The Gazan baby Jawad knows at his young age what it means to live under a military occupation: the detention of his father and himself, and, according to relatives and medical documents, physical abuse at the hands of soldiers. “The doctor told me: ‘No, these are not shrapnel wounds. What Jawad has on his right knee is a cigarette burn,'” he explains in an interview with EFE in the Al Maghazi refugee camp (central Gaza) Jawad’s grandmother, Rana Abu Nasar.
Both she and the boy’s grandfather allege, based on a medical check-up at Al Aqsa Hospital (Deir al Balah, Gaza), that the boy suffered at least one cigarette burn and puncture wounds to his calf when he was held by him for ten hours on March 19.
Even today Rana, who covers his face with a niqab in front of the press, keeps the blue shorts that the boy was wearing that day, bloody on both legs and with small holes in the fabric. Rana details that at the hospital Jawad had an x-ray and an ultrasound, and that he was seen by a pediatrician. He says that, a week later, the boy is still restless, having nightmares that wake him up in the middle of the night and taking painkillers due to the fever.
“I demand that what happened be investigated, why this child? What did he do to deserve this?” he asks. EFE did not obtain Jawad’s medical report before the publication of this story.
Soldiers shot the father
Last March 19, as Jawad’s mother, grandfather and a family friend told EFE, was when the ordeal of these Palestinians began. The father, Osama Muhamad Abu Nasar, 25, left home that day with Jawad to buy a gift on the eve of Aid Al Fitr, the celebration that marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
However, as they say, instead of heading west, Osama, confused and after weeks suffering from “psychological disorders”, headed west; near where Israeli troops are still stationed. The soldiers then opened fire on them, wounding Osama in the shoulder, in what the Army described as “warning shots.”
“The shots were not intended to harm him, but rather to force the suspect to stop and move away. It is likely that the splinters resulting from the fire caused minor injuries to both the suspect and the child,” the Army responded to EFE, calling it unfounded and “Hamas propaganda” for its soldiers to abuse Jawad.
Close to the so-called yellow line, the perimeter where the Israeli Army continues to be deployed and control almost half of Gaza, hundreds of Gazans have been killed by Israeli fire since last October 10, the day the ceasefire began, according to data from the local Ministry of Health.
A “military unit” or a “drone” involved in the event
After the attack by the troops, the accounts differ: the grandfather and the mother say that, according to witnesses, a “military unit” or a “drone” approached them both and that Osama – who was carrying Jawad on his shoulders – left the child on the ground. Afterwards, he was forced to strip to his underwear and once tied, he was loaded into a vehicle around ten in the morning.
The family friend tells EFE that he saw Osama heading in the wrong direction and that he was nearby when the soldiers opened fire. According to him, the Israeli soldier’s shot caused both of them – “Jawad on his shoulders” – to fall to the ground and only later was Osama taken into a tank.
Israel accuses father of being a member of Hamas
To this day Osama remains detained. The Israeli Army assures that, during the interrogation to which they subjected him, the young man identified himself as a member of Hamas and that he even admitted to having entered Israel during the October 7 massacre.
The family denies it. “Our son has nothing to do with the resistance or anything like that. He is a simple and normal person, who simply lives like any other,” says Osama’s father. And he insists: “What did the child do wrong? This is a crime without justification (…) They deliberately tortured the child to pressure his father in case he had any information,” he adds.
