An Israeli tank fired from close range at the car of six-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, hitting the ambulance sent to assist them with a shell, an investigation revealed.

The killing of the child and her family in Gaza City in late January led to international outrage.

Rajab, who initially survived the shooting, begged for help while bleeding among her dead relatives as she communicated with paramedics and her mother for three hours.

In a documentary on civilian deaths in the Gaza war, Al Jazeera TV’s Fault Lines, in collaboration with Forensic Architecture and Earshot, reconstructed the incident.

The investigation found that the Israeli tank was potentially only 13 to 23 meters (42 to 75 feet) away when it fired on the car with Rajab and her family.

Through interviews with relatives, Palestinian Civil Defence personnel, and medical responders, the documentary presents the most detailed video account of the incident to date.

It also reconstructs, for the first time, the probable position of the tank when it fired, as well as the trajectory of the shell that struck the ambulance coming to rescue Rajab.

The Israeli military declined to answer Al Jazeera’s inquiries about the incident's specifics. However, the new evidence contradicts earlier claims by the Israeli military that their troops were not in the area.

The ambulance sent to help Rajab was attacked after receiving an approved route from Israeli authorities.

Paramedics Yousef Zeino and Ahmad al-Madhoun were killed in the ambulance attack.

“I will never encounter heroes like them again, who knew they would die and still went,” said Omar al-Qam, a dispatcher with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), who was in communication with Rajab and her cousin, who was killed in Israeli fire while pleading for help.

‘Most difficult feeling’

It took 12 days before Palestinian paramedics and Rajab’s family reached the attack site in Gaza City’s northern part.

Rajab’s mother, Wissam Hamada, recalled her daughter’s voice fading towards the end of their call.

Hamada said Rajab mentioned she couldn’t speak because her mouth was bleeding, but she didn’t want to wipe it to avoid troubling her mother.

“I told her, ‘It’s okay, wipe your mouth and I’ll wash it, my sweetheart.’ She agreed, wiped with her sleeve, and her voice disappeared at exactly 7 pm. The sound was gone completely,” Hamada told Fault Lines.

“It’s the hardest feeling in the world to hear my daughter ask me to come for her when I couldn’t reach her. My sweetheart, I couldn’t get to you. Forgive me, my dear.”

Rajab’s death elicited global condemnation, especially in the United States, which supports Israel’s war on Gaza.

One of the two active US airmen seeking to become conscientious objectors due to Washington’s support for Israel’s war cited Rajab’s killing as a turning point.

Fault Lines also featured other Palestinian families recounting their harrowing experiences and survival struggles amidst Israel’s ongoing war.

Watch the film: ‘The Night Won’t End’: Biden’s War on Gaza