Exactly two years ago today, an Israeli sniper shot dead Razan al-Najjar.
The young volunteer medic was among a group of rescue workers walking with their hands in the air and dressed in white vests approaching the Gaza-Israel boundary fence to treat a wounded protester.
During the weekly Great March of Return rallies that began in March 2018, Israel deployed military snipers to shoot to maim and kill unarmed civilians – including children – protesting Israel’s blockade of Gaza and demanding the right of refugees to return home.
As she grew up in Gaza, Razan witnessed repeated Israeli assaults.
“The wars motivated her to enter the healthcare field,” her mother Sabreen recalls in the moving video above published on Monday by the American Friends Service Committee.
“When the Great March of Return started, Razan, of course, was the first young woman to volunteer as a medic.”
“She is the main pillar of our house. She is the smile that went absent,” Sabreen says. “She was my sister, my friend, my daughter and everything in my life.”
“I can’t fathom that Razan, the angel of mercy, who was there to save and treat those who Israel killed and injured, that she herself would also be killed in cold blood.”
Israeli forces killed more than 200 Palestinian civilians, including more than 40 children, during those demonstrations, and wounded thousands more by live fire.
No one has been held accountable for any of those acts.
The video remembering Razan is part of a call to honor Palestinian healthcare workers.
Using the hashtag, #PalestinianHealthcareHeroes, AFSC is asking people to post messages of support and solidarity.
Palestinian medics are working in a health system already stretched to the limit by Israel’s siege and attacks on civilians, and they now face the additional challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is part of the ongoing Gaza Unlocked campaign to build awareness and pressure to end the Israeli blockade.
"Even before the start of the Great March of Return in 2018, the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition ranked Palestine as the second most dangerous place on earth for health care in 2017, behind only Syria." #PalestinianHealthCareHeroes afsc.org/blogs/news-and…
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Health workers are protected by int'l humanitarian law, but Israeli forces still kill #PalestinianHealthCareHeroes like #RazanAlNajjar.
Last year, we documented the death of volunteer medic Sajed Abdul Hakim Helmi Mizher, 17, killed by Israeli forces in Dheisheh refugee camp. twitter.com/nwttac/status/…
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We support @afsc_org's day of action to support #PalestinianHealthCareHeroes. Join the digital campaign:afsc.org/PalestinianHea…
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