The family of the ten-year-old boy who was killed while trying to receive aid from the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), backed by Israel and the United States (U.S.), still has not received his body, more than two months after he disappeared.
Last week, retired U.S. Army soldier Anthony Aguilar, who was working as a mercenary for the GHF, said he saw Israeli forces kill Abdulrahim ‘Amir’ al-Jarabe’a on May 28th while he was working at the GHF aid distribution point in southern Gaza.
“This young boy, Amir, approached me barefoot and in torn clothes that hung from his skinny body. He walked 12 km to get there, and when he arrived, he thanked us for the leftovers and small crumbs he received. He put them down on the ground, because I was kneeling at that moment, and he put his food down, and he put his hands on my face, on the sides of my face, on my cheeks, those fragile, skeletal, skinny hands – dirty – and put them on my face, and kissed me. He kissed me and said Thank you in English, thank you. And he picked up his things and went back to the group,” Aguilar said.
Then he was fired at with pepper spray, tear gas, stun grenades, and bullets fired at his legs, then into the air, and he ran away, frightened, and the Israeli army fired at the crowd.
“They’re shooting into this crowd and Palestinians – civilians, human beings – are falling to the ground, being shot. And Amir was one of them,” he said.
Amir’s cousin, Qusai al-Jarabe’a, said the family hoped he might still be alive despite having been missing for more than two months.
“He is still missing; his fate is unknown,” said Qusai, referring to the fact that his body has not yet been found.
“Everyone’s heart is broken. But he’s not the first child, nor will he be the last [to go missing]. Israel is targeting children,” he added.
Since May 28th, when Amir allegedly visited the GHF aid location in southern Gaza, his stepmother, Siham al-Jarabe’a, said she has contacted every functional clinic and hospital looking for any sign of life.
Hospitals and morgues were contacted, but no one matching his name or description had been admitted between May 28th and August 1st.
“The family is heartbroken,” Siham said, as she pleaded with international bodies, including the Red Cross, to help find his remains.
“He went to get food and never came back. If a dog disappeared like this, people would ask where it went – but because he’s a Palestinian child, the world is silent,” she said.
According to Siham, the boy was in good spirits and continued helping relatives search for food after his father was killed on December 29th in an Israeli airstrike in Bani Suheila, in the Khan Younis governorate of the Gaza Strip.
“Where did Amir go, to what place? Did he go to the soldiers or somewhere else? If I had seen him going to get aid, I would have brought him back,” Siham asked.
