助け求めた６歳少女、車中で遺体発見　ガザ

【パレスチナ自治区ＡＦＰ＝時事】パレスチナ自治区ガザ市で、親族と一緒に乗っていた車両が攻撃された後、行方が分からなくなっていた６歳の少女ヒンド・ラジャブちゃんの遺体が１０日、発見された。パレスチナ赤新月社とパレスチナ自治政府の保健省が発表した。（写真はヒンド・ラジャブちゃん）
　車内に閉じ込められたヒンドちゃんは赤新月社に電話し、「怖い」「助けを呼んで、お願い」と救助を求めた。
　２週間以上にわたる懸命な捜索活動の結果、ヒンドちゃんの遺体は親族の遺体と共に発見された。要請を受けて駆け付けた赤新月社の救助隊員の遺体も一緒に見つかった。
　イスラム組織ハマスは人権団体や国際社会に対し、「恐ろしい犯罪行為」を記録しておくよう求めた。
　ヒンドちゃんの母親はＡＦＰに対し、イスラエルのベンヤミン・ネタニヤフ首相、ジョー・バイデン米大統領、さらには「ガザとガザ住民に対する陰謀を企てた『不信心者たち』」には責任があると非難。「助けを求める娘の叫びを聞きながら救わなかった者たちについては、最後の審判の日に神の前で問いただすつもりだ」と述べた。
　ガザでは子どもを含む一般市民に大きな被害が出ていると国際機関が警告する中で起きたこともあり、ヒンドちゃんの行方に各国メディアも注目していた。
　赤新月社は、救急車の派遣に向けイスラエル軍との間に「事前の調整」があったにもかかわらず、現場に到着した時点で攻撃されたとしている。
　同社の３日の発表によるとヒンドちゃんは最初の攻撃で命を落とすことはなく、家族と電話で話し、助けを求めていた。
　赤新月社は「イスラエル軍の戦車に囲まれながら、ヒンドちゃんは３時間以上助けを求めた。発砲と孤独の恐怖におびえ、目の前でイスラエル軍に殺害された親族の遺体に囲まれ、車内に閉じ込められていた」と説明している。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/02/13-16:42）

Six-year-old Hind Rajab pleaded to be rescued, after her family's car came under fire in war-ravaged Gaza City, leaving her alone, frightened and wounded, surrounded by the bodies of her dead relatives.
I am so scared, she had said in a desperate phone call to the Palestinian Red Crescent. Call someone to come get me, please.
But after more than two weeks of frantic efforts to reach her, Hind's body was recovered on Saturday, along with those of relatives and two Red Crescent rescue workers sent to find her.
The Red Crescent and the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip confirmed the grim discovery, and blamed Israeli forces.
Palestinian militant group Hamas urged human rights groups and the international community to document what it called a horrific crime.
Hind's mother, Wissam Hamada, blamed her death on the unbelievers Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Joe Biden and all those who conspired against Gaza and its people.
I will question before God on Judgment Day those who heard my daughter's cries for help and did not save her, she told AFP.
Hind's highly publicised case comes as aid agencies warn that children and families are bearing the brunt of Israel's war with Hamas.
Children are dying at an alarming rate in Gaza, the UN children's agency UNICEF said.
Thousands have been killed and many more wounded, with others at risk because of lack of food, water and medicines, it added.
Hind was last heard from after becoming trapped in the family's vehicle with other relatives as they tried to flee Gaza City from an Israel advance.
Hind and everyone else in the car is martyred, the girl's grandfather, Baha Hamada, told AFP on Saturday.
A number of family members found them when they went to Gaza City's Tel al-Hawa area looking for the car near a petrol station where it had last been spotted, he said.
They were able to reach the area because Israeli forces withdrew early at dawn today, added Hamada, one of the last people to speak to the girl on the telephone.
She was killed by (Israeli) occupation forces with all those who were with her in the car outside the petrol station in Tel al-Hawa, the ministry said in a statement.
The Red Crescent said the Israeli military deliberately targeted the ambulance upon its arrival at the scene despite prior coordination allowing it through.
Earlier this week, family members said the group found its path blocked by advancing Israeli tanks and was fired on as it tried to flee.
- 'She was terrified' -
Hind initially survived the shooting and managed to talk to her family by telephone and make an emergency call, which the Red Crescent published on February 3.
For over three hours, Hind desperately pleaded for rescue from the occupation (Israeli) tanks surrounding her, enduring gunfire and the horror of being alone, trapped among the bodies of her relatives shot by the Israeli forces in front of her eyes, it added.
Nothing more was then heard from the young girl, even as the ambulance was sent to get her, the organisation said. Her grandfather said she was wounded in the back, hand and foot.
She was frightened, terrified, he told AFP, sobbing. Hind is my first grandchild, she's a piece of my heart.
There was no comment from the Israeli army when contacted by AFP.
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Vowing to eliminate Hamas, Israel launched a massive military offensive in Gaza that the health ministry says has killed some 28,000 people, mostly women and children.
UNICEF said on Wednesday that children in Gaza need life-saving support as the hostilities were having a catastrophic impact.
Half of the estimated 1.7 million people displaced in Gaza are children.