Israel investigates “several cases” involving soldiers who forced Palestinians to act like human shields in Gaza, sending them to buildings and tunnels to check the bombs and armed men.
“The use of Palestinians as human shields, or otherwise forcing them to participate in military operations, is strictly prohibited in the orders of FDI (Israeli Defense Forces),” the Israeli army said in a statement.
“Driving allegations that do not comply with these directives and procedures are examined. In several cases, investigations by MPCID (Criminal Division of the Israeli Military Police) were opened following suspicions to involve the Palestinians in military missions. ”
Earlier on Saturday, the Associated Press reported that several Israeli Palestinians and soldiers had declared that the troops systematically forced the Palestinians to act as human shields in Gaza. They said that the practice had “become omnipresent for 19 months of war,” said AP.
Seven Palestinians have described to be used as shields in Gaza and occupied West Bank, and two members of the Israeli army said they had engaged in practice, which is prohibited by international law.
The rights defense groups expressed the alarm, saying that it had become a standard procedure and used more and more in the war.
“These are not isolated accounts; they indicate a systemic failure and a horrible moral collapse,” said Nadav Weiman, executive director of Breaking The Silence, a group of denunciation of former Israeli soldiers who have collected testimonies on the practice of the army. “Israel rightly condemns Hamas for having used civilians as human shields, but our own soldiers describe doing the same,” Weiman AP.
An alleged victim, Abu Hamadan, said that he was arrested in August after being separated from his family, and that the soldiers told him that he had the help with a “special mission”. For 17 days, he was forced to help search the houses and inspect each hole in the ground for the tunnels, he said.
The soldiers stood behind him and, once clear, entered the buildings to damage or destroy them, he said.
The two Israeli soldiers who spoke to the AP – and a third party who testified to break the silence – said that the commanders were aware of the use of human shields and tolerated it, with a few orders. Some have said that he was called “mosquito protocol” and that the Palestinians were also called “wasps” and other dehumanizing terms.
The soldiers, who said they no longer served in Gaza, said that practice accelerated operations, saved ammunition and spared combat dogs or death.
In October, the Guardian collected testimonies from former Palestinian prisoners who were largely in line with the AP reports. The FDI said that the surveys were underway but no longer provided details.
The forced use of Palestinian detainees to enter the houses and tunnels in Gaza became public in images broadcast by Al Jazeera Television in June and July 2024. An investigation by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in August brought together testimonies from Israeli soldiers who declared that the Palestinians used as races were known as “unusual“, A word of Turkish origin meaning” sergeant “. The soldiers suggested that it was an institutionalized tactic approved by higher officers.
In 2002, the High Court of Israel issued an injunction prohibiting the FDI from using what was known as “neighboring procedure”, holding a Palestinian in a troubled area and ordering the detainee to knock on the doors of their neighbors and supervise the authorization of their homes.
However, the use of human shields has continued. In 2010, two TSAhal staff sergeants were demoted for forcing a nine -year -old Palestinian boy to open a number of bags suspected of containing explosives.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
