Razan al-Najjar
رزان النجار
Volunteer paramedic during Gaza's Great March of Return · c. 1997–2018 · East of Khan Younis, Gaza
Razan al-Najjar, 21, a volunteer medic treating protesters at the Gaza boundary fence, was fatally shot by Israeli fire as she stood with fellow medics about 25 meters from the fence in her medical uniform; a B'Tselem investigation concluded she was deliberately targeted, and spatial analysis commissioned by The New York Times traced the shot to a sniper's position at the fence.
Razan al-Najjar, 21, was a volunteer paramedic from the Khan Younis area who spent her Fridays during the 2018 Great March of Return protests treating demonstrators wounded near the fence between Gaza and Israel, becoming one of the best-known medics of the protest movement. The weekly demonstrations, which began in March 2018, were met with Israeli live fire on an unprecedented scale: more than 150 protesters were killed and over six thousand injured by the end of that year, according to Forensic Architecture.
On the evening of June 1, 2018, al-Najjar was with a group of paramedics near the protest site by the village of Khuzaa, east of Khan Younis, moving to evacuate protesters overcome by tear gas. A colleague testified to B’Tselem that they stood about 25 meters from the fence with no protesters near them when two soldiers got out of a jeep, knelt in a sniper’s stance and fired two live bullets at the medics; al-Najjar was fatally struck, and two of her fellow medics were wounded. At 6:31 p.m., Forensic Architecture calculated, the shot was fired from beyond the border fence into the crowd. B’Tselem’s investigation concluded that al-Najjar “was fatally shot by a member of the security forces who was aiming directly at her,” although she posed no danger and was wearing a medical uniform.
The Israeli military said days later that an initial examination found no shots had been deliberately aimed at her, and subsequently posted an edited video of her alongside the text “Hamas’ use of human shields must stop” — a clip a UN commission of inquiry later documented as misleading. Forensic Architecture, commissioned by The New York Times, digitally reconstructed the scene and traced the bullet’s trajectory back to a sniper’s berm at the fence. Her funeral in Khan Younis drew thousands, and her death made her an enduring symbol of the medics of Gaza.
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Open questions
Israel's initial probe claimed no shots were deliberately aimed at her, and the military later published a selectively edited video implying she was a human shield; a UN commission of inquiry found reasonable grounds that Israeli snipers committed war crimes during the 2018 protests. No one is known to have been charged in her killing.