Thousands at Funeral for Gaza Volunteer Nurse killed on Israel Border
“The life of the caring angel was taken away.”
Thousands of Palestinians attended the funeral Saturday of a young female volunteer nurse, who Palestinians say was shot and killed by the IDF while tending the injured during violent protests on the Gaza border.
Razan al-Najjar, 21, a volunteer with the Gaza health ministry, was fatally shot in the chest near Khan Younis on Friday, Palestinian officials said.
Ambulances and medical crews attended the funeral, with her father holding the white blood-stained medics’ jacket she wore when she was shot, as mourners called for revenge.
The IDF said in a Saturday statement that it was investigating Najjar’s killing
The Israeli army on Friday said the violence included “thousands of rioters” at five locations along the border, “burning tires adjacent to the security fence and attempting to damage security infrastructure.”
Shots were fired at an army vehicle and a Palestinian had crossed into Israel, planted a grenade and returned to Gaza, the army said.
Razan attending to a injured colleague before her death
Najjar was less than 100 yards from the border fence, treating a man who been struck by a tear gas canister, when she was shot, according a relative, Ibrahim al-Najjar, who was there and who said he carried her to an ambulance.
“I told her it was dangerous to approach [the fence] but she answered that she was not afraid to die and wanted to help the young man,” a fellow medic told Gaza reporters, according to Haaretz.
The Palestinian Medical Relief Society said Najjar was shot “as she was attempting to provide first aid to an injured protester,” and was among three other first responders also hit by live fire on Friday.
“Shooting at medical personnel is a war crime under the Geneva conventions,” the PMRC said in a statement, demanding “an immediate international response to Israeli humanitarian law violations in Gaza.”
The UN’s 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.”
The criticism was echoed by Joint (Arab) List MK Ahmad Tibi, who called the shooting “a despicable war crime committed by a cowardly and criminal sniper who saw a nurse with a white coat and pulled the trigger.”
In addition to the comments made at a conference in Wadi Ara, Tibi sarcastically tweeted that the sniper is a soldier in the “most moral army in the world,” a description frequently used by Israeli politicians and advocates to describe the IDF.
Following her death, Joint List Chairman Ayman Odeh MK tweeted that “the life of the caring angel was taken away.”
Najjar had given an interview to the New York Times last month in which she proudly discussed her position as a female volunteer medic.
“Being a medic is not only a job for a man. It’s for women, too,” she told the Times.
“We have one goal. To save lives and evacuate people. And to send a message to the world: Without weapons, we can do anything.”
Najjar had reportedly been among the first volunteer medics at the protest camp in Khan Younis.
“The strength that I showed the first day of the protests, I dare you to find it in anyone else,” she told the Times.
Source : The Times of Israel
