Rouzan al-Najjar

Rouzan ("Razan") Ashraf Abd al-Qadir al-Najjar (Arabic رزان أشراف عبد القادر النجار, DMG Razān Ašrāf ʿAbd al-Qādir an-Naǧǧār; * 13 September 1997 in Chan Yunis; † 1. June 2018 at the Gaza border) was a Palestinian paramedic with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) who was killed in the Gaza Strip by the supersonic projectile of an Israeli Security Forces (ISF) sniper while performing volunteer medical duties during protests at the border. At the time of the incident, the 20-year-old was identifiable as part of the medical staff by her paramedic clothing and, according to the UN Commission on Human Rights, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, posed no threat to the ISF soldiers who were entrenched behind a mound of sand about 100 meters away in Israeli territory.

According to an extensive investigation by The New York Times and Forensic Architecture, based on witness testimony and more than 1,000 photographs and smartphone videos of the incident, the bullet had ricocheted off the ground and penetrated Palestinian medic Rami Abu Jazar's knee before fatally striking al-Najjar in the chest.

The Israeli army's edited version of an interview intended to prove al-Najjar's role as that of a "human shield of Hamas" proved to be improperly edited, prompting protest from the United Nations, as the doctored version had led to massive "hate comments and dehumanizing terminology" against the victim. Unprovable accusations by Palestinian activists against a female member of the ISF as the responsible sniper were also criticized by the UN.

Al-Najjar had previously been known in her role as a first responder to the Gaza border conflict, as media outlets such as the New York Times, Al Jazeera, and Al Mayadeen had covered her and she was considered an icon, making the accusation of a premeditated act seem heightened. After her death, al-Najjar became a symbol of the 2018 protests in Gaza.

While the Israeli army denies that it was a premeditated act, B'Tselem comes to the "only possible conclusion" of a targeted killing. The Israeli publicist Uri Avnery, among others, supported the verdict, speaking of a "war crime" and calling the official Israeli account "brainwashing". The spokesman for the Israeli army, Jonathan Conricus, on the other hand, spoke of an "accident".

The incident was discussed several times by the United Nations and led to emotional debates internationally, with one side claiming civilian casualties and "excessive violence" caused by Israeli acts of war, while the other side rejected the accusation as "Israel bashing" in a case of defending the border.

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Origin and education

Rouzan al-Najjar came from humble beginnings. She was the eldest of six children and had three brothers and two sisters. Her father had initially worked in the steel industry in Israel. Due to restrictions, it was no longer possible to travel across the border, so he opened a motorcycle accessories shop in the Gaza Strip, but it was destroyed in an Israeli air strike in 2014. Al-Najjar's father had been unemployed since then. The family lived in an apartment with relatives in Khuza, 500 meters from the Green Line and within reach of Israeli soldiers stationed on the border. The apartment building was therefore surrounded by a four-meter-high wall.

Due to economic conditions, al-Najjar was unable to attend university after attending government school in Khusa and instead completed a two-year paramedic training course at Al Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and then worked at the Palestinian Medical Relief Society.

Al-Najjar spent her life during the Gaza blockade and several military conflicts. She lived through the battle for Gaza June 2007, the airstrikes and invasion of the Israeli army in the Gaza war of2008/2009, the Israeli military offensive in Gaza of November 2012, the Gaza war of 2014, and finally the Gaza protests of 2018, in which she was a rescue worker of PMRS since their beginning on March 30.

Pacifism and feminism

By Gaza standards, al-Najjar was considered a pacifist and also a feminist, as she opposed traditional gender roles. In an interview with the New York Times on May 7, 2018, she had stated that rescue workers had only one message to the world: "Without guns, that's how we can do anything." And women needed to be accepted by society as strong people, whether by choice or by necessity: "Because we have more strength than any man. The strength I showed as a rescue worker on the first day of the protests, you have to find it in someone else first."

Al-Najjar had made similar remarks on the TV station Al Mayadeen:

But al-Najjar also obeyed her father in the traditional way. She had been careful about her appearance and had collected money for a trousseau, as she and the 23-year-old paramedic Izzat Shatat wanted to announce their engagement after Ramadan, according to his statement.

Incidents in April 2018

In April, al-Najjar had told Al Jazeera TV that the Israeli army had targeted her and shot at her several times and that she should stay away from the injured, but ignored it all. Medico International said that on April 20, 2018, she was hit in the foot by a rubber-coated steel bullet, and on April 28, a tear gas canister hit her in the chest.

Death

During the protests that began on March 30, 2018, inside the Gaza Strip outside the border with Israeli territory, dubbed the "Great March of Return," al-Najjar was a volunteer paramedic with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS), responsible with other paramedics for treating protesters wounded by tear gas canisters, rubber bullets, and live ammunition, and carrying them out of the danger zone so they could be transported to the hospital. There is no doubt that al-Najjar also wore a paramedic's smock and a white paramedic's vest with a red retro-reflective stripe over her jeans on June 1 and was thus recognizable as belonging to the medical staff.

The events of her death were summarized in the report of the UN Human Rights Council's International Commission to Investigate Protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, established by UN Resolution S 28/1 back on March 18, 2018, and confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, medico international, and the joint investigation by the New York Times and Forensic Architecture, among others.

According to the report, at around 3 p.m. on June 1, the third Friday of Ramadan, hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated at some distance from the border fence with Israeli territory. Some sent burning kites across the border and threw stones with slingshots. From about 3:30 p.m., Israeli security forces responded by firing rubber bullets and barrels of tear gas across the border, wounding about 100 protesters. One of them was reportedly treated and rescued by Rouzan al-Najjar. Some 40 protesters were then fired upon live by Israeli Security Forces (ISF) soldiers. By 6:30 p.m., however, activity on both sides had died down somewhat. Events reconstructed through video footage show that al-Najjar, along with four colleagues also recognized as medics, came to the aid of two demonstrators who had been hit by tear gas canisters. The medics, according to the UN and B'Tselem, raised their arms in the direction of the snipers as a sign of peaceful intentions, but their weapons were not lowered in response. According to the reconstruction by the New York Times and Forensic Architecture, and according to the UN Human Rights Commission, three specially trained ISF snipers were entrenched behind one of the sand mounds heaped up as a protective wall in Israeli territory, the distance to al-Najjar calculated at 109 meters. According to witnesses, three shots were then heard. The UN report states that visibility was good at that time, at 6:31 pm.

According to their own statements and those of the UN Human Rights Commission, the ISF soldiers used US-made SR 25 and M24 sniper rifles, designed to be used from a distance of up to one kilometer or more, loaded with 7.62 x 51 mm NATO ammunition that reaches supersonic speeds, for the high-velocity shootings of demonstrators from a distance of over 70 meters.

The projectile had bounced off the ground just in front of the paramedic, Rami Abu Jazar, and split. One of the two fragments of the projectile passed through the paramedic's left knee, then hit the chest of Rouzan al-Najjar, who was standing behind him, and exited from the back. The other fragment hit paramedic Mohammed Shafee in the pelvis.

The independent human rights organizations agree that the shot was fired specifically at medical personnel who posed no threat to the entrenched snipers on the other side of the border fence.

Rouzan al-Najjar was immediately taken to the European Gaza Hospital, where doctors pronounced her dead at 7:10 pm. She was the 119th fatality on the Palestinian side since the border protests began on March 30, the second woman killed, and the second fatality who was part of the medical staff (no fatalities on the Israeli side).

At al-Najjar's funeral the next day, thousands of people attended, including some whom she had cared for as a rescue worker. Her body was wrapped in a Palestinian flag and carried through the streets. Her father wore his daughter's blood-stained vest. Mourners demanded revenge. Al-Najjar's death provoked a worldwide media response.

Gaza Strip and Palestinian casualty figures from the protests, now out of date as of May 31, 2018.