Anthony Aguilar, a retired U.S. special forces veteran, recounted a harrowing incident in which a Palestinian child named Amir was shot dead by Israeli forces at a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid distribution site in May.
Aguilar described how Amir, a 5-year-old boy who had walked 12 kilometers barefoot to receive aid, thanked him for the food he received before being shot by Israel Defense Forces(IDF) soldiers.
“On May 28, at secure distribution site #2, this young boy, Amir, walks over to me, reaches out & kisses my hand," Aguilar recalled. "This boy is not wearing shoes. His clothes are falling off of him because he is so skinny….He doesn’t have a box, he has half a bag of rice, lentils, and he was thanking us.
"He walked 12 kilometers to get there … and when he got there he thanked us for the crumbs he got … and he set them on the ground and his frail, skeletal, emaciated hands, and he kissed me and said 'thank you.'
"And then he collected his items, walked back to the group, and then he was shot at with pepper spray, and tear gas, and stunt grenades, and bullets, and he was shot at, at his feet and in the air, and he runs away...and the IDF were shooting at the crowd … they are shooting … and they are shooting into this crowd and Palestinians, civilians, human beings, are dropping to the ground, and Amir was one of them... Amir walked 12 kilometers to get food, got nothing but scraps, thanked us for it, and died."
GHF is backed by Israel as an alternative to United Nations groups in providing aid to Gaza. The organization has faced criticisms because of IDF's indiscriminate shooting into crowds, which they claim is a crowd-control measure.