A Gazan family says a young child released from Israeli custody has been found to have signs of cigarette burns

On March 19, the day before Eid al-Fitr, Osama Abu Nassar took his 18-month-old son, Jawad, to a supermarket east of al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza where eyewitnesses say he approached the restricted area and was arrested by Israeli forces.

When Jawad was returned to his mother more than 10 hours later, he had bruises on his legs that looked like punctures and cigarette burns.

Waad al-Shafi’i, 29, said he was unaware of the condition of his husband and son from 10 am until 8:30 pm local time, when he was contacted by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to pick up Jawad from al-Maghazi market, after the Israeli army handed him over to the authorities.

Al-Shafi’i said that when he picked up Jawad, he was wrapped in a hot blanket, visibly shaken, with blood stains on the bottom of his blue pants.

“I felt like he was in pain, so I hugged him, but he couldn’t bear me holding him,” al-Shafi’i told a CBC News independent videographer.

“When I exposed his legs, I saw that they were torturing him. Here, cigarettes were burned. Here, too, there is something going out and coming in. [wound],” he said, pointing to the burn marks on his legs that resembled the pattern of the pants he was wearing that day.

His father is still imprisoned in Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) denied the allegations of abuse.

“The child received care and is under the full supervision of an IDF doctor and additional soldiers and was handed over to the Red Cross as soon as possible,” the IDF said in a statement sent to CBC News on March 26. “Soldiers took action to ensure the child’s safety and provide the necessary medical assistance.”

Injuries associated with cigarette burns: doctor

The IDF released a video of the handover of Jawad to Red Cross officials.

“He’s stable, his vitals are stable. He walked, he jumped, he’s happy,” the soldier carrying Jawad can be heard telling a Red Cross member in the video.

Al-Shafi’i said Jawad could not sleep that night, crying but afraid to touch him. He said he gave her painkillers but the pain in her legs prevented her from sleeping with her family.

The next morning, al-Shafi’i took Jawad to Al-Aqsa Hospital in the Gaza city of Deir el-Balah, where doctors examined his wounds. Dr. Bissan Ahmed said Jawad cried loudly and reacted violently when he tried to check on him.

“There were different round, sunken and puncture marks that corresponded well with the effects of smoking on the body,” Ahmed told CBC News. “These are deep second degree burns that cause tissue damage that can reach the nerves and cause severe pain.”

Al-Shafi’i said his son was examined by several doctors who found that the wounds on his legs “were caused by torture, not bombs or bullet wounds.”

Doctors also found puncture wounds to the legs that they said may have been caused by a nail, according to a medical report seen by CBC News.

Ahmed added that in addition to the signs of physical abuse, Jawad showed great anxiety, appearing to be “in a state of fear and dread that occurs as a result of exposure to severe mental and physical trauma.”

The neighbors tried to stop my father

The Red Cross helped free Jawad from the IDF and picked up Jawad at the Kissufim crossing, located in the eastern part of the Gaza Strip, between Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah.

The organization could not comment on the child’s condition, due to privacy reasons.

Al-Shafi’i said that on the day she was arrested, her husband was mentally depressed because his horse had died a few weeks before. It meant a loss of income, because Abu Nassar used a horse to transport bricks and other materials. Al-Shafi’i said her husband also complained about the condition of living in Gaza, where the infrastructure was destroyed when Israel attacked the area.

On March 19, eyewitness Yahya Abu Awad, who lives in the eastern area of ​​al-Maghazi camp, saw Abu Nassar and his son going to a shop, about 50 to 70 meters from the Yellow Line, which is the temporary border separating the areas controlled by Israel and Hamas under the October 202 Gaza agreement.

Abu Awad said he was confused when he saw Abu Nassar suddenly turn eastward, on the Israeli side of the line.

“We tried to catch him but we couldn’t stop him because of all the gunfire… There was a lot of gunfire from the Israeli army. But he kept walking,” said Abu Awad.

Neighbors who witnessed the incident from a tall building in the area said they saw a quadcopter approaching the father and son, and ordered Abu Nassar to put the child down and expose his stomach to the army to make sure he did not have weapons strapped to him.

Abu Nassar was ordered to take off his clothes until he was in his hats, before four soldiers came and arrested him and his son.

The IDF said its soldiers were working on the Israeli side of the Yellow Line when they identified a suspect approaching the line “carrying an unknown object,” referring to his child, which they said they saw was on his shoulders at the time.

“Despite repeated calls for them to stop and leave, the suspect continued to look towards the army, coming at a very short distance of a few meters. As a result, warning fire was directed to the side of the road to create distance from the area,” reads the IDF statement.

“The boy was brought by the Hamas wing to a dangerous area to be used as a human shield,” the IDF statement said.

The doctor says the injuries are not caused by gunshots, but remains

The soldiers said the wounds seen on Jawad may have been “shrapnel” caused by the gunfire that hit the father and son.

When asked about the IDF’s claim that Jawad’s injuries may have been the result of gunfire, Dr. Ahmed at Al-Aqsa Hospital said that the X-rays showed that there were no foreign objects inside the child’s body due to gunfire or gunfire, determining that any explosives or object entered as the cause of his wounds.

“The way to cause this injury is direct exposure to a very hot source associated with burning cigarettes,” Ahmed said in a message to CBC News.

Israel’s two-year offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the area’s health ministry. Since October 2025, when Israel and Hamas agreed to a cease-fire deal with the US, at least 700 people have been killed. At the same time, Israel says that four of its soldiers were killed by the forces in Gaza.

The IDF said Abu Nassar was taken by soldiers to a nearby military base where he reportedly received medical treatment and was interrogated.

“During questioning, he identified himself as a Hamas operative and admitted to entering Israeli territory during the October 7 massacre. He admitted that he brought his young son with him to prevent harm if he approached the IDF forces,” the military said, adding that Jawad stayed with his father at the military base without being questioned.

Osama’s father, Muhammad Abu Nassar, denied that his son was involved with Hamas.

“My son was not involved with Hamas – not me, my son or anyone involved with Hamas, we all work as brick carriers and movers,” the 75-year-old said.

The family has no information about Osama’s condition, Al-Shafi’i said, and was unable to obtain information from the authorities.

On Tuesday, Dr. Aliya Khan, who chairs Doctors for Humanity, appeared at a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa as part of an organization that represents doctors and human rights activists in Canada. Speaking on Zoom, he called for “urgent and concrete” action from the federal government over the alleged abuse Jawad suffered while in Israeli custody.

“Such heinous crimes and abuses will not be tolerated in the civilized world,” Khan said, calling on the government to demand an independent international investigation into the abuses of all Palestinians, especially children.