Muhammad Abu Sakran
Age 13
Muhammad was 13. He was polite, well-mannered, and deeply loved by his teachers. He spent his time studying, reading, and playing football. He dreamed of becoming a teacher. His father, Haitham, had traveled abroad for work two months before the 10/7 violence and became stranded, unable to return to his family. Muhammad often sang about the day he’d be able to leave Gaza and reunite with him.
The family’s plan was to escape to Belgium, where a relative lived. His older sister had secured a scholarship to study abroad. Education was their plan. They had a clear destination and a legal route—but the men of the Israeli military wanted to seal them in.
The Israeli military ordered people in the north to move south toward Rafah. Then they bombed them in cars, trucks, and buses. Everyone heard the horrible news: going south was not an evacuation. It was a death trap. Like thousands of families, the Abu Sakrans decided to wait.
On October 29, 2023, a man flying an airplane saw inside the relative’s house where Muhammad was sheltering with his family. The man fired a missile at them and murdered Muhammad instantly in the explosion. His father, stranded abroad, learned of his son’s murder from a phone call. He never had the chance to say goodbye.
The votes that paid for the weapons
House Bill, H.R. 6126 (House): Emergency supplemental appropriations for Israel