Crime Shakes Gaza: Occupation Tortures Infant with Cigarettes to Pressure Detained Father

The Gaza Strip witnessed a shocking incident reflecting the extent of cruelty and violations practiced by the Israeli occupation army against civilians, where a child, not yet two years old, became a means of physical and psychological pressure during a military field interrogation. The incident, which occurred in the Al-Maghazi area, sparked a wave of widespread anger after details of the child's torture in front of his detained father were revealed.

The tragedy began when the young man, Osama Abu Nassar, left his home with his young child, 'Kareem,' to secure some basic necessities for the family. Suddenly, the area came under heavy fire from occupation forces stationed near the eastern border of Al-Maghazi, placing the father and his child in a direct target zone.

Local sources and eyewitnesses reported that a 'quadcopter' drone surrounded Abu Nassar, forcing him at gunpoint to leave his child alone on the ground and advance towards a temporary military checkpoint. There, the father was forced to strip completely before being interrogated by occupation soldiers in a humiliating manner.

In a scene lacking the slightest standards of humanity, the soldiers detained the infant and began to inflict various forms of physical torture upon him. The purpose of these brutal practices was to pressure the distraught father into watching his child suffer, in order to extract confessions and information during his field interrogation.

Family sources quoted Kareem's mother as providing horrific details documented in an official medical report after the child's release. It was revealed that the soldiers extinguished burning cigarette butts on various parts of the infant's body, in addition to embedding an iron nail in his leg and pricking him with sharp tools to force him to scream continuously.

Kareem was held for ten continuous hours away from his family's embrace and in conditions lacking the most basic care. After the interrogation of his father concluded, the child was handed over to Red Cross teams in the Al-Maghazi market area, in a very difficult physical and psychological state as a result of what he endured.

While Kareem returned to his mother burdened with his physical injuries, his father, Osama Abu Nassar, remains in detention in occupation prisons, with his fate and the charges against him unknown. The family lives in a state of double anxiety over the unknown fate of the father and the health condition of the child, who requires intensive medical and psychological care.

This crime sparked angry reactions on social media platforms, where activists and human rights advocates considered it a full-fledged war crime that crosses all red lines. Commentators affirmed that targeting infants and using them as hostages for military pressure represents an unprecedented moral decline in the history of modern conflicts.

Human rights organizations called for an urgent and independent international investigation into this incident and its documentation as part of the war crimes files raised against occupation leaders. Human rights advocates stressed that the absolute international silence regarding these violations gives the green light to the occupation army to repeat such brutal practices against children and women.

This incident comes in the context of a long series of violations documented daily by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which include deliberate killing and field torture. The story of Kareem remains a living testament to the extent of suffering experienced by the residents of the Strip, where even infants are not safe from the Israeli machine of oppression and abuse.

It is impossible for these to be human beings; they are monsters in human form. Indeed, even monsters are more merciful than what these individuals commit against our children.