In a poignant twist amid the fragile threads of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza, the body of Khalil Dawas, a Palestinian man from the Aqabat Jabr refugee camp near Jericho, was handed over by Hamas to Israeli authorities in October 2025.
Hamas, the militant group governing Gaza, adamantly claimed the remains belonged to an Israeli soldier captured during intense fighting, a assertion meant to underscore their battlefield prowess.
However, forensic examinations by Israeli experts swiftly revealed the truth: the body was that of Dawas, a West Bank resident long suspected by his own community of collaborating with Israeli security forces.
This revelation not only exposed a case of mistaken identity but also peeled back layers of betrayal, coercion, and profound social stigma that define the lives of those accused of aiding Israel in the enduring Arab-Israeli conflict.
Adding to the tragedy, Dawas’s family publicly refused to accept his remains for burial, leaving his final resting place shrouded in uncertainty and highlighting the unforgiving consequences of perceived treason within Palestinian society.
Khalil Dawas’s life story reads like a somber chronicle of the Palestinian struggle, marked by displacement, militancy, imprisonment, and ultimate ostracism.
Born and raised in the densely populated Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, Dawas grew up amid the harsh realities of occupation and resistance.
His family, a modest household of five children, relocated to the West Bank in 2014, initially settling in the village of Tell near Nablus before moving to the Aqabat Jabr camp, a sprawling settlement of narrow alleys and concrete homes that has long been a hotspot for Palestinian activism.
In his early twenties, Dawas aligned himself with one of the camp’s armed factions—though the exact group remains unspecified, the area was predominantly supportive of Fatah, with influences from Hamas and Islamic Jihad weaving through its social fabric.
This involvement thrust him into the cycle of conflict; in 2014, he and his brother were arrested by Israeli forces, marking the beginning of a tumultuous period that saw him spend a total of six and a half years behind bars across two separate detentions.
His final stint came in 2020, when he endured six months of administrative detention in Israel’s Ofer prison—a controversial practice allowing indefinite holding without formal charges or trial, often criticized by human rights groups for its opacity and potential for abuse.
It was during this imprisonment, according to suspicions voiced by fellow Palestinians in Aqabat Jabr, that Dawas may have been coerced into collaboration.
Israel’s intelligence apparatus has long relied on a network of informants within the occupied territories, employing tactics ranging from financial incentives and work permits to outright threats against family members or exploitation of personal vulnerabilities, such as hidden medical needs or private secrets.
Released from Ofer, Dawas returned to the camp exhibiting behaviors that quickly aroused distrust among resistance members.
He began selling ammunition at suspiciously discounted prices—a box of bullets for a mere 200 shekels, far below the market rate of 1,500—prompting whispers that he was attempting to gather intelligence or entrap others.
His questions grew oddly probing, deviating from the norm in a community hyper-vigilant against infiltration. Tensions escalated following an Israeli military raid on the camp in February 2023, which resulted in the deaths of at least five Palestinians.
In the raid’s aftermath, the Palestinian Authority arrested Dawas on suspicion of aiding Israeli forces, but he was released shortly thereafter in April due to insufficient evidence.
Undeterred by official exoneration, camp residents took matters into their own hands: Dawas was subjected to hours of brutal torture in the streets, a grim ritual of communal justice, before being warned to flee Jericho forever or face lethal retribution.
From that point, he vanished from public view for over a year, his whereabouts a mystery that deepened the enigma surrounding his allegiance.
The next chapter in Dawas’s ill-fated journey unfolded amid the chaos of the ongoing Gaza war.
In May 2024, seven months into the conflict, Hamas’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, announced a daring operation in Jabaliya, claiming to have lured Israeli troops into a tunnel ambush where several were killed or captured—a narrative Israel promptly denied.
To bolster their account, Hamas released chilling footage: video of a bloodied corpse clad in an Israeli military uniform, alongside seized equipment.
Residents of Aqabat Jabr immediately recognized the body as Dawas’s, igniting fury that nearly led to an assault on his family’s home.
In response, his mother and brother issued a swift public statement, disowning him entirely and declaring that his actions contradicted their family’s moral, national, and religious principles.
This disavowal was not merely symbolic; it reflected the profound cultural taboo against collaboration, where even familial bonds dissolve under the weight of perceived betrayal.
Speculation abounded as to how Dawas had ended up in Gaza—possibly relocated by Israeli handlers for protection or deployed in a high-risk operation, perhaps even as a human shield during military incursions, a tactic that has drawn international condemnation when alleged against Israeli forces.
Dawas’s remains lingered in Gaza for more than a year, preserved in the limbo of unresolved conflict until the U.S.-mediated ceasefire deal in October 2025 facilitated the exchange of bodies.
Hamas transferred four sets of remains to Israel, insisting the fourth was that of an IDF soldier captured in combat.
Alongside Dawas were the bodies of three confirmed Israeli hostages or soldiers—Staff Sgt. Tamir Nimrodi, Uriel Baruch, and Eitan Levy—whose return brought closure to grieving families on one side while underscoring the human cost of the war.
Israeli forensic teams, however, debunked Hamas’s claim regarding the fourth body, identifying it as Dawas through DNA and other analyses.
A security official later confirmed his Palestinian origin, though details of his exact role remained classified. When Israeli authorities offered to repatriate the body to his family, the response was unequivocal rejection.
A Palestinian Authority official from the Jericho governorate explained that accepting the remains would be seen as tacit endorsement of collaboration, potentially inspiring others to follow suit.
“He will not be accepted, dead or alive,” became the chilling refrain echoing through the camp, leaving Dawas’s final disposition unknown—perhaps interred anonymously or held in an Israeli facility, a silent testament to his fractured legacy.
This incident illuminates the shadowy underbelly of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where informants navigate a treacherous existence between coercion and condemnation.
Since the 1967 occupation, Israel has cultivated an extensive intelligence web, recruiting Palestinians through a mix of incentives and intimidation—promising relocation, jobs, and protection inside Israel for those exposed, while leveraging prison vulnerabilities to flip allegiances.
Yet, for Palestinians, the label of “collaborator” carries an indelible stain, often without concrete proof, leading to torture, exile, or execution by militant groups or communities.
Families, fearing reprisals, frequently forgo burials or conduct them in secrecy, with authorities sometimes delaying or restricting interments to prevent unrest.
Dawas’s case exemplifies how such accusations fracture societies, turning neighbors into suspects and loved ones into strangers.
In a region scarred by decades of strife, his story serves as a stark reminder of the human toll exacted by suspicion and division, where loyalty is both a shield and a sentence, and death offers no absolution.
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