By: Sami Abu Salem

GAZA, March 24, 2026 (WAFA) – On the morning of March 19, Palestinian citizen Osama Abu Nassar carried his one-and-a-half-year-old child, Jawad, and headed east of his home located in Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. At that moment, Israeli occupation forces opened fire toward him, while an Israeli quadcopter drone hovered overhead, ordering him via loudspeaker to place his child on the ground and continue walking toward a group of Israeli occupation troops, according to his wife, Waad Al-Shafie.

“At that point, we heard gunfire. The soldiers took the child and his father. This is what eyewitnesses told us,” Waad told WAFA correspondent.

About 12 hours later, the family received a call from the International Committee of the Red Cross informing them to come and receive the child, Jawad. The mother, Waad, and the grandfather, Mohammad, rushed and received the child from the Committee’s representatives in Al-Maghazi camp market at around 10:00 p.m.

The child appeared frail and was wrapped in a medical disposable drape sheet, preventing the mother from seeing his body.

“When I examined my son at home, I was shocked to find his pants stained with blood. I then checked his body and was horrified to discover three circular wounds—two on his left leg and one on his right,” the mother said.

The mother rushed her child to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip. Following a medical examination, doctors reported that the wound on the left leg was an entry-and-exit injury caused by a foreign object, while the injury on the right leg was most likely a burn from a cigarette being extinguished on the skin.

The child received prompt medical care in the emergency department. There were no fractures in his legs, as stated by Mohammad Abu Nassar, the child’s grandfather, to WAFA correspondent.

The 19-year-old mother, Waad, stated that her husband had recently been under severe psychological stress, which likely led him to engage in dangerous behavior.

The 25-year-old husband, Osama, who is unemployed, lives with his wife and child approximately 300 meters from the so-called “yellow line.”

This line was established under the ceasefire agreement of October 11, 2025, to separate the presence of occupation forces from residential areas in the Gaza Strip.

Since the announcement of the ceasefire agreement, Israeli occupation forces have killed 687 Palestinians and injured 1,845 others in Gaza, whether through airstrikes, artillery shelling, or live fire across all areas of the Strip.

The area where Abu Nassar lives is subjected to constant gunfire from Israeli military vehicles and drones, according to his father, Mohammad Abu Nassar.

Inside their old home, Waad holds her child, feeding him milk from a plastic bottle. Smoke rises from the fire used to cook their food, while intermittent gunfire can be heard around the house. Waad says she is deeply worried about her husband and his safety after learning that he has been injured.

“A Red Cross representative informed us that my husband is injured and is being held as a detainee by the occupation forces. We have no information about his location or the severity of his injury,” Waad said.

Israeli occupation forces prevent representatives of international organizations, particularly the Red Cross, from visiting Palestinian detainees in their prisons, leaving their numbers, health conditions, and the severe torture they endure unclear, which can result in death or permanent disability.

The father, Mohammad, also voiced concern over his son’s detention.

“In Israeli prisons, detainees are subjected to torture and medical neglect. My son is injured while in their custody, as the Red Cross informed us. We do not know whether he will be killed in prison or return with a permanent disability,” his father said.

Since the beginning of the Israeli war on Gaza, local sources report that around 70 detainees have been killed in occupation prisons, either under torture or as a result of medical neglect.

Israeli occupation forces have detained around 7,000 people from the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war on the Strip.

According to the sources, Israeli occupation forces have killed 72,263 citizens in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023.

Children in Gaza have borne a large share of these killings, as the occupation forces have killed more than 20,000 children, including 1,000 under the age of one, according to medical sources.

T.R.