Nearly a year after the tragic killing of six-year-old Hind Rajab in Gaza, a war crimes complaint has been filed with the International Criminal Court, naming senior Israeli officers as directly responsible. The Hind Rajab Foundation, based in Belgium, submitted the complaint following a detailed investigation into the events of 29 January 2024, when Hind, her family, and two Palestinian medics were killed in Tel al-Hawa.

According to the complaint, the attack was not a battlefield error but a deliberate targeting of civilians. The foundation identified Lieutenant Colonel Beni Aharon, then commanding the Israeli army’s 401st Armored Brigade, as the officer in charge of the tank unit that fired on the family’s car. Hind had survived the first strike and, speaking through sheer terror, begged for help over the phone. Her plea—“Please, come get me”—was broadcast across the world. But help never came. An ambulance sent by the Palestine Red Crescent was also targeted and destroyed, killing the two medics who had rushed to her aid.

The car carrying Hind’s family and the ambulance that was supposed to save her were later found just metres apart, both reduced to wreckage. The child’s body was discovered huddled inside the vehicle, alongside her relatives—an unbearable image of Gaza’s unrelenting grief.

For Palestinians, Hind Rajab has become a symbol of all the lives lost in silence. The war crimes complaint is not only a legal act but a desperate call for accountability in a world that too often turns away.