Pure Evil –Israeli Sniper Murders Razan Najjar, a 21 Year Old Medic in Gaza

May These Nazis Burn in Hell! 

Razan Najjar, a 21 year old Palestinian nurse in Gaza was  shot in the middle of her chest yesterday by an Israeli sniper as she was running towards the wounded.  Israel’s army has promised an investigation.  No one will be holding their breath after all previous ‘investigations’ have explained away small matters like the murder in 2014 of 4 young children playing on the beach.  If all else fails, the IDF will say that it was a ‘tragic accident.’

Perhaps Israel will find some ‘evidence’ to ‘explain’ why Razan was a terrorist threat.   Maybe she was even a supporter of Hamas, who knows. Norman Finkelstein’s tweet sums it up 

May These Nazis Burn in Hell!

This is one more reason why the Labour Friends of Israel and its supporters such as its Chair Joan Ryan and Peter Kyle MP should be put in quarantine by all decent people.  Those MPs who support the LFI should be deselected.  Condemnation of Israel’s barbarities is not enough.  Their political apologists should be rooted out of a party that lays claim to be a socialist.

But the blame is not only with Israel but its supporter in the United States and its allies in the Middle East.  Whilst Israel has a de facto alliance with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Arab regimes it can act with impunity.  The lesson is clear.  The road to liberation lies through the overthrow of the regimes in Cairo, Riyadh, Baghdad and Amman

Tony Greenstein

Authorities in Gaza: Slain Medic's Teams' Hands Were Raised as They Approached Israeli Border

A New York Times interview with Razan Najjar. New York Times

Head of Gaza's health services says tear gas grenade hit a colleague of medic Razan Najjar. A friend says they returned to treat wounded when they came under fire

Jack Khoury and Yaniv Kubovich Jun 02, 2018

The medical team that included Palestinian medic who was shot dead on Friday had approached the Gaza border fence with their arms raised shortly before the shooting, authorities in Gaza said Saturday. Authorities in Gaza released a video that it said showed the team, wearing white, walking towards the fence before Razan Najjar, 21, was shot.

mass funeral processions

Dr. Yossef Abu Arrish, the head of Gaza's health services, said that "the paramedics approached the border with raised hands and while they were in their white uniforms and still the army fired tear gas grenades at them."

He said that one of the grenades hit one of the medic's legs. A friend of Najjar said the team returned to the border to take care of the wounded – including their fellow medics – when they came under fire. It was at this point, they claim, that Najjar was critically wounded from a gunshot wound to the chest.

In a video released by the health ministry and allegedly recorded minutes before Najjar was shot, the team of paramedics can be seen approaching the border in white coats and with their hands in the air. Najjar was also photographed wearing a white coat during attempts to resuscitate her.

Najjar gave an interview in which she took pride in the aid she was providing for the wounded, Palestinian officials said.

An interview with Razan Najjar on Palestinian satellite channel Al-Quds TV.

Earlier, the Israel Defense Forces said that it would probe her death, saying in a statement that "cases in which there are claims that a civilian was killed by IDF fire we investigate thoroughly and that is what will be done in regards to these claims." The army said it would use the same "operational probe" used in previous cases.

Also Saturday, the UN envoy for the Middle East, Nickolay Mladenov, said in a tweet that "Medical workers are #NotATarget!" and that "Israel needs to calibrate its use of force and Hamas need to prevent incidents at the fence."

Tweet by Nickolay Mladenov. Twitter

Thousands of Palestinians attended Najjar's funeral in a cemetery in Khan Yunis.

Speaking at a convention in Wadi Ara on Saturday, Israeli-Arab lawmaker Ahmad Tibi (Joint List) called Najjar's killing "a heinous war crime," adding that the U.S. and its envoy to the UN, Nikki Haley, who vetoed the Security Council resolution for "international protection" for the Palestinians, bear responsibility for Najjar's death.

Another 40 people were reported wounded during Friday's protest along the Gaza border.  Since the confrontations along the border of May 14, the number of participants has fallen dramatically, and Hamas and other Palestinian factions have set June 5 as the date for a march by tens of thousands to mark 51 years since the Six-Day War, known as Nakba Day by the Palestinians.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza has updated its figures and says 118 people have died in the marches, after a 23-year-old Gaza resident succumbed Thursday to the gunshot wounds he suffered on May 14.

Gaza medic killed by Israel was shot in the back

Ali Abunimah Rights and Accountability 2 June 2018

A photo taken on 1 April shows Palestinian medic Razan al-Najjar treating injured persons at an emergency medical tent during protests in Gaza near the boundary with Israel. Al-Najjar was fatally shot by an Israeli sniper as she was helping injured protesters near Khan Younis on 1 June. Ashraf Amra APA images

Israeli occupation forces shot dead a volunteer medic and injured dozens of people as they continued their indiscriminate attacks on Palestinians taking part in Great March of Return protests in Gaza for the 10th consecutive Friday.

Razan Ashraf Abdul Qadir al-Najjar, 21, was helping treat and evacuate wounded protesters east of Khan Younis when she was fatally shot on Friday evening.

Funeral Procession

She was about 100 meters away from the boundary fence with Israel at the moment she was shot and was wearing clothing clearly identifying her as a medic, the human rights group Al Mezan stated, citing eyewitnesses and its investigations. Al Mezan stated that al-Najjar was shot in the back.

Al-Najjar had become known for her bravery and insistence on carrying out her medical rescue work despite the obvious danger.

She had previously been injured by tear gas inhalation, and on 13 April broke her wrist while running to attend to a wounded person. But al-Najjar refused to go to the hospital that day and continued working in the field.

“It’s my duty and responsibility to be there and aid those injured,” she told Al Jazeera.

She also bore witness to the final moments of some of those fatally wounded before her.

Razan's family's reaction

“It breaks my heart that some of the young men who were injured or killed made their wills in front of me,” she told Al Jazeera. “Some even gave me their accessories [as gifts] before they died.”

Al-Najjar spoke about her work in an earlier TV interview that was shared widely on social media following the news of her death:

Many Twitter users, especially from Gaza, paid tribute to al-Najjar:

Palestinian media shared images of al-Najjar’s family and colleagues mourning her death:

Dr. Ashraf al-Qedra, the spokesperson for Gaza’s health ministry, paid tribute to al-Najjar as a dedicated humanitarian volunteer who did not leave her post until she “gave herself as a martyr.”

Hands in the air

The medical vest al-Najjar was wearing, displayed by her mother in this video, shows a hole in the back of the garment:

A statement released by the health ministry in Gaza on Saturday said that al-Najjar was part of a team of paramedics who “went to evacuate the wounded, raising both hands, as an affirmation of not posing any danger to the heavily armed occupation forces.”

“The Israeli occupation forces fired live bullets directly at Razan’s chest and wounded several other paramedics,” the health ministry added.

Razan at work

It is unclear from the health ministry statement how many times al-Najjar was hit or exactly where on her upper body. The ministry also released a video it said showed al-Najjar and colleagues walking towards the boundary fence with their hands in the air shortly before al-Najjar was shot:

On Saturday the UN special representative for the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, tweeted that “medical workers are not a target. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Razan al-Najjar.”

However Mladenov failed to condemn Israel’s actions, calling on it instead to “calibrate its use of force.”

On Saturday, thousands marched in al-Najjar’s funeral, as colleagues carried her body, draped with the Palestinian flag and the blood-drenched medical vest she was wearing when she was shot:

Attacks on medics

Al-Najjar is the second rescue worker to be killed by Israeli forces since the Great March of Return protests began on 30 March. According to the health ministry in Gaza, more than 200 others have been injured and 37 ambulances have been damaged.

Two weeks ago, Israeli snipers fatally shot paramedic Mousa Jaber Abu Hassanein.

About an hour before he was shot, Abu Hassanein had helped rescue one of his colleagues, the Canadian doctor Tarek Loubani who had been injured by an Israeli bullet.

Loubani later told The Electronic Intifada Podcast how he was shot in the leg when everything was quiet around him: “No burning tires, no smoke, no tear gas, nobody messing around in front of the buffer zone. Just a clearly marked medical team well away from everybody else.”

War surgeons

This Friday, as they have every week, Israeli forces fired live ammunition, rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas at Palestinians along Gaza’s eastern boundary, injuring almost 100 people, more than 30 of them with live bullets, according to Al Mezan.

“Protesters presented no danger or threat to the safety of the soldiers, which confirms that the violations committed by these forces are grave and systematic and amount to war crimes,” the human rights group stated.

Since the end of March, Israeli forces have killed 129 people in Gaza including 15 children, 98 of them during protests, according to Al Mezan.

As Israel continued to add to the staggering toll on Friday, the health system in Gaza was already beyond coping with the accumulation of people injured by the apparent use of fragmenting ammunition that causes horrifying injuries requiring intensive and complex treatment and often leaving victims with permanent disabilities.

More than 13,000 people have been injured since the start of the protests, including those who suffered due to tear gas inhalation. Of the more than 7,000 people who suffered injuries other than by tear gas, more than half were shot with live ammunition.

On Thursday, the International Committee of the Red Cross announced it was dispatching two teams of war surgeons and medical supplies to Gaza to shore up a healthcare system it said was on the “brink of collapse.”

The ICRC said the priority for its six-month mission will be to treat gunshot wound victims, among them about 1,350 patients who will need three to five operations each.

“Such a caseload would overwhelm any health system,” the ICRC stated. “In Gaza, the situation is worsened by chronic shortages of drugs, equipment and electricity.”

“Toxic slum”

The sustained protests in Gaza are to call for the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands now in Israel, and to demand an end to Israel’s more than decade-long siege of the territory.

Gaza’s two million residents are being “caged in a toxic slum from birth to death,” United Nations human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein told a special session of the UN Human Rights Council on Friday.

Zeid also told the council that there is “little evidence” that Israel is doing anything to minimize casualties.

He confirmed that protesters’ “actions alone do not appear to constitute the imminent threat to life or deadly injury which could justify the use of lethal force.”

Zeid spoke to the council as it was considering a draft resolution on sending an international war crimes probe to Gaza.

Last week, the Human Rights Council voted by 29-2 to establish an independent inquiry into the violence in Gaza.

Only the United States and Australia voted against an inquiry, but several European Union governments including the UK and Germany were among the 14 that abstained.

Medical Aid for Palestinians, a charity that has been providing emergency assistance amid the growing calamity, and a dozen other organizations, have criticized the British government’s refusal to support an inquiry “to assess violations of international law in the context of large-scale civilian protests in Gaza.”

But attempts to hold Israel accountable continue amid the intransigent opposition of Israel’s backers.

On Friday evening, the UN Security Council voted on a draft resolution put forward by Kuwait, deploring “excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate force by the Israeli forces” and calling for “measures to guarantee the safety and protection” of Palestinian civilians.

It also called for an end to the blockade of Gaza and deplored “the firing of rockets from the Gaza Strip against Israeli civilian areas.”

Ten countries, including permanent members Russia and France, voted in favor. Four, including Britain, abstained.

Despite having enough votes to pass, the resolution was killed by US ambassador Nikki Haley, who – as she had promised to do – cast her country’s veto.

Haley then put forward her own draft resolution absolving Israel of any responsibility for the violence in Gaza and laying all blame for the situation on Hamas.

The United States was the only country to vote in favor.