In a small home in central Gaza, 19-year-old Wa’ad Al Shafeey keeps her young son Jawad close, barely letting him out of her sight, after he and his father were taken away by Israel's military last week.
Her husband, Osama, 25, who she said had been struggling with his mental health, left home with Jawad, who is nearly two years old, on the morning of March 19, days before Eid Al Fitr, intending to buy him snacks.
But something went wrong.
“We live in Al Maghazi in the middle of the Gaza Strip, about 500 metres away from an Israeli army point,” Ms Al Shafeey told The National. “He should have gone west, but instead, he walked east.”
According to neighbours, Mr Al Shafeey approached the “yellow line” separating western Gaza from Israeli-controlled eastern half of the narrow coastal strip. Moments later, the situation escalated.
An Israeli quadcopter drone opened fire, followed by Israeli troops, to prevent him from approaching.
“He was forced to stop,” Ms Al Shafeey said, quoting accounts from her neighbours. “The soldiers ordered him to put the child aside.”
What followed happened quickly. Four soldiers detained her husband. Others took Jawad.
For nearly 10 hours, she did not know what had happened to her husband and her child. Then, at about 8pm, her phone rang. It was the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
“They told me to go to Al Maghazi market to pick up my child,” she said.
Ms Al Shafeey rushed there immediately and Jawad was returned to her, but something was wrong. “He wasn’t OK,” she said.
When they returned home, she noticed marks on his legs. It was too late to seek medical help that night, so she gave him a painkiller and tried to comfort him.
The next morning, she took Jawad to Al Aqsa Hospital in the nearby city of Deir Al Balah. Doctors there examined the injuries and delivered a diagnosis that shocked her.
“They told me the marks looked like burns from cigarettes,” she said. “And the other leg appeared to have been pierced by a nail.”
For days, Jawad could not walk, she said.
“He was very scared. He became aggressive and didn’t want to leave me at all.”
While her son was returned, Osama was not.
“I don’t know anything about my husband,” Ms Al Shafeey said. “He is still detained, and I have no idea what happened to my child and what is happening now with my husband.”
In a statement provided to The National, The Israeli military confirmed detaining a man with a toddler near the yellow line on May 19 but denied intentionally harming the child, saying the injuries may have been caused by “splinters” from warning shots fired by soldiers. It claimed the man had confessed to being a member of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that triggered two years of war in Gaza after attacking Israel on October 7, 2023. It did not say what had become of him.
The ICRC confirmed its role in Jawad's return.
“On Thursday, March 19, just before Eid, the ICRC facilitated the return home of a young boy to his mother in central Gaza,” Patrick Griffiths, ICRC spokesman in Gaza, told The National.
“Our teams were in contact with Israeli authorities and the child’s family. We travelled from Deir Al Balah to Kissufim crossing to pick up the child and safely transport him back.”
For Ms Al Shafeey, Jawad's return is a relief but not a resolution. He is still recovering, physically and emotionally, and she still cannot understand why the child was treated in such a way or what he experienced while he was away from her.
As for her husband, “I just want to know where he is,” she said.
