A young Gazan boy dubbed “Amir,” who traveled to a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution site and was reported as having been killed by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in May, has been found alive hiding out with his mother.
Both were safely extracted from the Gaza Strip earlier this month, though the location has not been disclosed for their security.
The boy, whose full name was later discovered to be Abdul Rahim Muhammad Hamden, nicknamed Abboud, and who is 8 years old but will turn 9 in October, appeared with his mother, Najlaa, at GHF Secure Distribution Site (SDS) 3 late last month in a heavy disguise to avoid detection, a GHF representative involved in the operation confirmed to Fox News Digital.
An extensive internal operation by the GHF was launched to uncover the identity of the boy in late July after a former GHF employee, Anthony Aguilar, a 25-year veteran of the U.S. Army and retired Green Beret Lt. Col. turned alleged “whistleblower,” gave a series of explosive interviews in which he said a 10-year-old boy he called Amir had been killed by IDF forces after leaving a GHF aid site on May 28.
She then brought Abboud to the GHF site so that she, her son and four other male family members whose identities Fox News Digital has agreed to conceal, could be extracted from the Gaza Strip, after at least one of the male family members received direct threats from the Hamas terrorist network.
In an interview shared with Fox News Digital, Najlaa is seen sitting with Abboud and another young male, who was also set to be extracted with them, speaking with GHF officials.
In the video, which Fox News Digital did not post to protect multiple identities, Abboud refers to Najlaa as his “mama” and, according to a translation of the comments, he says he is happy to be with her while smiling and sitting next to her.
The identities of Abboud, his mother and his relatives were verified by GHF using facial recognition software that compared the images of the boy with those captured by Aguilar.
Facial recognition software, biometric data and the death certificate of Abboud’s father were used by GHF to verify the family members’ identities and relationships, and were also shared with Fox News Digital.
Abboud also brought the shirt he was wearing in the footage taken by Aguilar, which is what the former GHF contractor said the boy was wearing when he was allegedly gunned down.
Abdul Rahim Muhammad Hamden, 8 years old, arrived with the T-shirt he was wearing on May 28, 2025, in the footage taken by Anthony Aguilar at GHF Secure Distribution Site (SDS) 3 on Aug. 23, 2025. (Gaza Humanitarian Foundation )
Aguilar did not respond to Fox News Digital regarding the intact shirt, and said, “The new pictures are not Amir.”
When pressed on where specifically he thought there were discrepancies in the images of the boy, he said, “Amir in my photos had a scar on his left clavicle. The boy featured by GHF does not. The Amir in my photos from SDS 3, does not have a scar on the right side of his forehead as the GHF’s photos show.”
The GHF representative confirmed that the boy’s scars were in fact used to verify his identity.
“I believe that is a boy of similar appearance,” Aguilar said, noting he believes the outcome of the investigation “is a lie.”
The GHF spokesperson for the organization, Chapin Fay, called Aguilar’s story regarding the boy and his alleged murder by the IDF “false” during a press conference earlier this month.
Aguilar told Fox News Digital that the GHF statements made against him during a July 29 press conference were “libel and slanderous.”
Fay described him as a “disgruntled former employee” who was “terminated for cause” after he engaged in “volatile conflicts with staff and erratic behavior.”
According to text messages shared with Fox News Digital, Aguilar also did not handle being removed from his role well, and threatened in a text exchange with a GHF official that he “could be your best friend, or your worst nightmare” if they didn’t “put [him] back to work.”
Abdul Rahim Muhammad Hamden seen smiling at the GHF’s SDS 3 on Aug. 25, 2025 in the Gaza Strip. (Gaza Humanitarian Foundation )
David Panzer, counsel for UG Solutions, echoed this belief in a statement he gave on July 29 in which he said, “Mr. Aguilar was terminated from his contract with UG Solutions on June 13, 2025, due to poor performance, volatile conflicts with staff, and erratic behavior.
“Since termination, Mr. Aguilar has spread a false narrative to media outlets around the world, all at the same time begging UG Solutions to hire him back,” Panzer added. “Mr. Aguilar’s activities in the last several weeks make clear that he’s making good on his threats to, in his own words…be UG Solutions’s ‘worst nightmare’ if they didn’t hire him back.”
Panzer said Aguilar’s comments “raise[d] substantial questions of motive.”
