Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict
Head of the UN Fact Finding Mission Justice Richard Goldstone presented the report of the Mission to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on 29 September 2009
11. The shooting of Rouhiyah al-Najjar
780. The Mission visited the site of the shooting of Rouhiyah al-Najjar in Khuza’a. It
interviewed two eyewitnesses of the shooting and six other witnesses to the events, including
Yasmine al-Najjar, Nasser al-Najjar, Rouhiyah al-Najjar’s husband, and their daughter Hiba.
781. The Israeli armed forces launched the attack against Khuza’a, a small town about half a
kilometre from the border (Green Line) with Israel east of Khan Yunis, around 10 p.m. on
12 January 2009. During the night, they used white phosphorous munitions, causing fires to
break out in the al-Najjar neighbourhood on the eastern fringe of Khuza’a. Families in the
neighbourhood, including the family of Nasser al-Najjar, his first wife Rouhiyah and their
daughter Hiba, spent much of the night trying to extinguish fires in their houses. Israeli armed
forces, possibly heliborne troops, had taken position on the roofs of some houses in the
neighbourhood and observed the residents as they attempted to fight the fires. Around 3 a.m.
residents also began to hear the noise of approaching tanks and bulldozers, with which they were
well familiar, as in 2008 there had been several Israeli incursions into the farmland to the north
430 “The hidden dimension of Palestinian war casualties…” suggests that these areas were among those in which
Palestinian combatants most frequently engaged the Israeli armed forces.
and east of Khuza’a, in the course of which bulldozers flattened fields, groves, chicken coops
and greenhouses.
782. In the early morning hours, some of the residents, including Rouhiyah al-Najjar, climbed
on the roofs of their houses and hoisted improvised white flags. Using megaphones, the Israeli
armed forces asked the men of the neighbourhood to come out of the houses and walk towards
the tanks. There the men were separated into two groups which were then held in different
houses under the control of the soldiers.
783. At some point between 7 and 7.45 a.m., Rouhiyah al-Najjar and the women in her
immediate neighbourhood decided to leave their homes and walk with their children to the town
centre. The group of women was headed by Rouhiyah al-Najjar and her 23-year-old neighbour
and relative Yasmine al-Najjar, both carrying white flags. Rouhiyah’s daughter Hiba was right
behind her. Other women were holding up babies in their arms, shouting “God is great!” and
“We have children!” The group of women and children started moving down a straight alley,
about six or seven metres wide, flanked on both sides by houses. At the other end of the alley, a
little more than 200 metres away,431 was the house of Faris al-Najjar, which had been occupied
by numerous Israeli soldiers (around 60 according to one witness). The soldiers had made a hole
in the wall of the first floor of the house, giving them a good view down the alley into which the
group of women and children were advancing. When Rouhiyah al-Najjar was about 200 metres
from Faris al-Najjar’s house, a shot fired from that house hit her in the temple (she had just
turned her head towards her neighbour next to her to encourage her). Rouhiyah al-Najjar fell to
the ground; Yasmine was struck in her leg. This single shot was followed by concentrated
gunfire, which forced the group of women and children to scramble back into the houses of
Osama al-Najjar and Shawki al-Najjar, though it did not cause further injury. Because of the fire
from the Israeli soldiers, they did not dare to leave the house and look after Rouhiyah al-Najjar.
They stayed inside until around noon the same day, when they made a second, successful attempt
to leave the neighbourhood and walk to a safer part of Khuza’a.
784. An ambulance driver from Khan Yunis hospital, Marwan Abu Reda, received a phone call
from Khuza’a asking for emergency help for Rouhiyah al-Najjar at around 7.45 a.m. He
immediately drove to Khuza’a and arrived in the neighbourhood shortly after 8 a.m., i.e. within
no more than an hour from the shooting. He was already in the alley where Rouhiyah al-Najjar
was lying on the ground432 when soldiers opened fire from houses or rooftops, forcing him to
make a U-turn and take the ambulance to a nearby alley. He called PRCS and asked it to seek
access to the injured woman, through ICRC and in coordination with the Israeli armed forces,
without success. Marwan Abu Reda was not able to pick up Rouhiyah al-Najjar’s (by then
lifeless) body until the evening of that day. He confirmed to the Mission that she had received a
bullet in the temple.
431 The Mission did not measure the distance; this is an estimate.
432 The Mission does not have information which would allow it to state whether Rouhiyah al-Najjar was still alive
when the ambulance arrived.
12. Factual findings
785. The Mission has no reason to doubt the veracity of the main elements of the testimony of
the witnesses it heard with regard to the shooting of Rouhiyah al-Najjar.
786. The Mission’s site inspection and the testimony of several witnesses appear to establish
that the group of women and children led by Rouhiyah al-Najjar had slowly walked for at least
20 metres before the shot that killed Rouhiyahher was fired. During that time, Israeli soldiers
standing on the roofs of the houses in the neighbourhood had ample time to observe the group.
The fact that, after shooting Rouhiyah and Yasmine al-Najjar, the soldiers directed warning fire
at the group without injuring anyone, but forcing them to retreat to a house, is further indication
that the soldiers had not observed any threat to them from the group.433 Indeed, a few hours later
the same group was allowed to walk past the soldiers to a safer area of Khuza’a.
The Mission accordingly finds that Rouhiyah al-Najjar was deliberately shot by an Israeli soldier who had no reason to assume that she was a combatant or otherwise taking part in hostilities.
787. The Mission also observes that, while it is unclear whether the ambulance from Khan
Yunis hospital could have saved Rouhiyah al-Najjar’s life, the Israeli forces prevented the
evacuation of the wounded woman without any justification.
You don't mess with the Zohan!!
