GAZA, (PIC)
The three-year-old child, Rayan Bahaa Abu al-Ajeen, did not realize that his return with his father from a family visit east of the city of Deir al-Balah would be the last journey in his life.
On Sunday evening, the return route turned into the scene of a new crime, the victim of which was a young child who was shot by the Israeli occupation forces in the head while he was in the arms of his father, who was also injured and detained by the occupation forces for hours before he was thrown injured next to the body of his son on one of the main roads in central Gaza Strip.
A return journey that ended in tragedy
According to testimonies from the child’s family, Bahaa al-Din Jaber Abu al-Ajeen, 32 years old, was returning Sunday afternoon from a visit to his in-laws in the Wadi al-Salqa area east of Deir al-Balah, accompanied by his son Rayan and his brother-in-law Khaled Hassan Abu Gharaba, 56 years old, heading towards the Abu al-Ajeen area east of the city.
The family chief, Nawaf Abu al-Ajeen, said that an Israeli force was stationed inside one of the houses overlooking the road in the area, before coming out and opening fire directly at civilians without any warning.
A fatal bullet
One of the bullets hit the child in the head while he was in his father’s embrace, causing him severe injuries that later claimed his life.
The family chief explained in a press statement that the bullet caused a serious injury to the child’s head, while his father was injured in his right leg.
The family confirmed that the father was carrying his child at the moment of the shooting, before the bullet hit them both, turning the scene in seconds into a human tragedy.
Detention of the father and the injured child
The incident did not stop at the shooting, as the family reported that the occupation forces detained the injured father and his wounded child, along with Khaled Abu Gharaba, and transferred them to a military site near the area.
According to the same account, the father and his son were held for long hours despite their injuries, without providing the necessary medical care, at a time when the child was bleeding from his serious injury, while his father suffered from a severe wound in his leg.
Throwing them on the road after midnight
The family chief pointed out that the occupation forces released the father after about six hours of detention, where they threw him next to his son on Salah al-Din Street near Abu Houli junction after midnight, without informing the Red Cross or any competent authority.
He added that the soldiers sufficed with tying the father’s injured leg with a medical tape, before leaving him next to his child on the roadside, while the detention of Khaled Abu Gharaba continued.
After hours of searching, citizens found the father and his son and transferred them to the Al-Aqsa Martys Hospital in Deir al-Balah. There, the child Rayan was pronounced dead due to his injury, while his father underwent treatment for the wounds he sustained.
Later, the family held the funeral for the body of the child and laid him to rest in the area’s cemetery amid a state of sadness and anger among the residents.
Contradictory Israeli narrative
Following the incident, Israeli media, including Channel 14, circulated a narrative talking about thwarting a “resistance ambush” in central Gaza Strip, claiming the killing of a Palestinian, the detention of another, and the injury of a third during the operation.
However, the data of the incident and the family’s testimonies made it clear that the people who were subjected to the shooting were civilians, who are the father, his child, and his brother-in-law, exposing, as usual, the occupation’s false narrative.
The crime comes in light of the continuation of Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip despite the ceasefire agreement being in effect. According to data from the Ministry of Health in Gaza, the violations recorded since the start of the agreement have resulted in the martyrdom of at least 1,000 Palestinians and the injury of thousands of others, amid continuous warnings of the deterioration of the humanitarian and security conditions in the Strip.
The story of the child Rayan Abu al-Ajeen remains one of the most painful incidents, after a short journey with his father ended in the loss of his life by a bullet that hit him while he was in his arms.