Gaza family accuses Israel of killing Palestinian with Down syndrome during invasion

A day after burying their brother, the al-Abadla siblings found his leg about 200 meters from where he was believed to have been killed by an Israeli drone strike in Gaza.

Ahmed Saeed Masoud al-Abadla, 29, who has Down syndrome, was homeless for about nine months, living with his mother and married brother Feras in a tent in Mawasi al-Qarara in the Khan Younis district of the Gaza Strip.

Before Ahmed went missing for three days, he wanted to return to his home in Qarara to assess the damage caused during an Israeli incursion into the southern Gaza Strip.

“Ahmed had exceptional cognitive abilities for someone with his disease. When he attended the Right to Life School as a child, he received a certificate stating that he was one of the most intelligent children with Down syndrome,” his brother Feras told Middle East Eye.

Before his death, Ahmed lived with his family in the tent where they had found shelter after being displaced during the war.

“We lived on Street 2 in al-Qarara, but we have been displaced from our homes since the war began,” he said.

The al-Abdala family was forced to leave their home during the hostilities on October 10. They returned during the ceasefire in November and were subsequently displaced twice more until they finally ended up in the Mawasi area of ​​Qarara.

“He was able to communicate well with others and his speech was clear. He had many friends and was very popular with his family and neighborhood.”

– Feras, Ahmed's brother

On July 2, the Israeli army began invading Khan Younis and intensified its attacks following orders for mass evacuation. The first phase of the invasion lasted about a week and ended on July 10.

Nevertheless, sporadic military actions and operations continued in Khan Younis throughout July, leading to the displacement of around 40,000 Palestinians.

On July 25, Ahmed told his family he was leaving and left their makeshift tent.

“He often went out alone; he knew where to go,” Feras explained, adding that his brother was usually gone for a few hours to visit friends or cousins ​​in the area before returning.

“He was able to communicate well with others and his speech was clear. He had many friends and was very popular with his family and neighborhood,” Feras added.

“Because of his strong communication skills, we were not one of those families who locked up their son with Down syndrome, although we did not let him wander around alone all the time either,” he told MEE.

“One of Ahmed's clever qualities was that if he ever stayed out late, he would go to one of his cousins ​​and say, 'Come home with me; they will surely scold me for being late.' He knew what was right and what was wrong.”

“Clearly intended”

After each military raid on their neighborhood in Qarara, Feras and his brother would drive to their house and inspect the damage in the area.

On the day of Ahmed's disappearance, his family believes he probably intended to do the same thing.

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“Ahmed went out with a relative of ours who had limited cognitive abilities. It seems they wanted to check the house and the area and left without us knowing,” Feras told MEE.

“At around 9 or 10 p.m., I sensed that something was wrong. Then the son of the man who had gone out with Ahmed came to me and said that his father had also come home late. That's when I knew something was seriously wrong.”

That same night, Feras reported Ahmed missing to the police. The next morning, he contacted the Red Cross and searched for him in emergency rooms, intensive care units and morgues at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital in Deir al-Balah.

Three days later, on July 28, the family received news from a neighbor in Qarara that Ahmed had been killed and his body was found on the ground near their house.

“My brother went to search for Ahmed that night, even though the situation was still extremely dangerous. He found his body, which had already begun to decompose, near our house. He asked for help from a local resident with an animal-drawn cart, and they transported his body on the cart to Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital. We buried him that same night,” Feras said.

“His body was obviously decomposed … His legs were amputated at the knees”

– Feras, Ahmed's brother

“His body was clearly decomposed and it was obvious that he had been martyred on the day he disappeared. His legs were amputated at the knees – one leg was missing completely. We found it the next day, about 200 meters from where his body had been lying.”

Ahmed's family believes he was killed by an Israeli drone strike that specifically targeted him and his relative.

“My brother told me that when he moved the body, he found a hole underneath it, about 6 to 7 centimeters in diameter. The same hole was also visible in his chest, indicating that the impact came from above and not from an artillery shell,” he said.

“This is all the more alarming because if it was indeed a drone that hit him, that means the police officer operating the drone could clearly see and record him and identified him as an unarmed civilian, and yet they hit him. It was clearly intentional.”

“He wanted to live”

Since his body was already badly decomposed, Ahmed's brother buried him immediately without allowing his mother to see him.

“The three days he was missing were the worst for our mother. When she learned that he had been martyred, she was devastated and wanted to see him, but I didn't let her,” Feras said. “I didn't want her to see him in that condition. I wanted her to remember his beautiful face.”

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Ahmed's family is particularly shocked by his death because he was “aware of the meaning of life and death and always tried to protect himself from attacks.”

“Ahmed kept asking us to let him get married. He knew there was war in Gaza, but he wanted to live,” Feras added.

Feras said when he contacted the Red Cross to report Ahmed's death, a representative told him this was not an isolated incident.

The aid organization had documented several cases in which people with Down syndrome were killed in various ways by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip.

Last month, Middle East Eye reported on the death of Muhammed Bhar, a 24-year-old Palestinian with Down syndrome, after Israeli soldiers raided his family home in the Shujaiya neighborhood of eastern Gaza City on July 3.

Two weeks after this report, the Israeli army admitted that Bhar, who died as a result of an attack and injury by an army dog, had been abandoned by the soldiers.