Muhammed Bhar, 24, loved music, calm, and having his hair stroked. It made him laugh. He rarely left the family home in Shujaiya, an eastern suburb of Gaza City, where he was cared for by his mother, siblings, nephews and nieces. The family chose to stay in the city during the Israeli army's successive incursions since November 2023, partly because Muhammed had Down's syndrome, had difficulty moving around and was afraid of crowds.

Many Gazans looking after disabled, elderly or sick relatives have done the same. They are among some 300,000 people who have remained in the largely destroyed and cut-off city, despite the army's evacuation orders. The Bhar family, however, had to flee the bombings on several occasions and seek temporary shelter in other parts of the city, such as Rimal and Touffah, bringing along with them Muhammed, who each time was a little more frightened.

At the end of June, when the Israeli army deployed for the second time in their Shujaiya neighborhood, 17 family members, including Muhammed, found themselves trapped for a week in their house due to nearby shelling and gunfire. In the early afternoon of July 3, soldiers finally entered their home to search it. They used the standard method, breaking through a wall at the back of the building and letting in a military dog equipped with a camera.

The dog attacked Muhammed. It bit him on the shoulder and torso, dragging him every which way. "While it was biting him, Muhammed was petting the dog. He was saying to him softly: 'Go away my darling, go away.' These were the same words he used when playing with his nephews and nieces," said his mother, Nabila, by telephone. Since the start of the war, the army has forbidden Le Monde and all the international press from accessing Gaza.

Muhammed was overweight and completely helpless. "He had a pure white heart. He was 24, but had the brain of a child. I did everything for him − bathed him, fed him... He depended on me for everything," said the 70-year-old former teacher at a kindergarten run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA. She yelled at the soldiers: "'Leave him alone! He's sick, he has Down's syndrome!' But they didn't listen to me. They let the dog drag him around the house," she said. The episode lasted up to 15 minutes, according to Nabila.

The attack was initially reported by the Middle East Eye news site. The army confirmed to Le Monde that it had indeed taken place, stating that "exchanges of fire, between soldiers and Hamas terrorists," were taking place outside. When the soldiers finally moved the dog away, they turned to Muhammed's two brothers, Saif and Jad Al-Hak, ages 39 and 31, handcuffed them and took them away. "We have no news of them, we don't know where they are being held," said a third brother, Mikael, a 42-year-old journalist who was forced by the army to flee to the south of the Gaza enclave in the spring, and who has remained in touch with his family by phone.

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