Israel Police Lt. Dean Elsdunne shields an Arab boy celebrating the last Friday of Ramadan in Jerusalem’s Old City, during an Iranian missile attack, March 13, 2026. Credit: Courtesy.
Video footage of the incident, which went viral on social media, shows Elsdunne giving the boy his helmet as he rushes his family to a safer place.
“It’s extremely dangerous,” the officer tells boy’s mother, as he notes that missile fragments hit close to the site several days earlier.
So sweet 😍
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) March 13, 2026
Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne gives a little Arab boy his helmet and shields him during an Iranian missile attackpic.twitter.com/I9UiPnlaDa
On Feb. 28, the first day of “Operation Roaring Lion” against Tehran, an Iranian warhead impacted a few hundred meters from the Old City.
The device was neutralized by Israel Police bomb disposal teams, “who transferred it for further examination at explosives laboratories.”
The Israel Defense Forces’ Home Front Command instituted an across-the-board ban on all public gatherings of more than 50 people due to security concerns following the outbreak of the fighting with Tehran, leaving all holy sites, including Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque, closed.
Elsdunne explained in an Instagram post on Friday that “an area such as the Temple Mount complex has no proper shelter for ballistic missiles—definitely not for tens of thousands of people.”