“He calls me dad,” Gaza man wins hearts by adopting baby found in rubble

A Palestinian man returning home to north Gaza on foot won hearts online after he was seen carrying a baby he had found under the rubble following an Israeli attack. Hoping to reunite the child with his missing parents, the man has been caring for him ever since.

A video of the man went viral, in which he told a woman during an interview that the child was not his own. He explained that he had found the baby alone and had since adopted and looked after him.

The child's story is tragically similar to those of thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza who have been orphaned during the Israeli genocide.

While it remains unconfirmed whether the child lost his family in an Israeli attack, the kind-hearted man took him in after finding him abandoned.

The man shared that he had been displaced from Jabalia after his home was completely destroyed in the Israeli military offensive.

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“I don’t know who his parents are. I found him at Al-Rafi Elementary School. He was still in his swaddle clothes when I took him. He calls me ‘Dad,’” he said.

He further explained that he fled Jabalia with the child, uncertain of his parents’ whereabouts.

“When I visited the site after the attack, I found everyone ‘torn apart.’ They were all martyred,” he said. “But I saw this baby crying.”

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The man expressed hope that one day the child’s family would find him. He added that he was returning to Gaza without a home or even a tent, as everything had been destroyed during the Israeli military assault in the enclave since October 7, 2023.