I write about compassionate care for the dying. I spend my days reflecting on how we can accompany one another through life’s most vulnerable moments with tenderness and dignity.
Then I read about Jawad Abu Nassar – a baby boy of 21 months – and I have no words adequate to express what I feel.
On 19 March 2026, his father Osama carried him on his shoulders, heading out to buy sweets before Eid, one of the most joyful and significant celebrations in the Islamic calendar, which follows Ramadan. Osama had already lost so much – his home, an unborn child, his livelihood. Neighbours watched, alarmed, as he walked east instead of west, towards the military zone. He was a man broken by trauma, carrying his child.
What happened next is documented by Middle East Eye, Al Jazeera, medical reports, and the family’s own testimony. Osama was ordered to put the baby down and approach a checkpoint. He was stripped and interrogated. Little Jawad – not yet two years old – was returned to his family ten hours later with burns on his legs consistent with cigarettes, and a wound consistent with a nail. Two doctors confirmed these injuries were not caused by weapons or shrapnel.
His father remains detained. His 19-year-old mother has no information about his whereabouts or whether he is alive.
I feel helpless. I feel heartbroken. But I also know that silence in the face of a child’s documented suffering is a choice – and not one I am willing to make.
If you feel the same, please write to or contact your political representative today. Not tomorrow. Today. And please share this, because the least we can do is ensure that Jawad’s name is known, and that what was done to him is not buried under the next news cycle.
His name is Jawad. He is one of millions of precious children around the world who are killed, tortured, starved, raped, and abused in wars, conflicts, and violent homes by those who are inhumanely cruel.
#Gaza #Jawad #ChildrenOfGaza #BearWitness #EndWarsNow #EndTheTorture
Then I read about Jawad Abu Nassar – a baby boy of 21 months – and I have no words adequate to express what I feel.
On 19 March 2026, his father Osama carried him on his shoulders, heading out to buy sweets before Eid, one of the most joyful and significant celebrations in the Islamic calendar, which follows Ramadan. Osama had already lost so much – his home, an unborn child, his livelihood. Neighbours watched, alarmed, as he walked east instead of west, towards the military zone. He was a man broken by trauma, carrying his child.
What happened next is documented by Middle East Eye, Al Jazeera, medical reports, and the family’s own testimony. Osama was ordered to put the baby down and approach a checkpoint. He was stripped and interrogated. Little Jawad – not yet two years old – was returned to his family ten hours later with burns on his legs consistent with cigarettes, and a wound consistent with a nail. Two doctors confirmed these injuries were not caused by weapons or shrapnel.
His father remains detained. His 19-year-old mother has no information about his whereabouts or whether he is alive.
I feel helpless. I feel heartbroken. But I also know that silence in the face of a child’s documented suffering is a choice – and not one I am willing to make.
If you feel the same, please write to or contact your political representative today. Not tomorrow. Today. And please share this, because the least we can do is ensure that Jawad’s name is known, and that what was done to him is not buried under the next news cycle.
His name is Jawad. He is one of millions of precious children around the world who are killed, tortured, starved, raped, and abused in wars, conflicts, and violent homes by those who are inhumanely cruel.
#Gaza #Jawad #ChildrenOfGaza #BearWitness #EndWarsNow #EndTheTorture
I will not show Jawads tortured legs
