Hind stated. Repeatedly: “Come get me.”
There was a distant rumble of fireside within the background.
“Come get me,” Hind repeated.
Rana, 37, has been working in Disaster and Catastrophe Administration with PRCS since 2009. She had confronted conditions like this earlier than, she stated, however by no means with a woman so younger.
Her colleagues had positioned the automobile in a neighborhood close to Al-Azhar College. Getting an ambulance there, inside a closed army zone, would require permission from the IDF. It was a course of that concerned a number of businesses, speaking on unreliable telephone strains. The dispatchers knew it may take hours.
“We have now acquired lots of of calls from people who find themselves trapped,” stated Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for PRCS. “Individuals simply need assist evacuating. Sadly we should not have protected entry.”
Operators instructed The Submit they reached out round 3 p.m. to the Palestinian Ministry of Well being in Ramallah, which coordinates the protected passage of paramedics with COGAT — an arm of the Israeli Protection Ministry. Fathi Abu Warda, an adviser on the Palestinian Ministry of Well being, confirmed receiving a inexperienced mild from COGAT to ship an ambulance to the world. COGAT didn’t reply to questions from The Submit, referring them to the IDF.
The operators stated they tried to remain targeted on Hind. Nisreen Qawwas, 56, the pinnacle of PRCS’s psychological well being division, took the lead.
“She practiced deep respiration workouts with us, and I instructed her we’d be along with her, second by second,” Nisreen recalled.
However Hind started to develop distant, Nisreen stated, and hung up a number of instances, rising annoyed that nobody had come for her.
Ultimately, operators stated they reached Hind’s mom, who was sheltering elsewhere in Gaza Metropolis, and patched her into the decision.
“Her mom’s voice made an actual distinction,” Nisreen stated. “Each second she stated to her mom, ‘I miss you momma.’”
“Her mom instructed her, ‘You’ll be with me in a short while and I’ll hug you,’” Nisreen remembered.
The Submit was not in a position to attain Hind’s mom in Gaza Metropolis, the place there may be restricted connectivity.
At 5:40 p.m. — three hours after the telephone had first rung in Ramallah — the dispatchers stated they obtained a name again from the Palestinian Ministry of Well being. The ministry instructed them they’d acquired permission to ship paramedics to Hind. Israeli authorities had offered a map for them to comply with. PRCS dispatched the closest ambulance, 1.8 miles away, to the scene with two paramedics.
Nisreen stated she tried to maintain Hind engaged. They talked concerning the sea and the solar and her favourite chocolate cake.
However everybody may inform the little lady was fading. She stated her hand was bleeding, that there was blood on her physique. It was darkish now. She was hungry, thirsty and chilly, she instructed her mom.
Dispatchers stated the paramedics radioed in as they neared the car. The group in Ramallah inspired them to maneuver ahead, slowly, Nisreen stated.
At that second, dispatchers stated, there was “heavy gunfire.” The road with Hind was misplaced.
Hind’s final sentence, Omar stated, was “Come and take me.”
That was at 7 p.m. on Monday. There was no phrase from Hind or the ambulance crew since.
Miriam Berger, Sufian Taha and Louisa Loveluck in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
