Updated: Boy former Green Beret said was shot dead at Gaza aid center is still alive

Editor’s Note: This story was updated Oct. 3 after the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and multiple reports confirmed that the Palestinian child whom former Green Beret Anthony Aguilar said was shot and killed by Israeli forces at a Gaza aid center is still alive. 

During a July 28 interview on the UnXeptable podcast, Aguilar, a former worker at the GHF, said he witnessed Israeli forces shoot and kill a Palestinian child just moments after the boy received food at an aid distribution center in Gaza.

He said the boy, whom he identified as Amir, had walked 12 kilometers barefoot, dressed in tattered clothes, to reach the aid distribution center on May 28. After receiving food, Aguilar said that Amir set it down and approached him. 

He placed “his hands on my face, on the side of my face, on my cheeks, these frail, skeleton, emaciated hands — dirty — and he puts them on my face, and he kissed me,” Aguilar recalled. “He said thank you in English, and he collected his items, and he walked back to the group.”

Aguilar alleged that moments later, Israeli forces opened fire with pepper spray, tear gas, stun grenades, and bullets, and that Amir was among those struck.

But GHS and multiple reports later confirmed that Amir — who his family calls Abbood, according to the organization’s attorneys — is alive.

Aguilar’s emotional account quickly circulated online, drawing sharp debate on X. Some users accused Aguilar of fabricating the story and claimed he had been blacklisted from Special Forces circles. Others praised him for speaking out.

In a separate BBC interview July 25, Aguilar accused Israeli troops and US contractors of firing artillery, mortar, and tank shells into unarmed civilian populations during his time at the GHF. 

“Without question,” he said, “I witnessed war crimes…In my entire career, I have never witnessed the level of brutality and use of indiscriminate and unnecessary force against a civilian population, an unarmed, starving population.”

The GHF, which is supported by both Israel and the US, denied Aguilar’s claims, according to The Times of Israel. In a press briefing, the group said it found no evidence to support his allegations and accused him of presenting “misleading videos to push his false narrative.”

GHF told CatholicVote Aguilar was a “disgruntled former Foundation contractor who was terminated for cause in June 2025,” and that his claims about the boy were demonstrably false.

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has drawn global attention and concern. President Donald Trump has repeatedly decried the starvation there. In late July, he pledged to coordinate with European allies to deliver food and aid to civilians.