Unmasked: US-Israeli ‘Vampire Empire’ commander behind Hind Rajab’s murder

By Humaira Ahad

“I am so scared. Please come. Please call someone to come and take me. How far is your home from me? Come and take me. It is getting dark, and I am afraid of the dark. Take me. Come take me, will you come and take me?”

These words were spoken by six-year-old Hind Rajab during a three-hour call with a Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) dispatcher in Gaza, moments before Israeli occupation forces killed her on January 29, 2024.

Hind’s trembling voice captured the terror of a child encircled by Israeli military tanks, providing a haunting record of the events that unfolded on that fateful day.

For the first time, those directly responsible for her gory murder have been publicly exposed, with their names, ranks, and units traced through an extensive investigation.

Brussels-based The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) has revealed the identities of the Israeli regime soldiers who carried out the deliberate targeting of a child, her family, and the PRCS medical personnel attempting to rescue the 6-year-old Palestinian girl.

Israeli soldiers who killed Hind

Forensic and digital investigations have identified Israel’s 401st Armoured Brigade and specifically its 52nd Battalion, known as the “Vampire Empire Company”,as the unit directly responsible for the killing of Hind, her family members, and two rescuers, identified as Yusuf al-Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun from the PRCS.

At the top of the chain is Colonel Beni Aharon, commander of the brigade, whose oversight encompassed the operation in Gaza City. The 52nd armoured battalion of the regime, under Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Ella, executed the mission on the ground.

Within this battalion, the “Vampire Empire Company” was commanded by Major Sean Glass, who carried out the shelling of the vehicle carrying Hind and her family and the subsequent targeting of the ambulance that responded to the emergency.

Reports indicate that Glass worked as a US Navy SEAL before joining the Israeli army.

Glass was recorded boasting that he led soldiers who “don’t wait for orders,” underscoring the brutality exercised by his unit in executing these operations.

Ella directed the battalion’s movements, while Aharon maintained operational oversight of the brigade. Each level of command was integral to the execution of the diabolical war crime that killed Hind and her family.

Among the tank operators involved was Itay Cukierkopf, an Israeli-Argentinean soldier whose participation has been confirmed and publicly revealed.

The HRF already has one pending criminal case against Cukierkopf in Argentina.

Twenty-two other Israeli soldiers operating in the “Vampire Empire Company” will be named "progressively, as national-level complaints are filed in different jurisdictions", the HRF said in a statement. 

As the investigation named the soldiers behind her daughter’s killing, Rajab’s mother, Wissam Hamada, said in an interview that she hopes “organisations and international institutions will work to achieve justice for Hind and the paramedics who were killed by Israel.”

“After denial, the [Israeli] occupation soldiers have now admitted to committing the crime of killing Hind — this strengthens the legal case against them,” she added.

The investigation that led to the killers

The documentary “Ma Khafiya Aatham” (What Is Hidden Is Greater), by the Qatar-based Al Jazeera in partnership with the HRF, first aired the names of these Israeli military commanders, bringing the identities of the perpetrators into public view.

The investigation was conducted by HRF in collaboration with Al Jazeera, London-based multidisciplinary research group Forensic Architecture, and an audio investigation company, Earshot.

The investigatory partners relied on evidence and analysis based on maps, satellite images, eye witness accounts, audio recordings, and phone calls obtained from the crime scene, which precisely revealed the source of the shooting.

“As with many of our cases, we use satellite imagery, and this case was no exception. And we were, in this case, also able to use audio recordings that were captured by the Palestinian Red Crescent,” Nicholas Masterton from Forensic Architecture said in the documentary.

The investigation also found that a total of 335 bullets were fired by Israeli regime forces at the car in which Hind and her family were travelling, in search of a safe place.

Building on its initial communication of May 3, 2025, the submission to the ICC by HRF presents detailed evidence linking the “Vampire Empire Company” of the 52nd Armoured Battalion, also known as ‘Ha-Bok’im’ or ‘The Breachers’, to the brutal murder.

The filing "includes comprehensive digital, satellite, and forensic evidence confirming that Merkava IV tanks of the Vampire Empire Company repeatedly fired on the black Kia Picanto in which Hind and her family were trapped, and later targeted the ambulance sent to rescue her," HRF said. 

Evidence suggests that these attacks were not accidental. Coordination between the Israeli military and the PRCS confirmed the victims’ civilian and protected status.

However, the Israeli military still targeted Palestinian children, indicating a systematic and deliberate operational decision.

"The attacks were carried out with full knowledge of the victims’ civilian and protected status, following prior coordination between the Palestinian Red Crescent and Israeli authorities," the foundation added. 

"The foundation’s legal team concludes that these acts amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, under Articles 6, 7, and 8 of the Rome Statute," HRF stated.

Legal and international context

Following the broadcast, the HRF submitted a 120-page Article 15 filing to the ICC on October 21.

“This submission establishes a direct chain of command, operational control, and deliberate intent. The evidence demonstrates the organised and systematic nature of the attack, meeting the legal thresholds for prosecution under international criminal law,” Natacha Bracq, head of litigation at HRF, stated.

He noted that the Hind Rajab case is not isolated and represents a wider pattern of violations that the ICC must urgently address.

“The rule of law cannot remain selective when the crime is genocide.”

Further prosecutions are now being prepared by the Brussels-based rights organization in courts across Europe, North America, and Latin America, a widening net of accountability that challenges the entrenched impunity surrounding Israel’s two-year genocide in Gaza.

“There are a large number of dual-nationality soldiers in the company, and this truly opens up avenues for legal action at the country’s level. At the level of the home countries of these criminals,” HRF’s executive director, Dyab AbouJahjah, said in a recent interview.

Many names were identified by tracking the social media accounts and profiles of various Israeli military personnel, who were boasting about their war crimes in Gaza by posting related footage online for several months.

“This is not only a legal act, it’s a revolt against the global order of impunity,” Jahjah said.

“They believed Hind's murder would be without accountability; we are proving them wrong, step by step. Twenty-four names are now before the ICC, and more will follow in national courts. Justice is not a favor we ask — it is the inevitable reckoning of truth.

Voice that shook the world

While the HRF filings at the ICC and other courts have sought legal accountability, Hind’s story has taken on a life far beyond the courtroom.

A single terrified child’s voice trapped amid Israeli shelling has become a global moral touchstone, her name invoked in art, activism, and cinema as the world still struggles to process the brutality she endured.

Hind’s voice, preserved in her calls, was also used by the Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania in her docudrama The Voice of Hind Rajab.

The movie chronicles her final hours and received the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, with audiences giving a nearly 24-minute standing ovation.

Hind’s name has become a rallying cry that exposed her killers to the world. The brutality of her murder forced the global public to confront the savagery practised by Israeli soldiers, whose actions turned a terrified child into a symbol of conscience for millions.

Her story has also resonated in academic and activist spaces, including students at Columbia University who renamed a building “Hind’s Hall” in her honour.

These actions reflect the global recognition of the events, while the investigative findings remain central, the identities of the perpetrators are now documented and public.

Aharon, Ella and Glass, these names and their documented actions offer a concrete understanding of the human decisions behind the genocide in Gaza that killed nearly 70,000 Palestinians, most of them children and women.

The exposure of the killers marks a significant moment; the perpetrators now have faces, names, and documented actions, ensuring that their involvement in one of the deadliest incidents against Palestinians in Gaza does not remain anonymous.

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