A Gazan boy, who was said to be killed by the Israel Defense Forces, is reportedly alive and was extracted from the Gaza Strip with his mother.
The 8-year-old boy, who had been dubbed “Amir,” but whose real name is Abdul Rahim Muhammad Hamden and goes by “Abboud,” was found alive by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation after reportedly being killed in May, Fox News reported.
Hamden and his mother, Najlaa, were safely extracted from the Gaza Strip on Thursday, but their location is not being disclosed.
“Outside the Gaza Strip is nice,” Hamden said, according to a translation verified by Fox News.Â
Hamden’s story went viral after a former GHF contractor, Anthony Aguilar, a 25-year U.S. Army veteran and retired Green Beret lieutenant colonel, said he saw the boy gunned down by the IDF outside a GHF distribution site on May 28.
Aguilar had shown body camera footage of Hamden approaching him and another contractor, clutching bags of food. The veteran said that he and Hamden had a touching moment where the boy kissed his hand and then his face in apparent thanks for the food supplies.
He was employed as a contractor by GHF subcontractor UG Solutions and said that Hamden then ran back to the group of other Palestinians who were forced to leave the aid site after pepper spray, tear gas, and stun grenades were employed.
Aguilar then said he heard shots fired after the Palestinians had left, and when he reached the scene, found Hamden and others who had been shot by the IDF.
“Shot to the torso, a shot to the leg – dead,” Aguilar said.
However, Aguilar’s accounts of the incident varied, as he initially claimed that the killing happened first outside GHF aid site Secure Distribution Site-1 (SDS), then said that the shooting happened near SDS-2, and later said the events occurred outside SDS-3.
GHF terminated Aguilar’s contract in June, then launched an investigation at the end of July to try and locate the identity of the boy and uncover what happened. The aid group eventually tracked down Hamden and his mother after speaking with local Palestinians.
GHF verified Hamden, his mother, and other relatives using facial recognition software that compared the images of the boy with those captured by Aguilar, along with biometric data.
“We are overjoyed and deeply relieved that Abboud is safe, and that this story ends in hope,” GHF Executive Chair Johnnie Moore told Fox News. “That outcome was never guaranteed and it’s thanks to the courage and persistence of our team of American heroes; veterans who never stopped working to find him and bring him to safety in the most complex environment imaginable.”
“While this story ends happily, it could have ended in tragedy,” Moore added. “Too many people, including in the press and civil society, were quick to spread unverified claims without asking the most basic questions.Â
“When a child’s life is at stake, facts must matter more than headlines,” he said.
There were concerns that as Aguilar’s story went viral, Hamas had a vested interest in ensuring that Hamden was not found, since it would discredit the claim that the GHF and the IDF had engaged in deadly behavior towards Palestinians.
