Gazan man with Down’s syndrome mauled by Israeli army dog, left to die, family says

By Mohammad Majid

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – In front of his mother’s eyes, 24-year-old Mohamed Bhar was brutally attacked by an Israeli army’s dog in the Shejaiya neighborhood east of Gaza City.

Bhar, who had Down’s syndrome and autism, was left bleeding to death in the attack.

His mother, Nabila Bhar recalled that her family was left besieged inside their house for seven days amid a military operation launched by the Israeli army on June 28 in the neighborhood.

"On the 7th day of the operation, Israeli forces backed by dogs raided the house. We were all panicked and terrified,” the 70-year-old mother told Anadolu.

One of the Israeli dogs attacked her son.

“He was sitting on a couch when the dog attacked him, mauled his chest and his hand. He was extremely terrified,” the Palestinian mother recalled.

The mother screamed for the soldiers to stop the dog from attacking her son.

“Mohamed had Down’s syndrome. His appearance showed that he was injured and innocent. He was unable to move, and only spoke simple words,” she said.

The dog's fatal attack has left Mohamed bleeding, with his family standing helplessly unable to provide him with any help.

- Open wound

The merciless killing of her child has left Nabila with an open wound in her heart.

"Mohamed needed help after the dog attacked him,” she said.

“We appealed to Israeli soldiers to help him but they asked us to stay away and wait for the army's doctor to arrive.”

The Palestinian family was ordered by the Israeli army to leave the house at gunpoint.

“Mohamed was left bleeding inside the room,” she recalled. "As we stood outside the house, we heard Mohamed asking for water."

“After a few moments, silence prevailed,” the mother said. “At this moment, we came to know that my son has died.”

After her son’s death, Nabila said her family was ordered by the Israeli army to leave the Shejaiya neighborhood.

The family returned to their house a few days after the end of the Israeli operation in Shejaiya.

“When we returned, we found Mohamed’s body covered in blood inside his room,” the mother said.

- Merciless killing

Mohamed’s sister Sara is still in disbelief after the tragic death of her brother.

“The dog brutally attacked Mohamed,” she said. “Israeli soldiers left him bleeding inside the room until he died of thirst.”

The Palestinian girl said that two of her brothers were also detained by Israeli forces during the military operation.

“When we returned to our house, we found Mohamed’s breathless body covered in blood.”

Mohamed was not the first Palestinian to have been mercilessly attacked by Israeli army’s dogs.

Last May, an Israeli dog brutally attacked a 70-year-old Palestinian woman during a military operation in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.

Last month, the Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the Israeli army systematically use dogs during its raids on Palestinian homes.

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

More than 38,800 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 89,400 injured, according to local health authorities.

Over nine months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar