Reader::Palestine

Razan al-Najjar is known to the world as the 21-year-old Palestinian medical nurse shot dead by an Israeli sniper during protests on Friday.

To her parents she was a beloved daughter who died just a few hundred meters from her home in Khan Younis, close to the fence that separates Gaza from Israel.

The surrounding streets and lampposts are now adorned with their daughter’s smiling image.

Her father, Ashraf al-Najjar, takes CNN up three flights of stairs and into their apartment. The rest of the family, their small home now filled with mourners, sit in disbelief.

Razan’s mother, Sabreen, dressed entirely in black, clutches her daughter’s blood-soaked medical vest.

She tells us Razan had been volunteering since the beginning of the protests, working without pay.

“I was afraid for her, but Razan told us she wasn’t afraid, she felt obliged to help and was clearly wearing a medical vest,” she says.

Sabreen says her daughter “may have been small, but she was strong, and her only weapon was her medical vest.”

Ashraf sits alongside his wife in a quiet state of denial, every so often nodding in agreement.

It’s a vest Razan thought would protect her.

“I’m protected by my vest,” she would tell her mother and father before heading out to help, “God is with me, I am not afraid.”

Razan al-Najjar’s death comes after weeks of Palestinian protests, known as the Great March of Return, during which more than 100 Palestinian protesters have been killed by Israeli fire.

She is the second medical worker to die. More than 200 others have been injured, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The Israeli military says it is investigating her death, adding, “the IDF constantly works to draw operational lessons and reduce the number of casualties in the area of the Gaza Strip security fence.”

“I want justice for Razan,” Sabreen says as she pulls a wad of medical gauze from the pocket of her daughter’s vest.

“Here is her weapon! I want the world to know this is the weapon of Razan al-Najjar — and is this the ID of a terrorist?” she asks rhetorically, holding up her daughter’s medical ID that she was wearing at the time of her death.