Palestinian family accuses Israeli army of kidnapping and murdering their child in Gaza
Baha Abu al-Ajeen, 32, is a farmer who regularly goes to his farmland in the Wadi al-Salqa area, about 150 meters from the yellow line that Israel established to demarcate its forces within the Gaza Strip after the genocidal war of October 2023.
At 6pm on Sunday, Baha left home in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, as usual, taking his three-year-old son, Rayan, and his brother-in-law, Khaled Abu Gharaba, to check on their farmland. However, the trip ended in tragedy.
The Abu al-Ajeen family accuse the Israeli army of kidnapping their son and his father, and shooting them without justification, resulting in the child's death and the father's injury.
Nawaf Abu al-Ajeen, the family elder and a relative of Baha, told Middle East Eye that the three of them were shocked to see Israeli soldiers positioned inside a house in the area. The soldiers opened fire directly and without warning.
The bullets immediately pierced Rayan's eye, causing it to gouge out, and exited the back of his head, al-Ajeen said. Another bullet struck his father in the leg.
According to al-Ajeen, the soldiers left the family members bleeding without providing any medical treatment, then arrested the three of them and transported them in military vehicles to the Kissufim military base.
"The child was killed instantly after being shot in the head while in his father's arms. Baha was left bleeding without any medical assistance; they simply tied a piece of cloth around his thigh and did nothing else," he said.
Baha remained detained, holding his child's body in his arms the entire time, along with Khaled, who was also under arrest. Then, at midnight, the soldiers dumped the wounded Baha and his dead child on Salah al-Din Street.
"We learned from eyewitnesses that soldiers had dumped a wounded man and his child on Salah al-Din Street. We hoped it was Baha and Rayan, so we went there and found the child dead from a bullet wound to the eye and Baha wounded in the leg," Nawaf explained.
They were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where Rayan was officially pronounced dead. Baha was found to have been shot in the leg, and the doctors in the hospital inserted a device to stabilise the fracture. He remains hospitalised.
"We buried the child on Monday afternoon and took his body to his grieving mother, who is still in a terrible state, unable to believe what happened. An ordinary day turned into a living hell we will never forget," he said.
Khaled remains in detention without any information about him.
The Israeli army claimed on Sunday evening that it had fired on members of an armed cell attempting to approach the Yellow Line.
Khalil al-Daqran, spokesperson for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, told MEE that the emergency room received a man and the body of his three-year-old son after midnight.
"The bullet pierced the child's head, and he arrived deceased hours ago. The father is in stable condition with a leg injury and is receiving treatment," he added.
War crimes
The UN Human Rights Office stated in a report in May that approximately one-third of the Palestinians killed by Israel since the ceasefire agreement came into effect in October were killed in areas close to the ceasefire line with Hamas, raising concerns that Israeli forces are shooting civilians simply for approaching the area.
The office explained that "such actions would constitute unlawful killings and are therefore war crimes".
Ajith Sungai, director of the UN Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territory, described this pattern as "disturbing".
"Civilians don’t appear to have posed any threat to the lives of Israeli soldiers, including in some cases where they appear to have been shot while carrying out daily activities, or after approaching or crossing what is known as the Israeli 'yellow line,'" he added in a press statement.
'Israel uses ready-made justifications to legitimise the killing of civilians near the Green Line and employs new methods of killing, either by soldiers or by members of its affiliated armed groups'
- Alaa Skafi, Al-Dameer
UN data indicates that 453 people were killed since the ceasefire until 5 February, including 152 Palestinians - 102 men, 15 women, 24 boys, and 11 girls - near the Yellow Line.
Alaa Skafi, director of the Al-Dameer Association for Human Rights in Gaza, told MEE that 65 percent of the Gaza Strip is currently classified as "yellow" and "red" zones by Israel.
Anyone who approaches these areas or the Yellow Line is shot at or arrested under the pretext of approaching Israeli army positions, even though they pose no threat to the soldiers, he said.
"Civilians are targeted by snipers, tank shells, or drones," he explained.
Although Israel places yellow concrete blocks in areas near what is known as the Salah al-Din Line, which divides the Gaza Strip into east and west, it moves these blocks westward daily and then shoots at civilians under the pretext that they are approaching them.
“Israel uses ready-made justifications to legitimise the killing of civilians near the Yellow Line and employs new methods of killing, either by soldiers or by members of its affiliated armed groups,” Skafi concluded.
Since the signing of the ceasefire agreement on 11 October between Israel and Hamas, the Israeli army has killed 992 Palestinians and wounded 3,144, according to data from the Palestinian health ministry published on Monday.
This article was sourced from Middle East Eye.
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