After leveraging a false claim that he witnessed the Israeli military shoot a child dead at an American-run aid site in the Gaza Strip for national attention, Anthony Aguilar is now running for political office.
Aguilar went viral last year with his claim that he saw a young Gazan boy named Amir “gunned down” by Israel’s military at a Trump administration-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid site. His tale landed him on major media outlets like NBC News, and on prominent podcasts, including two appearances on the Tucker Carlson Show. It also won him meetings with members of Congress, where he recounted the incident in vivid detail.
The Daily Wire, however, found major inconsistencies in his story and later confirmed that the incident never happened. In fact, the child he claims was shot dead is alive.
Now that his media tour has slowed down, Aguilar is running in North Carolina as a Green Party candidate.
“I stand with the 62% of Americans who want a choice outside the two-party establishment,” Aguilar told The Daily Wire. “By running as a Green, I can fight for the solutions people are literally dying for — like healthcare as a human right and an end to endless war—solutions the billionaire donors will not stand for.”
In July, Aguilar set the internet ablaze when he first began telling the story of the child he said was named “Amir.” The child’s name was actually Abdul Rahim Muhammad Hamden. According to Aguilar, he met the boy while working at a GHF aid site on May 28, only to watch him killed moments later. He told an emotional story of an intimate interaction with the boy before his death.
On a podcast, Aguilar said he told the boy, “People care. You’re a human being and people care about you.” He said that “Amir” responded by kissing him and saying thank you in English, before he walked away and was shot dead.
“He sets his food down, and he places his hands on my face — on the side of my face, on my cheeks — these frail, skeleton, emaciated hands, dirty. And he puts them on my face, and he kissed me. He kissed me, and he said, ‘Thank you,’ in English. Thank you. And he collected his items, and he walked back to the group, and then he was shot at with pepper spray and tear gas and stun grenades and bullets — shot at his feet and in the air — and he runs away, scared.”
Aguilar vividly recounted the same story on several large platforms, including MSNBC, the Tucker Carlson Show, and even in an interview with a sitting Democrat senator, Maryland’s Chris Van Hollen.
On Carlson’s show, released July 31, Aguilar went even further with the story, comparing the child to his own son and stating definitively that he saw the death first-hand.
“I see my son’s face when I look at him,” Aguilar said. “I didn’t get this second-hand. I didn’t see it from afar and then assume. I saw it. I touched it. I felt it.” He said “Amir” was killed by the Israel Defense Forces.
Almost none of what Aguilar said turned out to be true. In video footage from the day obtained by The Daily Wire, “Amir” was seen walking up another security contractor next to Aguilar and kissing his hand. He then turns to Aguilar for a brief interaction — with none of the details Aguilar laid out taking place.
The contractor wearing the body cam told The Daily Wire that Aguilar’s story is “fabricated.”
“There is no profound English dialog, kneeling at his level, nor does the boy drop his aid to kiss Tony and say ‘thank you’ to him in English.”
Side-by-side video👇 pic.twitter.com/YaQpDmw4CN
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) August 11, 2025
Aguilar continued to tell the fictional story in various interviews, and even added details. In an August 23 interview, Aguilar said the boy ran into a “wall of bullets” and that he suffered “a shot to the torso, a shot to the leg, dead.”
A few weeks later, The Daily Wire reported on video showing the boy was alive.
Remember ex-GHF contractor Tony Aguilar’s claim that he saw a little Gazan boy named “Amir” run into “a wall of bullets” and suffer “a shot to the torso, a shot to the leg, dead?”
Well it’s not true. “Amir” is alive and well.
My latest for @realdailywire: pic.twitter.com/OMxdNvHIOk
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) September 4, 2025
While NBC News took down its reporting on Aguilar’s claims and issued an on-air correction, Carlson has made no mention of Aguilar’s story falling apart. Aguilar, likewise, is presenting his false claim as a reason for people to vote for him.
He touts his status as a “whistleblower,” with no mention that his claims have been proven false.
“I became a whistleblower because I saw war crimes being committed,” Aguilar’s website states. “My decision to speak up was a choice to put integrity and the Constitution over silence. We need that same courage in Congress today to restore a clean democracy that answers to the people.”
On his campaign website, Aguilar emphasizes his experience as a Green Beret and touts the Sam Adams Award For Integrity he won for “demonstrating moral courage while serving as a security contractor in Gaza.”
Aguilar said he wants to replace Republican Rep. Brad Knott because Knott is “more concerned with partisan survival and pleasing the party establishment than addressing the urgent needs of working families.”
In September 2025, Aguilar was arrested for interrupting a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, shouting that the “United States government is complicit in genocide.”
“Off to jail,” Chairman Jim Risch (R-ID) responded at the time.
Earlier today, Retired Green Beret Anthony Aguilar — the ex-GHF subcontractor fired for “creating a hostile work environment” and who lied about key parts of his story — was escorted from a Senate hearing after interrupting and falsely accusing the U.S. of complicity in genocide pic.twitter.com/uO6OzmeN1E
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) September 3, 2025
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation commenced a search for the boy after Aguilar began telling his story in America, fearing that the child’s life was at risk due to Aguilar’s story. Aguilar’s is story was being used as a propaganda tool by terrorist groups like Hamas, in an effort to undermine both Israel and U.S.-backed efforts to deliver food to Gazans.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says Aguilar’s contract was terminated on June 13, and that it started to receive threats. On June 22, for example, Aguilar wrote to a GHF employee: “I can be your best friend, or your worst nightmare. Stop F-ing around, put me back to work, and let’s get this mission done.”
Aguilar claims he was not fired, but resigned.
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