Emad Abu Rashid

Their life

Emad Abu Rashid, a 47-year-old Palestinian emergency responder and father of six (with a seventh child on the way), was killed by Israeli forces on October 28, 2022, near the Huwwara military checkpoint south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank. A lieutenant in the Palestinian Civil Defense, Abu Rashid was shot multiple times in the abdomen and head while providing emergency services. Another medic, Ramzi Sami Zabara, 35, was also fatally shot in the heart. Both were unarmed and responding to an earlier incident when Israeli soldiers opened fire on their vehicle. Despite efforts by Palestinian medics—who were initially blocked by Israeli forces—Abu Rashid and Zabara succumbed to their wounds in a Nablus hospital.

Emad Abu Rashid, a dedicated emergency worker from Askar refugee camp near Nablus, spent his career saving lives as part of the Palestinian Civil Defense, which provides medical, firefighting, and rescue services in the West Bank. On the day of his death, he and his colleagues were responding to reports of gunfire near the Huwwara checkpoint—a frequent site of Israeli military violence—when soldiers suddenly opened fire on their vehicle without warning.

The Israeli military claimed they were searching for suspects involved in an earlier shooting at the checkpoint, but Abu Rashid and Zabara were unarmed civilians in uniform, targeted despite their clear identification as medics. Israeli forces initially prevented Palestinian ambulances from reaching the wounded, delaying critical care. Abu Rashid, a husband and father of six (with his wife pregnant at the time of his death), became one of many Palestinian first responders killed by Israeli forces in what human rights groups describe as a pattern of attacks on

How they died

He was killed by Israeli forces

Emad Abu Rashid, a 47-year-old Palestinian Civil Defense lieutenant and emergency medic, was killed by multiple gunshot wounds to the abdomen and head fired by Israeli soldiers near the Huwwara checkpoint. He was unarmed and in uniform at the time of the shooting, which also killed fellow medic Ramzi Sami Zabara (35) with a bullet to the heart.

Why we remember them

This record exists so that Emad Abu Rashid, and all who are named in this archive, are never reduced to a number.

References & sources