IDF Palestinian Man Killed_061625_1
Israeli forces defended killing a Palestinian man with cerebral palsy and special needs by claiming he was a "terrorist."

Israeli forces celebrated the death of a Palestinian man in Gaza they declared a "terrorist," only for journalists to discover he had been a man with cerebral palsy and special needs.

Muhammad al-Farra, a Palestinian man who had lost his father and four sisters since the beginning of Israel's war on Gaza, was killed by an Israeli attack in May while walking to his home in the Satar neighborhood of Khan Yunis, a Haaretz investigation revealed.

On May 30, prominent Israeli journalist Amit Segal shared a video of al-Farra's death on Telegram with the caption "Gaza," a post that garnered thousands of Israeli flag reactions and likes. Al-Farra's sister, Heba al-Farra, who survived the same attack, later identified her brother in the footage.

"It didn't matter who the person was – only that he was from Gaza and the people who killed him were Israeli," wrote Mosab Abu Toha, a Pulitzer Prize–winning Palestinian writer.

"There's no further detail because our lives in Gaza don't matter," Abu Toha continued. "I look at that footage – the way this man walked shows he was starving for days. Why the hell would you kill him with a missile? A missile, for one man? Why kill him at all?"

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) defended al-Farra's murder by claiming he was "identified as a terrorist observing our forces and moving between buildings used for terrorist activity."

"The IDF operates to minimize harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure in accordance with the laws of war and makes significant efforts to take precautions prior to attacks," the military said in a statement.

According to Haaretz, al-Farra's family said Israeli forces prevented them from retrieving his body "for several hours."

Originally published on Latin Times

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