A GROUP of Malaysian political figures and civil society leaders have submitted a Note of Protest to the United States government, calling for accountability and justice following new revelations surrounding the killing of six-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab in Gaza.
The protest follows the release of a documentary investigation by Al Jazeera earlier this month, which reportedly identified the Israeli military officer allegedly responsible for ordering the attack that killed Hind, her family members, and a Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulance team sent to rescue her.
According to the report, Major Sean Glass, commander of the “Vampire Empire” tank company of Israel’s 52nd Battalion, 401st Armoured Brigade, allegedly issued the direct order to open fire on the car in which Hind and her relatives were trapped. The same commander is also said to have ordered the strike on a marked PRCS ambulance that arrived at the scene, killing all medics on board.
The Malaysian signatories described the incident as “a deliberate, premeditated war crime” and said it represented “the cold execution of a trapped child, followed by the obliteration of a humanitarian vehicle whose coordinates were known.”
Among those who signed the letter were Nurul Izzah Anwar, Charles Santiago, Jismi Johari, Prof Afandi Salleh, Chee Yoke Ling, Meenakashi Raman, Lim Mah Hui, and Mohideen Abdul Kader.
In the joint statement, the group urged the United States to take immediate steps to acknowledge the findings of the Al Jazeera investigation and to demand accountability from Israel.
They called on Washington to:
1. Publicly acknowledge the investigation’s findings naming Major Glass as the commander responsible;
2. Press Israel to arrest and prosecute Major Glass and investigate his chain of command;
3. Suspend all arms transfers to Israel until it is confirmed that U.S. weapons are not being used to commit war crimes; and
4. Support the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) ongoing investigation into alleged crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The signatories said the incident constituted a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions, which protect civilians and medical personnel in times of conflict.
They also criticised the United States for continuing to provide military aid and diplomatic backing to Israel, saying such support enables impunity for war crimes.
“When a state provides the means and impunity for unlawful killings, it ceases to be a neutral supplier and becomes an enabler,” the statement read.
“The world knows the name of the child, Hind Rajab. The world now knows the name of the commander who ordered her murder, Major Sean Glass.
What remains to be seen is whether the United States will uphold the laws it helped create after the last century’s wars,” it added.
The statement concluded with a call for justice: “The time for silence has passed. The time for justice is now.”
Hind Rajab’s death in January 2024 drew international outrage after audio recordings revealed her final pleas for help as she remained trapped in a car surrounded by Israeli tanks.
Her death, along with that of the PRCS medics who attempted to reach her, has become a symbol of the broader humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where thousands of civilians have been killed since the escalation of hostilities last year. – October 25, 2025
