It was one of the most horrific stories of the entire Israel-Hamas conflict, or any conflict. Back in late May, a retired Green Beret named Anthony Aguilar, who had been working with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), claimed that he witnessed an incident of such shocking heartlessness and inhumanity that it seemed destined to be remembered as one of the most cruel war crimes in the entire history of the world. There was just one catch: it has now been definitively established that not a word of it was true.
Aguilar said that while he was working with the GHF, he saw a young Gazan boy, whom he called Amir, approach in hopes of obtaining some food, and was given a bag of lentils. Amir was so overjoyed at this that he kissed Aguilar’s hand in joy and gratitude. This touching moment was captured in photos, as is so often the case these days, and Amir went on his way with everyone feeling happy. Aguilar’s happiness, however, was shattered soon after, when Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers began firing on aid recipients, and shot down young Amir in cold blood. Aguilar was featured on news outlets worldwide, and told the BBC, “I’ve never seen such brutality.”
And that was true: he never did, because as it turns out, his whole story about Amir being gunned down was a fabrication. Amir, whose real name is Abdul Rahim Muhammad Hamden, has reappeared in a TV interview, very much alive and not wounded. Fox News reported Thursday that he “has been found alive and was hiding out with his mother.” Why was he hiding out? Because if he had appeared, Hamas would likely have killed him, so as to preserve the story that Aguilar spread worldwide. The propaganda had to be preserved. Eventually, however, he was found anyway, and now the cat cannot be put back into the bag.
Fox journalists conducted an exclusive interview with the boy who goes by the name “Abboud,” and his mother, and noted “the pair appeared excited ahead of their planned extraction from the Gaza Strip. Abboud and his mother, whose name is Najlaa, were safely extracted from the Gaza Strip on Thursday, though the location has not been disclosed in this reporting for their protection.” Abboud observed placidly: “Outside the Gaza Strip is nice.” You can say that again, brother.
Amir/Abboud’s reappearance completely exploded the account of Anthony Aguilar, “a 25-year veteran of the U.S. Army and retired Green Beret Lt. Col.” Aguilar “showed images taken using his body camera footage of the boy approaching him and another contractor clutching bags of food. Aguilar claimed that he and the boy had a touching moment where Abdul, whose nickname is Abboud, kissed his hand and then his face in apparent thanks for the food supplies.” But soon thereafter, Aguilar claimed that he “found Abboud and others had been shot by the IDF.” Aguilar said: “Shot to the torso, a shot to the leg – dead.”
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— Megatron (@Megatron_ron) July 29, 2025
🇮🇱 The Jews shot Amir dead just after he received lentils and kissed Anthony Aguilar’s hand:
I’ve never seen such brutality, he told the BBC pic.twitter.com/T9SGXwYVVD
Aguilar “claimed the killing happened first outside GHF aid site Secure Distribution Site-1 (SDS) before telling MSNBC on Aug. 2 that the shooting happened near SDS-2, and then telling Dialogue Works late last month the events occurred outside SDS-3.” That’s the kind of thing that happens when you’re making up a story as you go along.
The GHF doubted Aguilar’s story from the beginning. They fired Aguilar and began an investigation to try to find Amir/Abboud and figure out what had really happened. This investigation included “speaking with local Palestinians,” and, once they had found the lad and his mother, “using facial recognition software that compared the images of the boy with those captured by Aguilar, along with biometric data shared with Fox News Digital.”
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And now it seems clear that the boy did indeed receive lentils from the GHF, and did kiss Aguilar’s hand in gratitude, but everything else that Aguilar claimed happened was a lie. What was Anthony Aguilar’s motive in spreading such a monstrous lie? What drives his apparent burning hatred for the Jewish state? Is anyone questioning him?
In any case, the damage is done. Millions saw Aguilar making his claims, and many of them believe, on the basis of his story about Amir, that Israel is committing genocide and that the IDF perpetrates war crimes with a blood-chilling casualness. The lie has gone two or three times around the world by now. The truth has finally finished tying its shoes and is beginning to make the rounds as well, but will never have the same distribution. Nevertheless, Amir/Abboud’s story stands as a warning to be extremely skeptical about reports that confirm all of the establishment media’s biases.
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