Saturday May 24/2025 – 11:20 am
An American report revealed that the Israeli occupation army is extensively using the Palestinians as human shields in the war on Gaza, based on the testimonies of soldiers and Palestinians.
The occupation soldiers reveal how they used the Palestinians as human shields in Gaza and the West Bank
According to the Associated Press, an officer in the occupation army reported that he wrote two reports on incidents to the brigade commander explaining the use of human shields, reports that were supposed to be submitted to the division commander, which the army refused to make any statement.
The agency stated that one of the reports documented the killing of a Palestinian by mistake, as the forces shot him while running into a house, without realizing that another unit was using it as a human shield, and the officer at the time recommended that the Palestinians wear military clothes to avoid confusion cases.
The officer indicated that he was aware of at least another case in which a Palestinian died during his use as a human shield, as he lost consciousness inside one of the tunnels.
Sergeant said that the soldiers tried to object in vain, and Michael Schmidt, a professor of international law at the American Military Academy in West Point, said that persuading the soldiers to comply with the law in light of doubtful practices of the enemy is very difficult.
The Israeli occupation authorities and other observers claim that Hamas is using civilians as human shields by stationing in residential neighborhoods and hiding their fighters inside hospitals and schools.
One of the soldiers told the Associated Press that his unit tried to refuse to use human shields in the mid -2024, but had received direct orders from a high -level officer to move forward, telling them that they should not worry about international humanitarian law.
The sergeant, who spoke on the condition that his identity was not disclosed for fear of revenge, stated that the unit used a 16 -year -old boy and a thirty -year -old man for several days.
Shocking confessions
The boy says, describing his condition, that he was constantly trembling, and that the two were chanting the word Rafah, Rafah, in reference to the city south of the Gaza Strip, where she housed more than a million Palestinians who were displaced from other fighting areas at that stage of the war.
The sergeant added that the matter seemed to be begging to release them.
In this regard, Masoud Abu Saeed, 36, said that he was used as a two -week human shield in March 2024 in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, adding that he told one of the soldiers that the situation was very dangerous, confirming his desire to return to his children and to reunite his family.
He explained that he was forced to enter homes, buildings, and a hospital to participate in the search for alleged tunnels and purify the areas, and stated that he was wearing an ambulance to facilitate identification, and carried a phone, hammer and chains.
In one of the operations, his brother met coincidentally, and he was also used as a human shield by a different unit, and he said that they embraced each other, adding that he thought that the Israeli army had executed his brother.
In the West Bank, Palestinians also talked about their exposure to human shields, Hazar Estti said that soldiers stormed her house in Jenin Refugee camp in November, and forced her to photograph and search several apartments from the inside before the soldiers entered them.
She added that she begged to return to her 21 -month -old child, but the soldiers ignored her appeals,
She expressed her strong fear of being killed, and not to see her child again.
