Killing of Mohammad Bhar

This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.Mohammad Bhar (Arabic: محمد بهار; 2000 – July 2024) was a 24-year-old Palestinian man with Down syndrome and autism who died after being mauled by an Israeli Oketz military dog in a Gaza Strip house during the Israel–Hamas war.

When the family returned to the house a week later, they found Bhar's bloodied, decaying body on the floor and a tourniquet on his arm.

[2] He was also deeply attached to his mother, Nabila, a widow who had lost her husband after he was killed by the Israeli military during a raid in eastern Gaza City in 2002.

In July 2024, the Bhar family was hiding at one of their relatives' house in the Shuja'iyya neighborhood of Gaza City, where the Israeli military was in pursuit of Hamas fighters.

The unit consisted of several dozen soldiers and a combat dog used to check for explosives, booby traps, and to find Hamas fighters.

[3] The mother said that Israeli soldiers then took Mohammad to another room away from the dog, while pointing their guns at the rest of the family and telling them that a military doctor would soon arrive.

[1][7] The Bhar family tried to contact the Palestine Red Crescent Society to ask for their assistance, but were informed that the Israeli authorities were not cooperating with their requests.

[5] The family said they later returned to the house a week later and found Mohammad's bloodied body lying on the floor and beginning to decay, with worms starting to eat his face.

[1] The Israeli military said in response to a BBC query that the troops left Bhar in the house alone because there were soldiers injured in a rocket attack somewhere else that needed their help.

We couldn't save him, neither from them nor from the dog.A similar incident was reported a month prior to Mohammad's killing: Al Jazeera posted footage from a camera attached to a dog accompanying Israeli forces, that showed it dragging and biting an elderly Palestinian woman in her home.

[4] The BBC's report was criticized by activists who considered the original headline ("Gaza man with Down's syndrome dies lonely death") to be obscuring the Israeli military's responsibility in the incident; the headline was later changed to "Gaza man with Down's syndrome attacked by IDF dog and left to die, mother tells BBC.