GAZA, (PIC)
The dictionary of genocide and massacres committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip is not large enough to encompass the vocabulary of the savagery and its brutal forms in the killing of civilians. The story of the 24-year-old martyr Muhammad Bahar, who was not spared by his Down Syndrome, will remain present as one of the recurring testimonies to condemn the Israeli aggression.
The horrific scene described by his family is of the moment of Muhammad Bahar’s martyrdom, after the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) forced his family to leave the house before unleashing a police dog on him, which tore him apart in front of his grieving mother, causing him to bleed to death. This scene reveals the magnitude of the vileness and criminality of the army that claims to be the most moral army in the world.
In front of the eyes of his mother and brothers, the 24-year-old Palestinian youth Muhammad Bahar, who suffered from Down syndrome, was subjected to a savage attack by an Israeli army dog during the army’s recent incursion into the Shujayya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City.
Nabila Bahar (70 years old), Muhammad’s mother, said that “when the army raided the Shujayya neighborhood, we remained besieged in the house for 7 days and did not leave it, and with us was my son Muhammad who suffers from Down Syndrome.”
She added, “On the seventh day, the Israeli army besieged the house and brought in its quadcopter drones to film what was inside the house. At that time, we were calling out that we were civilians, but they fired shells and bullets around the house and stormed it with a force accompanied by dogs.”
She continued, “We were terrified by the scene of the invading troops along with their dogs.”
The mother said, “The dogs attacked us, and one of them pounced on my son Muhammad, who was sitting on the sofa, and the dog bit him in the chest and then in his hand. Muhammad was scared, and I called on the army soldiers to drive the dog away from him and told them that he is sick.”
She explained, “Muhammad has Down Syndrome, and it is evident from his appearance that he is affected and innocent, and he is unable to move and speak, and he only utters simple words.”
Nabila noted that the dog’s bites led to “uncontrolled bleeding,” and she and the rest of the family members could only watch Muhammad from the window of the room to which the army had evacuated them, and he remained inside motionless, with fear on his face due to the violent attack of the dog and the tearing of his frail, innocent body.
There was a state of outrage on social media and widespread condemnation of the Israeli criminality, as activists and bloggers expressed their solidarity with the grieving family and their intense anger towards the Israeli occupation army and its horrific crimes against civilians in Gaza.
The bloggers circulated the last words of the martyr Muhammad Bahar, who only knew a few words from this world, “Leave me, enough”
He said those words before his martyrdom, as the IOF soldiers left him to bleed to death after the dog accompanying them had bitten his body.
The IOF uses dogs systematically in its crimes
On June 27th, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said in a statement that “the use of dogs by the Israeli army to attack Palestinian civilians in Gaza, in addition to their use in terrorizing, biting and raping prisoners and detainees in Israeli detention centers, is a systematic and widely practiced behavior.”
The Geneva-based Monitor added, “We have documented dozens of cases in which the Israeli forces used large dogs during their military operations in Gaza, especially during raids on homes, hospitals and shelters.”
Euro-Med monitor explained that “the dogs repeatedly attack civilians and bite them during the incursions, without any intervention from the Israeli soldiers, who often order the dogs to attack civilians, and then mock them, according to testimonies.”
