The Canary recently reported that Israeli occupation forces (IOF) tortured a young boy in al Maghazi refugee camp, in the Deir al Balah governorate of Central Gaza. This happened in front of his father, 25 year old Osama Abu Nassar, to pressure him into making a confession.
“Israel” destroyed Abu Nassar’s livelihood causing him to suffer mental health issues
But since the incident, which happened on 19 March 2026, there has been no news of Abu Nassar’s whereabouts. Concerns are growing for his safety, and are made worse by the fact that he is suffering from mental health issues. Until quite recently, he made an income by using his horse to transport people’s belongings. But the Israeli occupation killed his horse and, for the past two years, Abu Nassar has found himself unemployed, with no means of supporting his family. This has caused him a great deal of psychological trauma, and he has become mentally unstable.
Freelance video and photojournalist, Salma Kaddoumi, visited Abu Nassar’s family. She spoke with the Canary and told us:
Abu Nassar’s home is around 300 metres from the “Yellow Line”, East of al Maghazi Refugee Camp. When he and his one and a half year old son Jawad went to buy some food, Abu Nassar soon found himself trapped by the IOF.
Israeli occupation soldiers opened fire, shooting him in the shoulder, while a quadcopter drone hovered above and ordered him via loudspeaker to place his child on the ground and keep walking towards the IOF near the yellow line.
https://www.thecanary.co/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/WhatsApp-Video-2026-03-25-at-13.55.34.mp4
Kaddoumi says Abu Nassar was then stripped of his clothes and the soldiers took his son and began torturing him in front of his father. The child was detained for around 10 hours, inside the yellow line. The International Committee of the Red Cross called the family to tell them they had received their son.
The baby was then taken to hospital. According to the medical reports from Dr Bissan Ahmed, of al Aqsa Hospital, in Deir al Balla, the boy had been abused, and had cigarette burns on both legs.
Concerns grow for Abu Nassar who is wounded and has been abducted by the IOF
Abu Nassar remains in detention in an unknown location. His family are extremely worried and have been searching extensively for him. Since October 7, 2023, the fate of many thousands of Palestinian political prisoners like him remain unclear. And they have no access to legal representation, or International Committee of the Red Cross visits. They are forcibly disappeared, with “Israel” Occupation forces, the police and Prison Services all refusing to disclose any information whatsoever on their whereabouts.
Under Trump’s 20 point plan for Gaza, as part of the so called Gaza “ceasefire” agreement in October 2025, the first stage of the IOF withdrawal from Gaza was beyond a boundary known as the ‘yellow line’. This ‘line’ demarcates the more than 58 percent of the Gaza Strip currently under Israeli occupation control, and recent reports suggest the Israeli occupationcontinues to move the line deeper into Gaza. Many Palestinian homes and60 percent of Gaza’s fertile agricultural land are beyond the yellow line but, as Palestinians are prohibited from entering the area, are completely out of reach to them.
But instead of withdrawing further the Israeli occupation aims to ethnically cleanse the area and steal more land – just like in Lebanon. IOF chief Eyal Zamir recently said:
The yellow line is a new border line, serving as a forward defensive line for our communities and a line of operational activity.
Since the so called Gaza “ceasefire”, on 10 October, 2025, as of 25 March, more than 650 Palestinians have been killed by “Israel”. It is now thought that the number of Palestinians killed by “Israel” is far higher than previously thought. According toindependent research in medical journals, there were more than 75,000 “violent deaths” in Gaza between 7 October 2023 and January 2025, and the death toll continues to rise.
Featured images via Salma Kadddoumi
By Charlie Jaay
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