Gaza rescuers go missing trying to save trapped girl

The post by the Palestine Red Crescent was a haunting plea, hoping to learn the fate of three people not heard from for five days.

“Where is Hind? Where are Ahmed and Yousef? We need to know,” it said.

Two of the group’s rescuers were dispatched Monday to find 6-year-old Hind Rajab, believed to be trapped in a vehicle in the northern Gaza Strip with a number of dead family members.

The Red Crescent said one of its workers had spoken extensively by phone with Hind on Monday and that it believed that all six of her relatives inside the vehicle with her had been killed that same day by Israeli fire.

The Israeli military said it was not aware of the incident.

The Red Crescent said in a statement Saturday evening, “118 hours have passed, and the fate of the PRCS ambulance team, Yousef Zeino and Ahmed al Madhoun, who went to rescue the 6-year-old girl, Hind, remains unknown.”

The Red Crescent said a response coordinator, Rana al-Faqeh, had spoken to Hind for more than three hours Monday afternoon, trying to soothe the frightened child.

“Come get me,” Hind pleaded, according to an audio recording of the conversation released on social media Tuesday by the Red Crescent. “I’m scared. Please come. Please call someone to come get me.” The recording could not be independently verified.

After al-Faqeh spoke to Hind, the Red Crescent sent the two rescuers in an ambulance to her vehicle in Gaza City, which was near a gas station. The rescuers confirmed that they arrived at about 6 p.m. Monday.

Then they lost contact and have not been heard from since.

The Red Crescent said it had coordinated the movements of the ambulance with the Israeli military, which invaded Gaza after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, the armed Palestinian group that controls the territory. Similar coordination is done by other aid organizations operating in Gaza, including U.N. agencies.

The Red Crescent has called on the international community to pressure the Israeli military to account for what happened.