Israeli soldiers have used Palestinians as human shields forcing them inside buildings and tunnels believed to contain deadly rigged explosives according a former member of the country’s military.
The allegations come from a group calling itself Breaking the Silence, that provides a forum for Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) personnel s to speak out and then attempts to verify their testimony.
A picture shared by the group shows a soldier guarding a Palestinian prisoner with their hands bound and the image blurred at source.
Prevalent Practice
The soldier, who said his unit held two Palestinian prisoners for the explicit purpose of using them as human shields to probe dangerous places, said the practice was prevalent among Israeli units in Gaza.
‘We told them to enter the building before us,’ the ex-IDF member explained. ‘If there are any booby traps, they will explode and not us.’
The group said the human shields practice was so common in the Israeli military that it had a name – ‘mosquito protocol’ and five civilians added that it was widespread across the besieged territory and had taken place in northern Gaza, Gaza City, Khan Younis, and Rafah.
The soldier explained that, at first, his unit used standard procedures before entering a suspect building, such as ending in a dog or punching a hole through its side with a tank shell or an armoured bulldozer.
But the soldier said an intelligence officer showed up with two Palestinian detainees – a 16-year-old boy and 20-year-old man – and told the troops to use them as human shields before entering buildings. The intelligence officer claimed they were connected to Hamas.
When he questioned the practice, the soldier said one of his commanders told him that it was better that the Palestinian will explode and not soldiers.
The soldier said that he and his comrades refused to carry on with the practice after two days and confronted their senior commander about it. Initially the officer refused to act but ultimately relented, releasing the two Palestinians.
Human Shields
News channel CNN was connected with the soldier by Breaking the Silence, with three photos depicting the Israeli military using Palestinians as human shields in Gaza. One photograph shows two soldiers urging a civilian forward in a scene of devastation in northern Gaza. In a second, two civilians used as human shields sit bound and blindfolded. A third shows a soldier guarding a bound civilian.
In a statement, the Israeli military told CNN: ‘The IDF’s directives and guidelines strictly prohibit the use of detained Gaza civilians for military operations. The relevant protocols and instructions are routinely clarified to soldiers in the field during the conflict.’
International law forbids the use of civilians to shield military activity, or to forcibly involve civilians in military operations.
Image Credit: Breaking the Silence