Razan al-Najjar

Rouzan Ashraf Abdul Qadir al-Najjar ( Rouzān 'Ashrāf 'Abd al-Qādir an-Najjār; 13 September 1997 – 1 June 2018) was a Palestinian paramedic who was killed by the Israeli military while volunteering as a medic during the 2018 Gaza border protests. She was killed by a ricochet fragment of a bullet shot into the ground near her by an Israeli soldier as she tried to help evacuate wounded Palestinian protestors near Israel's border fence with Gaza.

Najjar was born in Khan Younis in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip in 1997. The eldest of six children born to Ashraf al-Najjar, she was a resident of Khuzaa, a village near the border with Israel. The video was later found to be a clip from an interview with a Lebanese television station that had been edited by the IDF to take al-Najjar's comments out of context. Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said that al-Najjar was shot intentionally.

Early life Najjar's father used to be employed in Israel in the scrap metal business until restrictions disallowed travel across the border. He then worked in the Strip as a motorbike mechanic but was unemployed at the time of her death. The family lived in an apartment supplied by relatives in Khuza'a, within eyeshot of Israeli soldiers stationed over the border. Their area had a concrete wall installed to shield local residents from Israeli fire. According to her mother, Najjar attended every Friday event from 7am and 8pm, and would return home spattered with the blood of those whom she had tended care to. Even before her death, she had become something of an icon within the Gaza Strip, with local media published many images of her online, including photos of her bandaging the head of a youth who had been wounded. On the day of her death 100 demonstrating Palestinians were wounded, 40 shot by Israeli live fire.

Medical personnel fine-tuned strategies to avoid being mistaken by snipers for protestors, wearing white jackets with reflective, high-visibility stripes, moving in teams in the direction of casualties, and holding their hands above their heads as they negotiate a pathway past burning tires and plumes of smoke. When in the vicinity of the border, and within speaking range of the Israeli troops, they shout in unison: "Don't shoot. There are wounded." The usual Israeli response was to scream at them to go back.

Al-Najjar was a first responder at the "Great March of Return" that resulted in the 2018 Gaza border protests. On 1 June, the third Friday of Ramadan, 3,000 protestors demonstrated near the fence Three shots were heard. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights performed an investigation that found al-Najjar was clearly marked as a paramedic and that she "did not pose an imminent threat of death or serious injury to the ISF when she was shot". The report concluded that the Commission "found reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli snipers intentionally shot health workers, despite seeing that they were clearly marked as such."

Israeli response An internal IDF review claimed that al-Najjar was not intentionally targeted. Describing this video as having also been "tightly edited", The New York Times estimated that footage did not appear to have been taken on the day she was killed, stating also that "the canister does not appear to be aimed at anyone." According to Gideon Levy, the video filmed the nurse, perhaps Najjar, from behind as she flings away a smoke grenade which Israeli soldiers had thrown in her direction.

Media commentators described the IDF's release of selectively edited videos against Al-Najjar as part of a "narrative battle". The group interviewed another paramedic called Rami Abu Jazar, who was at the same protest during which al-Najjar was killed.

B'Tselem wrote:The IDF Spokesperson tried to clear the military of responsibility for a-Najar's death, initially saying that soldiers did not fire at the spot where she had been standing. Later, the military said a-Najar might have been killed by a ricochet, before finally accusing her of serving as a human shield for rioters. Contrary to the many versions offered by the military, the facts of the case lead to only one conclusion. An investigation conducted by B'Tselem proves 20-year-old a-Najar was fatally shot by a member of the security forces who was aiming directly at her as she was standing about 25 meters away from the fence, despite the fact that she posed no danger to him or anyone else and was wearing a medical uniform.

On 1 June, a UN Security Council resolution proposed condemning the state of Israel for use of "excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate force" against Palestinian protesters at the border fence. The resolution was vetoed by the United States.

Israeli military investigation Israeli military spokespersons responded, but provided no official report on the shooting; they did say that the facts would be investigated. Israel had repeatedly warned that they may kill anyone approaching the fence.

On 29 October it was reported that the IDF's military advocate had rejected the findings of the preliminary probe earlier that year that found that she was not shot intentionally. Instead, a criminal investigation into the matter would be opened.

In 2025, in an interview with the journalist Peter Osborne, Alistair Burt, the UK's Minister of State for Middle East and North Africa at the time of the killing, said he was wrong to have trusted Israel to investigate. Burt said "these investigations were effectively useless and used as a cover by the Israelis for the killing".

New York Times investigation On 30 December 2018, the New York Times together with Forensic Architecture published an in-depth investigative article concerning the killing by utilizing a 3D map to pinpoint the source of the shots fired that resulted in the death. Times reporters collected more than 1,001 pictures of the site on 1 June and crowdsourced 30 cellphone videos to map the movements of the medics at the time of the incident. They also consulted with witnesses, medical officials and Israeli government spokesmen to assess if the shooting was a war crime.

They concluded she was killed by a bullet from 120yds (109m.) away that ricocheted and fragmented from the ground near her.