“Amir walked 12 kilometers to get food, got nothing but scraps, thanked us for it and died. That’s what we’re doing. That’s not the only occasion.”
A retired US soldier who worked as a mercenary at aid distribution sites in Gaza said he witnessed a five-year-old Palestinian boy being shot and killed by Israeli soldiers who fired on aid seekers, just moments after the boy had thanked him for the food.
Anthony Aguilar, who served in the US military for 25 years, said in an interview on Tuesday that sharing the horrific story, which took place at a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid site, “is emotional for me to get through” because of the “dehumanization” of Palestinians.
Former U.S. Green Beret Breaks Silence After Seeing Live Murder of Gaza Child Seeking Aid
Anthony Aguilar, a former U.S. Army Green Beret and private contractor who worked with the U.S.- and Israeli-backed #Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), has come forward to speak out… pic.twitter.com/IAeX5fepiU
— DOAM (@doamuslims) July 30, 2025
“I want to say to the American people and the people of Israel …. The civilians in Gaza that are getting the food, they are starving, they are not animals, they are being treated like animals,” he told UnXeptable, a platform by Israeli expats “for saving Israeli democracy,” according to its website.
Alongside pictures on the screen, Aguilar described the scene on May 28 when little Amir was “standing…with the crowd.”
“But he walks over and … he kind of walks over to me and he puts out his hand. And at first I thought that he wanted more food or something and I felt bad because I didn’t have anything, but I was like, oh, I have nothing. And he puts out his hand and so I beckoned him to come to me. I said, come here,” Aguilar recounted.
He said Amir reached out “and he hold my hand and he kisses my hand. He kisses my hand and he says, Shukran (Thank You – PC).”
‘Not Wearing Shoes’
Aguilar said it can be seen in the picture that “this little boy is not wearing shoes,” adding that his “clothes are falling off of him because he’s so skinny.”
“I put my hand on his left shoulder and I looked at him and he’s looking at me. We’re looking at each other in the eyes and I say to him, people care. You’re a human being and people care about you. The world cares,” he continued.
“It is 100 percent by design to dehumanise the civilian population [of Gaza].”
Anthony Aguilar, a retired US special operations soldier who subcontracted with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), says the organisation is starving and dehumanising Palestinians in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/xzIoOuY88A
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) July 29, 2025
He pointed out that Amir did not have a box of food, but only “half of a bag of rice that he found on the ground, a broken bag, half a bag of lentils that he found on the ground.”
Aguilar said the boy “was thanking us.”
“This little boy from where he came from walked 12 kilometers to get there just to get there. And when he got there, he thanked us for the remnants and the small crumbs that he got.”
‘He said Thank You’
Amir then “sets them down on the ground because I was kneeling at this point. And he sets his food down and he places his hands on my face, on the side of my face, on my cheeks. He’s frail, skeleton, emaciated hands, dirty. And he puts them on my face and he kissed me. He kissed me and he said, Thank you in English. Thank you.”
The boy then collected his items and walked back to the group.
“And then he was shot at with pepper spray and tear gas and stun grenades and bullets shot at his feet in the air. And he runs away, scared,” Aguilar related.
The so-called “moral army” shot 5-year-old Amir dead just after he received lentil and kissed GHF staff Anthony Aguilar’s hand for receiving food
This not only violates Article 54 of Additional Protocol I Geneva Conventions, but also violates our moral values and common humanity pic.twitter.com/RvjWALuD8j
— Mohamad Safa (@mhdksafa) July 29, 2025
He said, “the IDF (Israeli army – PC) were shooting at the crowd, shooting into this crowd. And Palestinians, civilians, human beings are dropping to the ground, getting shot. And Amir was one of them.”
“Amir walked 12 kilometers to get food, got nothing but scraps, thanked us for it and died!” Aguilar explained, adding “That’s what we’re doing. That’s not the only occasion. That happens every day at some point in the sites. Innocent civilians being shot at.”
‘Death Traps’
The US and Israeli-backed GHF aid scheme, launched at the end of May, has been widely condemned by human rights organizations and the UN, which warned that the “weaponization of food for civilians, in addition to restricting or preventing their access to life-sustaining services, constitutes a war crime and, under certain circumstances, may constitute elements of other crimes under international law.”
In another interview with Democracy Now, Aguilar said the GHF sites were designed to be “death traps.”
“They have not only become death traps, they were designed as death traps. All four distribution locations were intentionally, deliberately constructed, planned, and built in the middle of an active combat zone,” he stated.
U.S. military veteran Anthony Aguilar, who worked as a security contractor at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, says he was horrified by war crimes being carried out against starving Palestinians. “The sites have not only become death traps, they were designed as death traps.” pic.twitter.com/7daP4myxey
— Democracy Now! (@democracynow) July 29, 2025
Aguilar added that its design was “not by accident” and that “to designate humanitarian distribution sites to service an unarmed starving population, to build them deliberately in an active combat zone is a violation of the Geneva Convention protocols.”
“It’s a violation of humanitarian law and in my opinion it’s a violation of humanity in general,” he stated.
Ammunition ‘Designed to Kill’
Aguilar pointed out that “we were issued M855 green-tipped ammunition” which he said was “designed to kill.”
He also said, “Everyone carries a standard basic load of 210 rounds of M855 armor-piercing military combat ammunition.”
“Why would anyone need that even if to defend themselves … against an unarmed population. It’s inappropriate. That in and of itself, that action there is a war crime,” Aguilar stated.
He also pointed out that all subcontractors for the GHF are in Gaza “on a B2 entry visa as tourists.”
“That’s the legal status that armed American citizens are in Gaza right now with the authority to use hostile force against an unarmed civilian on a tourist visa. That is a violation of humanitarian international law,” he stated.
According to the latest figures from Gaza’s Health Ministry on Tuesday, the total number of “aid seekers” killed at or near aid distribution sites since the end of May has risen to 1,239, with over 8,152 injured.
The total death toll in Israel’s ongoing genocidal assault on Gaza since October 7, 2023, has risen to 60,138 killed and 146,269 injured.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
Amir was a little angel who mistook the fiends for humans. May his blood haunt the genocidal pigs forever. Every zionist is a fascist, and every fascist should be killed. I sympathize with Palestinians; they have been dealing with these humanoid devils for more than 77 years. Death to the zionists and whoever supports them or join their ranks. But I’m left wandering here: how did western media outlets cover this tragedy? Or are the fictional 40 beheaded “israeli” babies are more important than real, murdered Palestinian children?
This happened because, Judaism. Zionism. American fascism, supporting Jewish Nazis.
Want to end the killing? Denounce Judaism. They’re sick people, separate from the real ethnic Jews. Jewery isn’t necessarily the same as Judaism. The Jewish Nazis even kill their own citizens. They’re barbaric savages. The world will be a better place when they all die. Want to protect the Jews? Dismantle the illegal, immoral state of Wasrael.