Razan al-Najjar: The Volunteer Paramedic Killed in Gaza in 2018

Razan al-Najjar (sometimes misspelled "Razzan Alnajjar") was a young Palestinian volunteer paramedic who was shot and killed on 1 June 2018 while helping wounded people near the perimeter fence in the southern Gaza Strip. She was a volunteer first responder with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS), and she was wearing a white medic's vest when she was hit.

This page sets out what is on the public record about her death: the statement United Nations agencies issued the next day, the findings of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the 2018 Gaza protests, a New York Times reconstruction, and what the Israeli military said. It also explains a similar-looking search term, Qizan an-Najjar, which is a place and not a person.

Who was Razan al-Najjar?

Razan al-Najjar was from the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza. She volunteered as a first responder with PMRS at the "Great March of Return" demonstrations, which began near the fence between Gaza and Israel on 30 March 2018, giving first aid to people who had been injured.

Sources give her age differently. The UN agencies' statement of 2 June 2018 and many news reports at the time described her as 21. The UN Commission of Inquiry and the New York Times later gave her age as 20. An Israeli military statement referred to a 22-year-old woman. We have not seen a source that settles the difference, so we give all three.

What happened on 1 June 2018

According to the joint statement by the UN Humanitarian Coordinator, the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN human rights office and OCHA, she was hit by live ammunition fired by Israeli forces at around 18:30 while trying, with other first responders, to reach people injured close to the perimeter fence. She was taken to a trauma stabilization point and then to the European Gaza Hospital, where she died just after 19:00. Three others in her team were injured.

The UN Commission of Inquiry, which interviewed witnesses, places the shooting at the Khuza'a protest site east of Khan Younis. Its account says that shortly beforehand she and three paramedic colleagues had moved closer to the fence to help two injured protesters, holding their hands in the air. When she was shot she was wearing a white vest that clearly marked her as a paramedic and was standing with other volunteer paramedics about 110 meters from where Israeli soldiers were stationed. Visibility was good. The bullet struck her in the chest.

The killing of a clearly-identified medical staffer by security forces during a demonstration is particularly reprehensible.

What the UN Commission of Inquiry found

The UN Human Rights Council set up an independent international Commission of Inquiry into the 2018 protests. Its detailed findings were published in March 2019.

On Razan al-Najjar, the Commission found that she "did not pose an imminent threat of death or serious injury" to Israeli forces when she was shot. Hers was one of three killings of clearly marked health workers it examined; the others were Musa Abu Hassainen, a 35-year-old Civil Defense paramedic killed on 14 May 2018, and Abed Abdullah Al Qotati, a 22-year-old volunteer paramedic killed on 10 August 2018.

More broadly, the Commission said it found "reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli snipers intentionally shot health workers, despite seeing that they were clearly marked as such." It investigated 189 Palestinian deaths at the demonstration sites between 30 March and 31 December 2018, 183 of them from live ammunition, and found reasonable grounds to believe that, with two exceptions, the use of live ammunition against demonstrators in the cases it investigated was unlawful. It also recorded that the demonstrations were at times violent, including stone throwing, cutting through the fence and the launching of incendiary kites and balloons.

The report cites WHO data for the same period: three health workers killed and 560 injured in 357 recorded incidents against health staff and facilities, with 84 ambulances damaged.

What the New York Times investigation found

On 30 December 2018 the New York Times published a reconstruction of the shooting. The paper said it analyzed more than 1,000 photos and videos and interviewed more than 30 witnesses. It concluded that a single bullet fired from the Israeli side hit the ground, fragmented and struck three medics, including Razan al-Najjar.

The Times wrote that the shooting "appears to have been reckless at best, and possibly a war crime, for which no one has yet been punished." The Commission of Inquiry refers to this reconstruction in its own account, alongside eyewitnesses and a Palestinian forensic report that described a single shot.

What the Israeli military said

On 5 June 2018 the Israel Defense Forces said an initial examination had found that "a small number of bullets were fired during the incident, and that no shots were deliberately or directly aimed towards her." The military told the New York Times that soldiers had been aiming at a man in a yellow shirt who was throwing stones and pulling at the fence. A spokesman, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, said: "She was not the target. None of the medical personnel are ever a target."

In the days after her death, Israeli official accounts shared a video clip in which she appeared to say she was a human shield. The Commission of Inquiry found that the clip had been edited from an interview with a Lebanese broadcaster, in which she had actually said she was acting as a "human shield for injured demonstrators."

The Commission reports that in October 2018 Israel's Military Advocate General opened a criminal investigation into her death, setting aside the internal finding that soldiers had not fired directly at her. When the Commission reported in March 2019, that investigation had not been decided. We have not found a published outcome.

Is Qizan an-Najjar the same thing?

No. Qizan an-Najjar is a place name. It is a locality in Khan Younis governorate, in the southern Gaza Strip, and it is labeled on OCHA's maps of the governorate. It has no particular connection to Razan al-Najjar beyond the shared word: al-Najjar (or an-Najjar), which means "the carpenter", is a common Arabic family name. The Commission of Inquiry also notes that the Khan Younis demonstration site was in an area known as the Al-Najjar neighborhood.

Why attacks on health workers matter

Medical workers are protected under the laws of war. In the words of the Commission, "customary and conventional international humanitarian law requires that health workers be respected and protected." The protection exists so that the wounded can be reached and treated, whoever they are.

The danger to health workers in Gaza has grown far beyond what was recorded in 2018. On 24 September 2026 the WHO Director-General said there had been at least 920 attacks on health facilities and staff since 2023, with over 1,700 health workers killed. WHO's representative said in May 2026 that some 22 attacks on health care had been reported in Gaza since the start of that year.

Every loss of a trained medic or nurse also weakens a health system that is already stretched. As of 24 September 2026, WHO said only 19 of Gaza's 36 hospitals were functioning even partially; our guide to Gaza's hospitals explains what that means for patients, and our page on Nasser Medical Complex follows the main hospital in the area where she worked.

Supporting medical care in Gaza today

Razan al-Najjar volunteered because injured people needed help and there were not enough hands. That need has not gone away. Fight for Palestine does not run ambulance services or hospitals; we raise funds for emergency aid delivered through local partner teams, including medical aid, food and clean water. If you want to help, you can donate, or read about medical evacuations from Gaza for patients who cannot be treated there.