‘I’m so scared, please come’: Heartbreaking final moments of girl, 5, killed in Gaza
Buried in Gaza’s rubble are the forgotten victims of this war, and with them are buried the stories of how they were killed.
A year on from the start of the war, many have questioned the IDF’s alleged targeting and negligent killing of civilians in its conflict with Hamas. Among those calling for justice is a mother whose young daughter was killed in an incident that shocked the world.
Five-year-old Hind Rajab was killed alongside six members of her family in a car, while trying to escape the fighting in Gaza City in January. Her heartbreaking cries for help were recorded in real time in telephone calls with emergency services, which were made public.
“I am calling on the whole world to stand with us… so those who committed this brutal crime are held accountable,” her mother, Wissam Hamada, told us from her temporary home in Gaza. “I need justice for my daughter.”
Wissam Hamada spoke to Sky News about the death of her daughter
Sky News has investigated the circumstances surrounding Hind’s death, and those of her extended family and the two paramedics who were killed trying to rescue her. We have analysed satellite imagery, IDF press materials, and spoken to weapons and forensics experts.
On 29 January, desperate to escape fighting in Gaza City’s Tel al Hawa neighbourhood, Hind’s family decided to flee. “My uncle decided to put all the children in the car with him and his wife, and for us adults to walk a different way,” said 27-year-old Wissam.
Hind got into the car along with six other family members: Her mother’s uncle, Bashar Hamada; his wife, Ana’am; and their four children – Layan, Raghad, Sarah, and Mohammad.
Hind’s younger brother, Eiyad, didn’t want to get in the car and so at the last moment, he was allowed to stay with the adults.
The car, a small black Kia, was attacked near a petrol station just 350m from its starting point. Wissam says she saw it happen and confirms the car was attacked at exactly 8.10am, just 10 minutes after she and the family left their home.
“We saw them when they fired at the car but we didn’t believe they had targeted them, or we didn’t want to believe it,” she said.
The family returned to their apartment. When it felt safe, they went back outside and started walking, unsure of what had happened to Hind and the rest of the family. Wissam was frantically trying to call those in the car.
At midday, 15-year-old Layan answered the phone. She said everyone in the car was “sleeping” and that both her and Hind were wounded.
“We told her to take off her scarf, tie it to the wound and stop the bleeding,” said Wissam. But Layan couldn’t move because the car was so tightly packed with bodies.
Layan passed the phone to Hind. When Wissam asked her daughter if she could get out of the car, Hind replied: “I wish, Mama, I wish. They are all around me, Mama.” This was followed by screams. “They are getting closer, so much closer,” a panicked Hind told her mother. Then the line went dead.
The family then contacted the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) which tried to phone the girls in the car. After a few attempts, Layan answered but there was barely time for dispatcher, Omar al Qam, to introduce himself.
“They are shooting at us,” Layan said. “The tanks are next to us.”
Hind’s uncle, Sameer Hamada, who located the bodies
Gunshots were heard while Omar waited on the line. “There was no response from the child I was talking to. I didn’t even get to know her name,” he said.
The conversation ends in a horrifying scream amid the sound of heavy firing. With the phone line cut-off, the PRCS rang back. This time Hind answered. She was alone in the car, everyone else was dead.
Over three hours, through multiple calls, another PRCS dispatcher, Rana Faqhi, tried to keep Hind on the line as she comforted her.
“Please stay with me until someone comes, please don’t hang up,” Hind asked Rana.
“I will stay with you. I won’t hang up. I will stay with you,” Rana told her.
Wissam was also talking to her daughter on the phone. “I told her, lower your voice otherwise they will shoot you like they shot Layan.”
The Hamada family were killed with Hind in the car
The Red Crescent then set up a group call and Wissam maintained contact with her daughter, who kept asking for someone to come and get her. As night fell, Hind, who was scared of the dark, grew increasingly anxious.
“You will come and take me?” she pleaded. “I’m so scared, please come.”
While this was happening, Rana’s colleagues say they were frantically trying to coordinate a rescue, seeking permission from the Israeli authorities to dispatch an ambulance.
The PRCS says it is standard procedure for it, and other emergency services, to coordinate with the Israeli military, because their emergency services cannot, and do not, enter restricted military areas without specific permission.
After hours of waiting, the PRCS says the permission finally came through, and it got the green light to send an ambulance along a designated route.
Stuart Ramsay speaks to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society
An ambulance left from the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City at 5.40pm. The two paramedics onboard, Yusuf Zeino and Ahmed al Madhoun, stayed in contact with PRCS dispatchers as they made their way.
Chilling audio of their radio communications has been shared with Sky News. In the recording you can hear the crew talking to dispatchers. Hind’s mother, Wissam Hamada, is on another phone line with the PRCS which is updating her.
“They’re right behind her, they’re about half a kilometre away, 400m,” they assured her.
“Did you coordinate access, is it safe?” Wissam asked.
“Yes, we coordinated access, we’ve been sorting that for the last three hours, don’t worry.”
One of the paramedics then asked: “Where is the girl?”
“The girl is in the wrecked car,” the dispatcher responded.
By 6pm the ambulance crew were close to the family car, telling dispatchers they had their emergency lights on but no siren.
“Oh, there she is,” a paramedic said, just before communication ended abruptly with the sound of heavy gunfire. Both paramedics were killed.
The ambulance was attacked en route
PRCS spokesperson Nebal Farsakh says in her mind this was not an accident, citing previously documented incidents of ambulance crews and medics being targeted by the IDF.
“In any area that has a military operation, and is considered as military zones by Israeli forces, we are denied access to it,” Nebal explained. “We do not dispatch our ambulances to areas where it is considered a military area… If we get calls from these areas we try to coordinate our safe access.”
The IDF confirmed a “preliminary inspection” into this incident had been carried out.
In a statement to Sky News, it said: “It appears that IDF forces were not present near the vehicle or within the firing range of the described vehicle in which the girl was found.”
With regards to the ambulance, the IDF said: “Given the lack of forces in the area, there was no need for an individual coordination of the ambulance’s route or an accompanying vehicle in order to pick up the girl. Ambulances travel without individual coordination around the Gaza Strip every day, and do not require it unless there are forces in the area.”
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On 10 February, once the area was safer to access, both the ambulance and the car that Hind and the Hamada family were travelling in, were located. One of Hind’s uncles, Sameer Hamada, was first to arrive at the scene.
“I found their car. I found my brother Bashar. His wife was next to him and we found Layan, Raghad, Sarah, Mohammad and Hind at the back. They were all martyred. [Their bodies had] decomposed because of the length of the time,” Sameer said.
He also found the burnt-out ambulance, in which there were “just bones”. Sameer removed the bodies from the family’s car and buried them at a cemetery near their home in the north.
A Sky News camera team recorded footage of both the car and the ambulance, which was used to analyse the damage to the vehicles. Amael Kotlarski, weapons team manager at JANES, which provides security and defence analysis, said the damage shows the ambulance was hit with a “large calibre weapon”, with the projectile’s exit hole visible at the back of the vehicle.
The black Kia Picanto was covered in bullet holes, with dozens of entry holes on the right-hand side of the car. Sky News has examined satellite imagery taken on 29 January, the day of the attack.
It shows at least 15 military vehicles in the Tel al Hawa neighbourhood – where the family’s car was found. The closest military vehicle is just 300m away. One satellite image was taken at 4.31pm local time – just over an hour before the PRCS said it received approval to send an ambulance.
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Satellite images shows at least 15 military vehicles in the area on the day of the attack Pic: Planet Labs PBC
At least seven of the military vehicles seen on 7 February can be seen here Pic: Planet Labs PBC
At least nine of the vehicles seen in the area on 8 February can be seen in this image Pic: Planet Labs PBC
Satellite imagery taken in the days following the attack show how heavy the military presence remained, with at least 13 military vehicles seen on 7 February. A day later, on 8 February, at least nine military vehicles were seen in the area near the Islamic University in Gaza City.
The IDF says it was not in the area on the day of the incident, but its presence in the area was made public by itself, perhaps mistakenly. Twelve days after the attack, on the same day the car and ambulance was found, the IDF published a press release about its activities in Gaza. It said “over the last two weeks” it had “conducted raids on terror targets” with forces operating in Shati and Tel al Hawa neighbourhoods in Gaza.
Tel al Hawa is the same neighbourhood Hind Rajab, the Hamada family, and the paramedics were killed in. The press release was later deleted from the IDF website.
Further down in the press release, the IDF embedded videos showing its movements in the area. “We are in UNRWA’s central headquarters in Gaza,” a soldier said in one video.
The videos show IDF units at a United Nations site which it says was used by Hamas.
Geolocated IDF videos show three Israeli units operating under 650m from where the family’s car was
Sky News geolocated the IDF footage released on 10 February, which showed three forces – 401st Brigade, Shayetet 13 and 52nd Battalion operating less than 650m from the car that Hind was found in.
While it is not clear exactly what date the footage in the release was filmed, the IDF’s presence in the area is undeniable.
The Gaza war is in many ways unique as it’s happening in a closed space with no escape, and no independent investigation on the ground into what is happening.
What has happened and what secrets lie beneath the rubble may never be known.
Reporting by Stuart Ramsay, chief correspondent, Dominique van Heerden, senior foreign producer and Olive Enokido-Lineham, OSINT producer
World
Zelenskyy condemns ‘vile and inhumane’ Russian attacks after one of year’s deadliest days for Ukrainian civilians
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has thanked Ukraine’s allies for condemning Russian strikes after one of the deadliest days for civilians in his country so far this year.
Ukraine’s president described the attacks as a “vile and inhumane intimidation tactic” by Russia.
While a warning by Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin to stop “pounding” Ukraine or else, appears to have fallen on deaf ears.
Russia launched heavy aerial attacks overnight into Saturday after the White House administration suspended intelligence sharing with Ukraine.
The US has been piling pressure on President Zelenskyy’s government to cooperate in convening peace talks with Russia.
American aerospace company Maxar Technologies said on Friday it had disabled access to its satellite imagery for Kyiv. Its ability to strike inside Russia and defend itself from bombardment is very much diminished without such images.
At least 22 people were killed in multiple Russian attacks, including 11 in the frontline town of Dobropilla in Ukraine’s embattled eastern Donetsk region.
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Russian strike kills at least 11 in Ukraine
Russia fired two ballistic missiles into the town centre, then launched a strike targeting rescuers who responded, according to Mr Zelenskyy. Forty-seven people, including seven children, were injured in the attack.
“It is a vile and inhumane intimidation tactic to which the Russians often resort,” he said.
The president added: “It was one of the most brutal strikes, a combined one. The strike was deliberately calculated to cause maximum damage. Missiles, along with a Shahed drone, targeted the central part of the town.
“Nine residential buildings were hit. Also, the shopping centre and stores were struck.”
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People stand at the site of an apartment building hit by a Russian missile strike in Dobropillia. Pic: Reuters
Another seven people were killed in four towns close to the frontline where Russian troops have been making steady advances, said regional governor Vadym Filashkin.
Three others died when a Russian drone hit a civilian workshop in the northeastern Kharkiv region, emergency services reported. And one man was killed by shelling in the region.
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said it was one of 2025’s deadliest attacks for Ukrainian civilians.
Pic: Reuters
Some 24 hours earlier, Russia struck Ukrainian energy facilities using dozens of missiles and drones.
The attacks hampered Ukraine’s ability to supply power to its citizens and run weapons factories vital to its defences.
When asked on Friday if Russian President Vladimir Putin was taking advantage of the US pause on intelligence-sharing to attack Ukraine, Mr Trump responded: “I think he’s doing what anybody else would.”
Mr Zelenskyy did not mention intelligence-sharing on Saturday, but said he welcomed Mr Trump’s proposal to bring in banking sanctions and tariffs on Russia until a ceasefire and final peace settlement is reached.
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Mr Zelenskyy also said: “I am grateful to all the leaders, all those diplomats of our partner countries, all public figures who support Ukraine, who have condemned these Russian strikes and who call all things by their proper names.
“And it is essential that we continue coordinating all our efforts with our partners to ensure that our defence works effectively and that we do everything to bring peace closer.”
Mr Zelenskyy has said he and other senior Ukrainian officials will go to Saudi Arabia next week to discuss proposals aimed at ending the war.
In a post on X, he wrote he was set to meet Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday, and his team would remain in the country to have talks with US officials.
It “cuts my heart” and is a “betrayal”.
This was the response of a Ukrainian soldier in a frontline combat regiment directly affected by Donald Trump’s decision to pause US military support to Ukraine.
Serhii, 45, maintains a unit of US-supplied Bradley infantry fighting vehicles that are defending an area of eastern Ukraine from attacking Russian forces.
The halt to American military aid – if sustained – means there will be no new ammunition and no ability to repair any of the vehicles when they are damaged – a constant risk.
Ukraine war latest: Follow live updates
On a recent mission by the 425th Storming Regiment “Skala”, three Bradleys went into battle towards the direction of the city of Pokrovsk, an area of heavy clashes.
Only two returned after the other was hit by the Russian side.
Troops said it would be for Ukraine to defend their land without US military support
“It’s going to be very hard,” Serhii said, standing next to a large Bradley, covered by a camouflage net and tucked under a line of trees in the Donetsk region.
“These vehicles are really good. You can fight back with them. And not just defend, you can even advance. It’s a shame we didn’t have this equipment two or three years ago.”
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Trump pauses military aid to Ukraine – what now?
The regiment has been using Bradleys for a number of months. Serhii is the lead mechanic.
The tracked vehicles, armed with a chain gun that can fire 200 rounds per minute, were first developed in the 1980s but have been fitted with modern reactive armour that means they can survive drone strikes, rocket attacks and the shrapnel from artillery rounds.
“The vehicle’s protection… is fantastic,” Serhii said, with clear admiration for the equipment compared with Soviet-era fighting vehicles that many Ukrainian troops have to use.
Soliders said the Bradley infantry vehicles are good for advancing, not just defence
He said the crew of one of his Bradleys was hit by two rocket-propelled grenades but was able to continue driving and was unharmed.
Serhii, who comes from the Donetsk region, said he felt betrayed by Mr Trump’s decision to halt such crucial support.
The US president ordered the move as he attempts to put pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to negotiate a ceasefire deal with Russia.
“Although I’m not a politician, it’s a betrayal for us, for the guys who are defending Ukraine,” the soldier said.
Inside a US-supplied Bradley vehicle
Asked how he felt when he heard the news about the US president’s decision, Serhii said: “The latest news cuts my heart, I can answer you that way. It cuts my heart… If politicians solve issues this way, just by halting weapons supply in one move, that’s criminal.”
He signalled it would be harder for Ukrainian troops to defend their land without the US military support – but they would still fight.
“Even without this weapon, we believe we will move forward,” he said.
“They [the Russians] have to retreat, no matter what. The guys didn’t take up arms here for nothing, and they stand together. Together, all of us, as one, will defeat this enemy.”
As for whether he had a message for Mr Trump, the soldier said: “Don’t stop military aid. Politics is politics, but the people, I believe, are the most important.
“It will be very hard for us without such equipment. This equipment is good; it allows us to show results. And we will keep showing them. We’ve shown them before and we will keep showing them. That’s how it is. Thank you.”
Fighting ‘for my motherland’
Soldier Sedoi said he is ‘tired’ of the war
Sky News watched as two crews prepared their fighting vehicles for a potential mission on Thursday evening.
Sedoi, 41, commands one of the Bradleys and operates the gun.
He said the American-supplied vehicle gives him confidence when he goes into battle – and was also likely a scary prospect for Russian troops to have to encounter.
“We make a lot of noise. Everything catches fire and burns… It’s a good vehicle,” he said.
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Will Kyiv fall without US support?
Sedoi said he did not have a reaction to the news about the halt to American military support, saying: “I don’t get involved in their politics.”
However, he signalled he did want an end to the war – even if it meant Russia keeping some of the land it has seized.
“Let it end, so people stop dying. Because a lot of people have died,” he said.
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Recently recovered from a shrapnel wound, Sedoi said he volunteered to fight after Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale war more than three years ago because of Russia’s brutality.
“I’ve heard what they do when they enter villages, what they do with children and women… I don’t want them to go any further… That’s why I’m here.
“But, to be honest, I’m getting tired of it.”
Yet still he and his fellow soldiers battle on. Asked why he was fighting, the soldier said: “For my motherland.”
A warning by Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin to stop “pounding” Ukraine or else, appears to have fallen on deaf ears after another night of devastating Russian strikes.
The persistent pummelling of Ukrainian towns and cities also follows a decision by the US president to stop sharing American intelligence and weapons with Kyiv – a move that is directly hampering the Ukrainian military’s ability to defend their skies from the Russian onslaught.
In the deadliest attack overnight, at least 11 people were killed and 30 wounded, including five children, in the town of Dobropillia, about 15 miles from the frontline in the Donestsk region of eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine war latest: Follow live updates
The Ukrainian police service said a Russian ballistic missile, rockets and attack drones hit eight multi-storey buildings as well as a shopping centre and dozens of cars.
Firefighters work at the site of the strike. Pic: Reuters/State Emergency Service of Ukraine
Pic: Reuters/State Emergency Service of Ukraine
“Some buildings were burnt down almost completely,” the national police of Ukraine said in a post on its Telegram social media channel.
Another three civilians were killed and seven injured in a drone attack on the Kharkiv region in the northeast of the country, according to a separate post by the interior ministry.
Just hours earlier, the US president posted a warning to the Kremlin on social media.
“Based on the fact that Russia is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now, I am strongly considering large-scale banking sanctions, sanctions, and tariffs on Russia until a cease fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED,” he wrote.
“To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late. Thank you!!!”
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Trump: ‘Ukraine difficult to deal with’
Kyiv will be watching closely to see whether Moscow’s continuing attacks will prompt Mr Trump to carry out his threat.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been in crisis mode ever since Mr Trump returned to office and started attacking his record on the war, falsely calling him a dictator and even claiming – again erroneously – that Ukraine was to blame for Russia’s invasion.
Sky News on the ground in Dobropillia 24hrs before strike
A Sky News team was in Dobropillia 24 hours before the attack – stopping off to grab food at a pizza restaurant that was close to the site of at least two of the incoming strikes.
The restaurant is on a road of shops, including a clothes store and a small grocery outlet.
The town, which used to be home to 28,000 residents before Russia’s full-scale war, feels far more battle-hardened than areas further away from the frontline.
Fighting has been raging for months between invading Russian forces and Ukrainian troops, just over a dozen miles away, around the city of Pokrovsk.
Despite the closeness of the war, however, many civilians, including children, still live in Dobropillia.
In the most significant blow, Washington has paused the sharing on intelligence with its Ukrainian partners, instantly making it far harder for Ukraine to have a clear picture on the movement of Russian forces and weapons, while also hampering the ability of the Ukrainian armed forces to effectively conduct targeting attacks against Russian positions.
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A decision to stop the flow of military support to Ukraine will also have a huge impact on the country’s ability to keep defending itself.
The US has been Kyiv’s largest and most important supplier of arms, including the Patriot air defence system – the only piece of equipment in Ukraine’s arsenal that has the ability to take down ballistic missiles.
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