Shot with pellets at Ali, an eight-year-old migrant child who was sleeping with his family in a settlement in Ceuta

Ali is eight years old. He arrived in Ceuta by swimming during the massive entry on July 30 and since then he sleeps with his parents and his three-year-old brother in a tent set up in the El Príncipe settlement. On Monday night, several hooded people passed through the area on a motorcycle and shot at them with a pellet rifle.

One of the projectiles hit the minor in the head, a few centimeters from his right eye, and caused a several-centimeter gash. Ali was taken to the hospital for assistance and the medical report consulted by 'laSexta' confirms the injuries. The bloodstain still remained this Tuesday in the tent where the family sleeps.

The child's mother explained that she went out when she heard the shots and asked the attackers to stop because her two young children were inside. According to her account, the hooded men responded by threatening to kill her and the minors before quickly leaving the scene.

The family has not yet filed a formal complaint. The parents claim that they are afraid that social services will separate them from their children and denounce that they have been barely surviving in the settlement for more than a month, located a few meters from the Príncipe Felipe school, without knowing where to go or receiving a stable solution.

The attack against Ali joins two other episodes with very similar characteristics reported during the first days of September. In both cases, the attackers were hooded on a motorcycle and shot with airsoft guns and plastic pellets.

The first complaint was filed on September 1 by a migrant attacked in a nearby area. The second arrived the next day from a Ceuta resident of Moroccan origin who was shot in Loma Colmenar. The Police are trying to find out if he was deliberately chosen or if the perpetrators mistook him for one of the migrants who arrived during the crisis.

Four minors were arrested during the early hours of the morning in the vicinity of El Tarajal for a violent robbery and other altercations. Agents found an airsoft gun on one of them, although no relationship has yet been established between these arrests and the three attacks under investigation.

Minister Puente recalls the "we must hunt them down" from the extremist Figaredo

The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, has reacted to the attack by recalling the words used by the ultra Vox deputy José María Figaredo against migrants who arrived in Ceuta. "The 'hunting them' thing was this, wasn't it?", the minister wrote on his X account.

Puente added ironically that Justice would be opening a case for a hate crime against Figaredo. "Sure, very sure", he concluded, along with information about the injuries suffered by Ali.

Figaredo stated at the beginning of August that migrants were "invaders" and had to be "hunted" to return them to Morocco. Days later he had the opportunity to rectify, but insisted that they had to be "hunted one by one" and added that they should also be "fished". The Vox leader accompanied his words with several sounds imitating gunshots.

The ultra deputy later alleged that he had used the verb "to hunt" as a colloquial way of saying to detain or apprehend. His statements were already reported to the Supreme Court Prosecutor's Office by Compromís deputy Alberto Ibáñez, who asked to investigate a possible hate crime for the dehumanization of migrants and the risk of fueling violent episodes.

The police investigation will have to establish who attacked Ali and what their motivation was. So far, no link between the attackers and Vox or political organizations is known, although the repetition of the same pattern against migrants or people of Moroccan origin makes it necessary to clarify a possible xenophobic component.

Sumar deputy Aina Vidal already warned last week in Congress about the danger of presenting human beings as prey. "If a deputy points out a prey, some troglodyte might think they have permission to go hunting," she said before recalling that words can legitimize violent behavior.

While the investigation progresses, Ali has returned with his head bandaged to the same tent where he was hit by the pellet. The Police are now looking for the hooded men who rode through the settlement on a motorcycle and shot at his family.