Giant portrait of girl killed in Gaza war unfurled on Barcelona beach

Protests and Tributes in Barcelona

By Amy McConaghy and Joan Faus

Hind Rajab's Story

BARCELONA, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Protesters unfurled a giant portrait of five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab on a Barcelona beach Thursday, two years after her death in Gaza's war, and her mother appealed for international attention to the plight of Gaza's children.

Mother's Plea for Peace

Hind's anguished final pleas for help while being trapped in a car under Israeli fire have been retold in the film "The Voice of Hind Rajab" that won the Silver Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival last year, and is nominated for an Academy Award.

International Reactions

During Israel's offensive in response to an October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, Hind was pinned down in the car for hours, begging Palestinian medics over a mobile phone to send help, while her aunt, uncle and three cousins already lay dead.

When an ambulance finally arrived, contact with the girl and the rescuers themselves was lost. Twelve days later, the bodies of the girl, her relatives and two ambulance workers were recovered from the area.

In Barcelona, several hundred people held up a 55-metre-long (180-foot-long) tarp with Rajab's face next to a large Palestinian flag and the message, "Free Gaza's Children". 

"The children of Gaza do not ask for pity. They ask for their right to live, to sleep without fear, to play without bombs, to grow up, just to grow," said Hind's mother, Wesam Hamada, 29, as she watched the hoisting of her portrait.

"The voice of Hind Rajab did not stay in the car, it travelled across borders," said Jordanian-Canadian actress Saja Kilani, who played a Palestinian Red Crescent first responder in the film and attended the beach protest.

Asked this week about the deaths of Hind and her relatives, the Israeli military said the incident remained under review and it declined further comment. Israeli forces say they never deliberately targeted civilians in the war, accusing Hamas militants of endangering their lives by using them for cover.

The United Nations has said the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains "dire" three months into an Israel-Hamas ceasefire following a two-year war that demolished the territory. Children are among the hardest hit by shortages of shelter, food and basic services including healthcare, aid officials say.

(Reporting by Joan Faus, Amy McConaghy and Horaci Garcia; additional reporting by Rami Ayyub; editing by Andrei Khalip and Mark Heinrich)