A viral story about an eight-year-old Gazan boy, being shot by Israeli soldiers, is found to be false. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US-funded service agency, confirmed that the child’s name is Abdul Rahim Muhammad Hamden, also known as “Abboud” in the media and in reports, and that he is safe and alive.
At the heart of the false claim was a former GHF contractor Tony Aguilar from the US, he claimed in a low-quality video posted to social media in May that the boy (that Aguilar referred to as “Amir”) had been murdered by Israeli soldiers at an aid distribution point. Aguilar went as far to distribute video clips of the child and explains to viewers for a long time about the child’s death, which spread like wildfire on social media and traditional media.
Aguilar’s fake video made its way through the media, but an internal investigation by GHF revealed that it was completely false, fabricated and not true. The boy had left the care of his stepmother in July and when found he was living with his biological mother. His identity was ultimately verified by a biometric inspection and was recognized based on the clothing he was wearing in the viral video.
When GHF confirmed this information, Aguilar was terminated from GHF. GHF condemned the misinformation stating, considerable actions put lives at risk, are disruptive to many humanitarian actions and presents copyable information to extremist organizations to use as propaganda against humanitarian workers.
GHF also confirmed that mother and boy were relocated to a secure location. In doing so, the GHF team thanked their team of U.S. veterans and local support team. They congratulated their team in locating the child and returning him safely to his family in such difficult times.
While this is an isolated incident, it emphasizes the importance of verifying what is reported during wartime.
Humanitarian organizations continue to remind the world of how quickly misinformation spreads and how critical it is that everything reported about vulnerable populations during a war is true and authentic.
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