Razan al-Najjar, a young Palestinian volunteer nurse, just 21 years old, providing aid to a wounded colleague during the Gaza border protests on 15 May 2018. Credits: Photo by Said Khatib / AFP via Getty Image
Razan Al-Najjar was a young Palestinian volunteer nurse, just 21 years old, who was killed on 1 June 2018 during the Great March of Return protests in Gaza. Wearing her medical uniform, clearly marked with the emblem of a recognised relief organisation protected under international law, she advanced with her fellow nurses and paramedics to within 100 metres of the border fence near Khuza’a, in the Khan Yunis governorate, southern Gaza Strip. Their mission was to rescue two wounded individuals who had been detained by Israeli forces.
At approximately 5:30 p.m., the team approached the area peacefully, without any weapons, moving towards “point zero” where five Israeli military positions were stationed. Two soldiers emerged from a military jeep; snipers targeted four of the medical volunteers. Despite the danger, the team managed to evacuate the injured and retreat some 20 metres from the separation fence. It was then that they came under heavy fire — first with tear gas canisters, then with live ammunition.
In a deliberate and fatal act, an explosive bullet struck Razan in the chest, severing her aortic artery. She was rushed to the European Hospital in Gaza, but was pronounced dead at around 7:00 p.m. Three of her colleagues were also injured: nurse Rami Abu Jazar sustained a gunshot wound to the left leg and shrapnel injuries to his right leg and left hand; paramedic Mahmoud Fathi Abdel-Ati suffered multiple shrapnel wounds to his legs; and paramedics Mahmoud Qudaih and Rasha Qudeh experienced severe suffocation from tear gas.
Razan was the eldest daughter in a modest family of two sisters and three brothers. She had studied general nursing at Al-Azhar University but left before completing her degree, dedicating herself instead to intensive first aid training, ambulance work, and volunteering without pay at Nasser Medical Complex. Her skill, compassion, and dedication led her to join the Palestinian Medical Relief Society as part of the volunteer teams providing frontline aid during the Great March of Return. She was the first female volunteer nurse to serve on the protest frontlines in Gaza.
Her killing provoked widespread outrage across Gaza, the West Bank, and beyond, drawing condemnation from Arab and international media, human rights organisations, and solidarity movements worldwide. The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nikolay Mladenov, stated: “My message to the Palestinians in Gaza: We hear your situation and feel your suffering, and we will do everything possible to ensure a future in which you live freely, in prosperity and peace — a future in which you are the master of your destiny.”
UN Secretary-General spokesman Stéphane Dujarric likewise condemned the act, emphasising that Razan had been killed while performing her humanitarian duty, and noting the injuries sustained by her colleagues.
Yet, despite international condemnation, the siege on Gaza continues. The Israeli occupation maintains its control over land that is not its own, in defiance of international law and the principles upheld by global institutions. The Palestinian people persist in their rightful demand for independence, safety, and the freedom to live on their own land without fear.
