INTERNATIONAL Paramedics Day 2025 is being marked at the Camp4Palestine opposite the US Embassy in London tonight at 6.30pm and will be featuring a sculpture ‘335’ by Bradford artist Doug Crabtree.
Among the healthcare workers taking part will be emergency physician Dr James Smith who has twice worked in Gaza since october 2023.
International Paramedics Day highlights the power of teamwork and collaboration among paramedics and first responders worldwide.
This year, the theme is ‘Unity & Community’ – because no paramedic works alone.
Launched in 2022, International Paramedics Day takes place on 8th of July each year, marking the anniversary of the birth of Dominique-Jean Larrey, often referred to as the father of modern-day ambulance services.
The Killing of Hind Rajab and Family
From 2nd – 12th July, Community Camp 4 Palestine (@cc4pal) is exhibiting an artist’s reconstruction of the decimated car in which six-year-old Hind Rajab and six members of her family were massacred by the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) in January 2024.
The installation, is a defiant and haunting tribute to them and all those killed by Western and Arab-backed Zionist Israel in its unrelenting genocide in Gaza.
On the morning of 29 January 2024, Hind’s family were ordered with others to evacuate their homes in Gaza City by the IOF.
Hind’s mother Wissam and family, terrified, headed to Ahli hospital seeking refuge, while Hind’s uncle took her, his wife and their three children in his Kia Piccanto.
As they drove, their car was fired on by an Israeli tank. Everyone was killed except Hind and her 15-year-old cousin, Layan.
In a call to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) the girls pleaded for someone to come and rescue them.
The PRCS ring back, Layan answers: ‘They’re firing at us’ and that her parents and siblings have been killed.
Gunfire and screaming can be heard before Layan falls silent and the line goes dead.
The PRCS ring back, Hind answered, terrified, saying ‘everyone else is dead,’ the operator then tells Hind to hide under the seats.
The PRCS appeal to the Israeli army to allow an ambulance into the area.
Three hours later the ambulance and two paramedics, Yusef and Ahmed, are dispatched, it is now dark.
The PRCS was also able to link Hind’s mother by phone to Hind who, at one point, tells them she can see the ambulance and that everyone in the car ‘is asleep’.
The call can be heard via a QR code (near the installation)
Eventually, Yusef and Ahmed let the PRCS operators know they are approaching the car, Hind says she can see the ambulance .
There are sounds of gunfire and explosions, then the PRCS can’t contact Yusef, Ahmed or Hind.
No one can reach this death zone
A joint investigation by Forensic Architecture and Earshot for Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines (on which this piece is based), revealed that Hind’s car was struck by 335 bullets, with evidence pointing to direct fire from Israeli forces, from close range (13-23 metres).
The analysis confirmed that no armed groups were present, contradicting Israeli military claims of crossfire.
The installation piece is based on Forensic Architecture’s study.
Due to IOF aggression, it took 12 days for Hind’s battered car to be found.
The bodies of the whole family and Hind were inside. The PRCS ambulance that was sent to rescue them was also found nearby. It was also totally destroyed and contained the bodies of the two paramedics.
This installation honours Hind’s memory and demands justice for her, her family, and all victims of Israel’s indiscriminate violence in Gaza and beyond.
The Children of Gaza
The world continues to fail Gaza and its children. Hind and Layan are amongst tens of thousands of Palestinian children killed by Western and Arab-backed Zionist Israel in Gaza.
Hind’s case underscores the systematic violence against civilians, in plain sight, for over 20 months. Hind’s voice, captured in her final moments, has become a symbol of both innocence and the world’s failure to protect Gaza’s children and population.
Children make up 43% of Palestine’s population with nearly one million living in Gaza. Whilst estimates on the number of people killed in Gaza since 7th October 2023 range from 54,000 to 200,000-plus, there is consensus that the majority of victims are women and children.
Gaza is the deadliest place on earth for children. An estimated 18,000-plus children have been killed in Gaza – an average of 30 children per day or one child every 45 minutes.
Over 20,000 children are still missing, believed to be lost or buried under rubble. Over 39,000 children in Gaza have lost one or both parents.
Thousands more have had limbs amputated, often without anaesthetic and Gaza now has the highest number of amputees in the world, per capita.
As a result of the total siege imposed on Gaza since 2nd March 2025, scores of babies and children have died from hunger and more than 70,000 children now face acute levels of malnutrition.
Since 7th October 2023, Zionist Israeli politicians, military and other public figures have consistently declared their intent to ethnically cleanse, kill through genocide, and starve to death the people of Gaza, including its children – who represent the future – and to settle the land.
Despite this, and in violation of their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law, the United States, United Kingdom, European Union and other Western and Arab countries have not only failed to prevent Israel from carrying out its threats but have proactively supported, armed, endorsed and provided diplomatic cover for Israel’s Zionist agenda of ethno-supremacist annihilation of the indigenous Palestinian population in Gaza.
While governments and intergovernmental organisations fail unforgivably to prevent the atrocities, war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide being carried out by Zionist Israel, civil society around the world continues to mobilise, organise and unite for justice and liberation for the Palestinian people.
We will not stop until Palestine is free.
Background
Community Camp4Palestine is an encampment located opposite the United States Embassy in London.
Set up briefly in April 2024, it has had a permanent presence since 1st September 2024.
‘Our demands to the US and UK governments are:
- Stop the genocide in Gaza
- End the siege on Gaza
- Stop arming Israel
- Hold all perpetrators to account
- Full economic sanctions on Israel.
Donations will be collected throughout the exhibition for the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF). The charity was set up in Hind’s memory to secure justice and accountability for her and all those killed in the genocide in Gaza and to ensure that victims’ stories are told.
In May 2025, the Hind Rajab Foundation published information disclosing the identity of the commander responsible for killing her, her family and the paramedics sent to save them.
They have called for the commander to be arrested by the International Criminal Court and are pursuing all officers involved, clearly declaring their intention to ‘go after every officer involved – those who gave the orders, those who fired, those who covered it up, and those who let it happen.’
