Gaza: Family of frail boy killed at GHF site months ago still haven't received his body

Middle East Eye

a day ago

The family of a 10-year-old boy who was killed whilst trying to receive aid at the controversial Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) have yet to receive his body, more than two months after he went missing and a week after a US whistleblower said he saw Israeli forces shoot him dead.
Last week, retired US army soldier Anthony Aguilar, who worked as a security subcontractor at the GHF, said he saw Israeli forces kill Abdulrahim 'Amir' al-Jarabe'a on 28 May, whilst he was manning a GHF aid distribution point in southern Gaza.
"This young boy, Amir, walked up to me, barefoot and wearing tattered clothes that hung off his emaciated body," Aguilar told the UnXeptable podcast.
"He walked 12km to get there, and when he got there, he thanked us for the remnants and the small crumbs that he got.
"He set them down on the ground, because I was kneeling at this point, and he sets his food down, and he places his hands on my face, on the side of my face, on my cheeks, these frail, skeleton, emaciated hands - dirty - and he puts them on my face, and he kissed me.
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"He kissed me, and he said thank you in English, thank you. And he collected his items, and he walked back to the group," he said.
"Then he was shot at with pepper spray, tear gas, stun grenades and bullets shot at his feet [and then] in the air, and he runs away scared, and the IDF [Israeli army] were shooting at the crowd.
"They're shooting into this crowd and Palestinians - civilians, human beings - are dropping to the ground, getting shot. And Amir was one of them."
Amir's cousin, Qusai al-Jarabe'a, told Middle East Eye that the family had held out hope that he may still be alive despite him being missing for more than two months.
"He is still missing, his fate is unknown," Qusai said, referring to the fact that his body had yet to be recovered.
"Everyone's heartbroken. But he's not the first child, nor will he be the last [to go missing]. Israel is targeting children," he added.
Exclusive: The family of 10-year-old Abdulrahim Mohammed al-Jarabe'a, known by his nickname Amir, has renewed calls for an international investigation into his disappearance, after a widely circulated video showed him receiving aid from a US soldier in southern Gaza.
Abdulrahim… pic.twitter.com/caZ9YKp5K0 — Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) August 1, 2025
Since 28 May, when Amir is reported to have visited a GHF aid site in southern Gaza, his step-mother Siham al-Jarabe'a said that she had reached out to every functioning clinic and hospital for any sign of life.
MEE also contacted hospitals and morgues but was told no one matching his name or description had been admitted between 28 May and 1 August.
"The family is heartbroken," Siham told MEE, as she pleaded with international bodies, including the Red Cross, to help find his remains.
"He went to get food, and he never came back. If a dog had gone missing like this, people would have asked where it went - but because he's a Palestinian child, the world stays silent," she said.
According to Siham, the boy was in high spirits and continued to help his relatives hunt for food after his father was killed on 29 December in an Israeli air strike in Bani Suheila, in the Khan Younis governorate of the Gaza Strip.
"Where did Amir go, to which place?" Siham asked.
"Did he go to the soldiers, or somewhere else? If I would have seen him leave to go get aid, I would have brought him back."
'Bodies are piling up'
On Monday, the Palestinian NGO, the Addameer Foundation, said that at least 54 Palestinians were unaccounted for after heading to aid centres operated by the GHF.
"We have documented arrests of aid seekers, including children," it said as it blamed Israeli forces for blocking efforts to recover the bodies of those reportedly killed near GHF sites.
"Bodies are piling up near aid sites, and in many cases, the IOF [Israeli army] has bulldozed them without allowing proper recovery or identification."
Starving child in Gaza was reportedly killed minutes after receiving aid, former US military contractor says Read More »
According to the United Nations, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces while trying to access food in Gaza since the controversial GHF began operations in late May.
Last month, a displaced Palestinian in Gaza, compared trying to collect food at a GHF site to the TV show Squid Game, in which killing was entertainment.
The GHF has sternly denied it is to blame for the mounting death toll and chaotic distribution of aid, instead seeking to blame the UN.
"If you can prove to us you can save more lives, feed more families, restore more hope, come on," Johnnie Moore, the executive chairman of the GHF, said at the Heritage Foundation in Washington on Thursday.
"Until then, we're going to judge every actor not by their intentions or by their pedigree but by their results."
The GHF was brought in as an attempted alternative to UN aid agencies in Gaza, which have decades of experience, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu imposed a total siege on the strip in March.
It began operations in May and had a rocky start after its first CEO resigned, citing human rights concerns. The staff is made up of military contractors from the US, with some from the UK.
GHF's funding remains a mystery, though the Trump administration has now approved $30m for the organisation, despite initially describing it as a completely independent undertaking that is not government-linked.