The Hind Rajab Foundation said it has filed a war crimes complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, accusing a commander in the Israeli occupation army of committing a war crime that led to the martyrdom of Palestinian child Hind Rajab and six members of her family during an Israeli airstrike that targeted them in Gaza City.
The foundation, named in the Palestinian girl’s honour, released the information on Saturday because it would have been her seventh birthday.
“Today, little Hind Rajab should have been blowing out candles on her 7th birthday. On this day of remembrance and heartbreak, the Hind Rajab Foundation has filed a war crimes complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. After a year of tireless investigation, we have identified the military unit responsible, as well as the commander who led the operation that killed Hind, her family, and the two medics who tried to save her,” the Foundation said in a statement issued last night.
“We now publicly name the commander responsable for killing Hind: Lieutenant Colonel Beni Aharon, Commander of the 401st Armored Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at the time of the killing,” the statement read.
The HRF went on to say: “It was under Lt. Col. Aharon’s command that an Israeli tank unit attacked the civilian vehicle of Hind’s family, and later destroyed the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance dispatched to rescue her.
We also confirm that the battalion operating under his authority in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood on 29 January 2024 has been fully identified, along with its field commanders and operational officers. These men are no longer unknown. They are no longer protected by silence.”
“While we begin by calling on the ICC Office of the Prosecutor to issue an arrest warrant for Lt. Col. Beni Aharon, we are preparing additional legal complaints against the battalion’s officers. These will be filed in qualified national jurisdictions under universal jurisdiction principles. We will go after every officer involved—those who gave the orders, those who fired, those who covered it up, and those who let it happen,” it added.
“Today, Hind should have been blowing out candles. Instead, we are naming her killer,” said Dyab Abou Jahjah. “This is only the beginning. We are coming for every name, every link in the chain, with the law and with truth.”
On 29 January 2024, Hind Rajab’s car was hit by Israeli tank fire. Six members of her family died instantly. Hind, wounded and terrified, remained alive for hours, whispering into a phone with PRCS dispatchers: “I’m so scared… please come.”
The ambulance sent to save her never made it. It too was shelled and burned. The two medics inside were killed instantly. When rescue workers returned ten days later, they found Hind’s small body lying next to her cousin Layan. Their voices had gone quiet.
