On January 1, 2009 the Israeli F-16s targeted the home of Nizar Rayan. The father, his four wives, and his sons were on the roof of his home. Only his daughter Zainab, nine-year old, was playing in the courtyard. That is why it was so difficult to find the parts of her body after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had struck the house. The house of three floors was completely razed; Zainab and her family were smashed.

Zainab suffered from an average mental inertia. The father visited every hospital and rehabilitation institution trying to find a cure for his little daughter's disease. Later on, Zainab's mental status witnessed some improvement so doctors allowed her to go to school. Zainab was a third-grade student at a primary school when died. 

Her sister-in-law recalls Zainab's face saying, "Every feature in her face would tell how innocent and tender she was. I remember how she sympathized with me when I was pregnant and prayed for me to have a beautiful baby like her brother Asaad." 

Zainab's brother, Belal, says: "Zainab knew nothing about this world but being innocent. That's why she attracted the attention of everyone who knew her. Even the wheel of Israeli vicious war did not stop my innocent sister Zainab from playing with her toys and that might have been her only way out of fear and terror."

On January 4, 2009, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (B'Tselem) issued a statement in which it expressed its condemnation for the crime inflicted on the Rayans, confirming that the IDF action in that accident contradicted the International Humanitarian Law. (http://www.btselem.org/english/gaza_strip/
20090104_killing_of_nizar_rian_and_13_family_member.asp ).