A/HRC/12/48
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witness’s recollection, there had also been a radio message broadcast by the Israeli armed forces
around 12.30 announcing that there would be a temporary cessation of shooting between 1 and
4 p.m. that day, during which time residents of the area were asked to walk to central Jabaliyah.
773. At about 12.50 p.m., Khalid Abd Rabbo, his wife Kawthar, their three daughters, Souad
(aged 9), Samar (aged 5) and Amal (aged 3), and his mother, Hajja Souad Abd Rabbo, stepped
out of the house, all of them carrying white flags. Less than 10 metres from the door was a tank,
turned towards their house. Two soldiers were sitting on top of it having a snack (one was eating
chips, the other chocolate, according to one of the witnesses). The family stood still, waiting for
orders from the soldiers as to what they should do, but none was given. Without warning, a third
soldier emerged from inside the tank and started shooting at the three girls and then also at their
grandmother. Several bullets hit Souad in the chest, Amal in the stomach and Samar in the back.
Hajja Souad was hit in the lower back and in the left arm.
774. Khalid and Kawthar Abd Rabbo carried their three daughters and mother back inside the
house. There, they and the family members who had stayed inside tried to call for help by mobile
phone. They also shouted for help and a neighbour, Sameeh Atwa Rasheed al-Sheikh, who was
an ambulance driver and had his ambulance parked next to his house, decided to come to their
help. He put on his ambulance crew clothes and asked his son to put on a fluorescent jacket.
They had driven a few metres from their house to the immediate vicinity of the Abd Rabbo
house when Israeli soldiers near the Abed Rabbo house ordered them to halt and get out of the
vehicle. Sameeh al-Sheikh protested that he had heard cries for help from the Abd Rabbo family
and intended to bring the wounded to hospital. The soldiers ordered him and his son to undress
and then re-dress. They then ordered them to abandon the ambulance and to walk towards
Jabaliyah, which they complied with. When the families returned to Izbat Abd Rabbo on
18 January, they found the ambulance was in the same place but had been crushed, probably by a
tank.
775. Inside the Abed Rabbo house, Amal and Souad died of their wounds. The family decided
that they had to make an attempt to walk to Jabalya and take Samar, the dead bodies of Amal and
Souad, and their grandmother to hospital. Khaled and Kawthar Abd Rabbo, and other family
members and neighbours carried the girls on their shoulders. Hajja Souad was carried by family
and neighbours on a bed. Samar was transferred to al-Shifa hospital and then, through Egypt, to
Belgium, where she still is in hospital. According to her parents, Samar suffered a spinal injury
and will remain paraplegic for the rest of her life.
776. When Khalid Abd Rabbo returned to his home on 18 January 2009, his house, as most
houses in that part of Izbat Abd Rabbo, had been demolished. He drew the Mission’s attention to
an anti-tank mine under the rubble of a neighbour’s house.429
10.
Factual findings
777. The Mission found Khalid and Kawthar Abd Rabbo to be credible and reliable witnesses.
It has no reason to doubt the veracity of the main elements of their testimony. The Mission also
The UNOSAT report (p. 14) counts 341 buildings in Izbat Abd Rabbo destroyed or severely damaged as a result
of the military operations.
429
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