Get audio access with any FP subscription. Subscribe Now ALREADY AN FP SUBSCRIBER? LOGIN

Get audio access with any FP subscription.

ALREADY AN FP SUBSCRIBER? LOGIN

“Imagine you’re smelling a flower. … Hold the air. … Then imagine blowing out a candle.” This was how Nisreen Qawas, a mental health officer at the Palestine Red Crescent Society emergency response center in the West Bank city of Ramallah, tried to get 5-year-old Hind Rajab to calm herself just over two years ago. Hind sat in a car surrounded by six dead family members in Gaza City while under fire from an Israeli tank. She was injured and bleeding, trapped and terrified, as she waited for a rescue team that would never arrive. She had spent hours on the phone pleading with Red Crescent staff to rescue her, her voice growing fainter: “Save me … I’m dying. I’m dying.”

This harrowing moment initially captured the world’s attention when the Red Crescent posted audio clips of its calls with Hind on social media, triggering a worldwide outcry. The anonymous, faceless statistics of the victims of Israel’s war suddenly had a name and a voice. Now, this scene is recounted in an Oscar-nominated film by Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania. The Voice of Hind Rajab tells the agonizing true story of Hind’s final hours, based on recordings of the child’s desperate phone calls with emergency responders. It is a chronicle of both unimaginable horror and unrelenting humanity.

“Imagine you’re smelling a flower. … Hold the air. … Then imagine blowing out a candle.” This was how Nisreen Qawas, a mental health officer at the Palestine Red Crescent Society emergency response center in the West Bank city of Ramallah, tried to get 5-year-old Hind Rajab to calm herself just over two years ago. Hind sat in a car surrounded by six dead family members in Gaza City while under fire from an Israeli tank. She was injured and bleeding, trapped and terrified, as she waited for a rescue team that would never arrive. She had spent hours on the phone pleading with Red Crescent staff to rescue her, her voice growing fainter: “Save me … I’m dying. I’m dying.”

This harrowing moment initially captured the world’s attention when the Red Crescent posted audio clips of its calls with Hind on social media, triggering a worldwide outcry. The anonymous, faceless statistics of the victims of Israel’s war suddenly had a name and a voice. Now, this scene is recounted in an Oscar-nominated film by Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania. The Voice of Hind Rajab tells the agonizing true story of Hind’s final hours, based on recordings of the child’s desperate phone calls with emergency responders. It is a chronicle of both unimaginable horror and unrelenting humanity.

On Jan. 29, 2024, Hind joined her uncle, aunt, and their four children in attempting to flee the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City. Their car was shelled by an Israeli tank, killing everyone inside except for Hind and her teenage cousin Layan. When emergency responders made phone contact with Layan, the car again came under Israeli fire. Layan—still on the line—was killed, leaving Hind alone in the car with the bodies of her dead relatives.

Red Crescent staff eventually reestablished contact with Hind and maintained intermittent communication over the next several hours as the child pleaded for help. With the car repeatedly under fire, emergency responders tried to comfort Hind while attempting to coordinate a rescue. After getting a green light from the Israeli army to proceed, they dispatched a rescue team along a route approved by Israeli military officials. But, within eyeshot of Hind, the ambulance was shelled, killing two paramedics, Ahmed al-Madhoun and Yusuf al-Zeino. Twelve days later, relatives uncovered the........

© Foreign Policy