Gaza man with Down’s syndrome mauled by Israeli attack dog and left to die, family says

A Palestinian man with Down’s syndrome and autism died after allegedly being mauled by an Israeli military dog during a raid on his home in Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza, his family has said.

Muhammed Bhar’s mother is distraught at her son becoming one of nearly 38,000 Palestinians killed in Israel's retaliatory offensive to a Hamas attack on southern Israel on 7 October that killed about 1,200 people and saw another 250 taken hostage.

The Israeli bombardment forced Bhar’s family to evacuate a number of times before returning, but the fighting trapped the family in their home on 3 July. That is when they say Israeli forces raided their house.

Bhar was left behind when the soldiers forcibly moved out the family. He was found dead when they returned several days later.

“He didn’t know how to eat, drink, or change his clothes. I’m the one who changed his nappies. I am the one who fed him. He didn’t know how to do anything by himself,” his mother, Nabila Bhar, 70, who saw the dog attack her son, told the BBC.

“The dog attacked him, biting his chest and then his hand. Muhammed didn’t speak, only muttering ‘No, no, no’. The dog bit his arm and the blood was shed. I wanted to get to him but I could not. No one could get to him and he was patting the dog’s head saying, ‘Enough, my dear, enough.’ In the end, he relaxed his hand, and the dog started tearing at him while he was bleeding. They took him away, put him in a separate room and locked the door.”

The family “wanted to see what happened to him, to see what had become of him”, the mother said, but the Israeli soldiers told them “to be quiet and aimed their guns at us”.

“They put us in a room by ourselves, and Muhammed was alone in another room. They said, ‘We will bring a military doctor to treat him.’”

The soldiers then forced the family to leave their home.

The family contacted the Red Cross daily for a week, asking after Bhar and pleading for his medical treatment, but the humanitarian group reported non-cooperation from the Israeli military, the Middle East Eye reported.

Jebril Bhar was the first from the family to return home after Israeli troops withdrew earlier this week. He found his younger brother lying dead.

The exact cause of Bhar’s death is unclear as there was no postmortem and no death certificate was issued.

His body was buried quickly in an alley due to the ongoing danger.

“I had to bury him near the house,” Mr Jebril told Middle East Eye. “There’s about a metre’s space between our house and my uncle’s. That’s where I buried Muhammed.”

The family has called for an investigation into his death.

Bhar’s death sparked outrage on social media.

“Having a brother with Down syndrome and autism just like Muhammed I know how vulnerable, confused and frightened he would have been,” one user posted on X

“How do you read the story of Muhammed Bhar,” asked another, “and feel anything but bottomless grief at what the world allows to happen? He must have been so scared.”

Bhar’s mother said she will never forget the scene of her son getting mauled.

“I constantly see the dog tearing at him and his hand, and the blood pouring from his hand,” she told the BBC. “It is always in front of my eyes, never leaving me for a moment. We couldn’t save him, neither from them nor from the dog.”

In a statement to the The Independent, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed Bhar was bitten by an Israeli military dog during an “operation against [Hamas] terrorists”, referring to him as “an individual”.

The statement says that troops provided “initial medical treatment to that individual in a separate room within the building and urged its family to evacuate the apartment to avoid staying in the combat area”.

The spokesperson said the IDF “regrets any harm to civilians during combat operations” but added that “this incident underscores Hamas’s practice of operating within civilian environments and using the civilian population as human shields”.

It said that while soldiers were treating Bhar “an RPG was fired at our troops, hitting an IDF tank and causing injuries to soldiers, ultimately resulting in the death of one of them”. The soldiers in the building then “had to leave to ensure treatment was given to the injured soldiers”, the statement said.

“At this point, the individual likely remained alone in the building,” the spokesperson said, without providing details of Bhar’s medical status at that time.

This article was updated on 23 July to include a response from the Israeli military