The body of Hind Rajab, the 6-year-old missing for 12 days since losing touch with rescue workers desperately trying to save her after the family car was fired on in Gaza City, has been found, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said Saturday.
Rana Faqih, a PRCS worker who stayed on the phone with the child as she begged for hours to be rescued on Jan. 29, confirmed that she had been found dead. Hind had explained that she was the sole survivor in the vehicle after it was fired on by Israeli forces as the family tried to flee the Tel Hawa area of Gaza City. Her aunt, uncle and three cousins were all killed.
The ambulance dispatched to reach her was also found shelled on Saturday with the two paramedics inside also killed, the PCRS said. In a statement, it accused the Israeli military of directly targeting the ambulance crew as it tried to rescue the child. The route had been coordinated with Israeli authorities in advance, it said. Contacted for comment, the Israel Defense Forces said it did not have an immediate response.
News of the deaths came as humanitarian organizations condemned Israel’s plans to remove civilians from combat zones in Rafah ahead of what Netanyahu called a “massive operation” in the city, where most of Gaza’s population has sought refuge. Amnesty International said that if the removal order is enacted, it “may amount to the crime of forcible transfer.”
Two people were killed at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza’s Khan Younis on Saturday after shots were fired inside the complex, Doctors Without Borders said, citing its staff. The charity said that medical staff “are afraid to move within and around the hospital due to fear of being shot.” The IDF said its troops “are currently not operating inside the hospital,” but said the surrounding area “is an active combat zone.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister met with Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah in Beirut on Saturday. Tehran is a key ally and backer of Hezbollah, Lebanon’s most powerful militant group and political party. In a statement, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said its top diplomat, Amir Abdollahian, discussed the war in Gaza and the situation in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in a low-level conflict since the war in Gaza began.
Moody’s downgraded Israel’s credit rating Friday and changed its outlook for the country to negative, citing the war with Hamas and reflecting the ratings agency’s concern that the conflict could become a long-term economic burden. Moody’s downgraded Israel’s rating from A1 to A2, which is still in a category it considers “low credit risk.”
CIA Director William J. Burns is expected to travel to Cairo on Tuesday to continue negotiations over the proposed hostage release deal, with U.S. officials hoping Israel will respond to Hamas’s latest proposal, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks. The official said Hamas’s proposal, which it delivered to negotiators earlier this week, has “real problems,” but that the administration believes there is a broad enough framework in place to facilitate an agreement.
At least 28,064 people have been killed and 67,611 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.
Yasmeen Abutaleb, Frances Vinall and Lior Soroka contributed to this report.
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