[News] ‘Beaten, stripped, used as human shield’: Gaza victim recalls Israel terror

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 ‘Beaten, stripped, used as human shield’: Gaza victim recalls Israel terror

*As Israel resumed its attacks on parts of Gaza City, Ramadan Shamlakh’s
family home was attacked. Then, according to his account, a war crime took
place.*
[image: Gaza resident brutally assaulted by Israeli soldiers]
Gaza City resident Ramadan Shamlakh was assaulted by Israeli soldiers in
his home on February 20, 2024 [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
By Maram Humaid
<https://www.aljazeera.com/author/maram_humaid_180330170649742>
Published On 23 Feb 2024 - https://
www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/2/23/beaten-stripped-used-as-a-human-shield-gaza-man-recounts-israel-terror
<https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Faje.io%2F02zjpt>
<https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=%E2%80%98Beaten%2C%20stripped%2C%20used%20as%20human%20shield%E2%80%99%3A%20Gaza%20victim%20recalls%20Israel%20terror&source=sharethiscom&related=sharethis&via=AJEnglish&url=https%3A%2F%2Faje.io%2F02zjpt>
<https://aje.io/02zjpt>

*Deir el-Balah, Gaza –* Blood all over his face, and his eyes swollen,
Ramadan Shamlakh arrived at a hospital after passersby found him struggling
to walk southwards from northern Gaza.

The 21-year-old man said he had endured beatings, a stripping and a war
crime – he was used as a human shield – by Israeli soldiers when they
raided his family home in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City on Tuesday
morning.

His story, and his desperate escape on foot to the south, came as the
Israeli army renewed its ground military operations in the neighbourhood in
the east of Gaza City, prompting residents to flee again towards al-Shifa
Hospital to the city’s west.

Shamlakh was at home with his mother, his injured brother, and his four
sisters, when they were all surprised by tanks advancing and surrounding
them in the area.

“It was around 6:30am when the Israeli soldiers blew up a wall in our house
and then opened fire randomly at us.”

“The soldiers brutally attacked me and my brother, who has been suffering
from a foot injury since the 2014 war, and beat us extensively,” Shamlakh
said.

“We were telling them that we are civilians and it is not our fault, but to
no avail,” Shamlakh told Al Jazeera, while receiving treatment at Al-Aqsa
Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

He said the soldiers insulted his mother and sisters with “obscene words”
and “forced them to take off their hijabs”. When an angry Shamlakh told his
sisters and mother to not listen to the soldiers, he was thrashed.
[image: Gaza resident brutally assaulted by Israeli soldiers [Abdelhakim
Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]]Ramadan Shamlakh receiving treatment at al-Aqsa
Hospital in Deir-el-Balah  [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

“Then the soldiers detained my mother, my sisters and my wounded brother
and took them to a direction I do not know. Then they took me, handcuffed
me, and forced me to walk in front of them on the stairs to search the
upper floors.”

What followed, according to Shamlakh’s account, was a war crime under
Protocol 1 of the Geneva Conventions. The soldiers used him as a “human
shield” as they entered apartments on the five upper floors. “I was opening
the doors for them and they were shooting hard.

“When we reached the last floor, the soldiers beat me like crazy with their
heavy shoes on my face, stomach and eyes,” he said. “There were about 15
soldiers, and they all took turns hitting me with shoes.”

He screamed, warned them that he could lose his sight – but they kept
kicking and stomping on him. The soldiers interrogated Shamlakh about Hamas
tunnels and his whereabouts on October 7 and whether he had participated in
that day’s attacks.

“I repeatedly asserted my civilian status and dissociation from Hamas, but
they were not convinced and kept beating me.”

One soldier, Shamlakh recalled, “was kicking my head whenever I raised it.
Another one grabbed a knife and started cutting my fingers while I was
screaming.”

After a period of torture and interrogation, the soldiers ordered Shamlakh
to take off his clothes, remain in his underwear, and head south. “I was
walking with great difficulty, my body bleeding and my face coated in
blood. The cold chilled me to the bone, and I shivered uncontrollably.

“After a short while of walking, I saw tanks on the road, so I raised my
hands in surrender. One of the tanks pointed its cannon at me. An Israeli
patrol stopped me, interrogated me for a while, then released me.”
[image: Gaza resident brutally assaulted by Israeli soldiers [Abdelhakim
Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]]A doctor treating Ramadan Shamlakh in Deir-el-Balah’s
al-Aqsa Hospital [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

Shamlakh continued walking for about two and a half hours until he
eventually reached an Israeli checkpoint.

“At the checkpoint, Israeli soldiers stopped me there and asked me who I
was. They questioned me about my injuries,” Shamlakh recalled. “Despite
explaining that they were inflicted by the army, they doubted my account.”

The soldiers detained Shamlakh for nearly an hour, standing in the cold
with blood streaming from his face, before allowing him to pass.

“There were corpses of dead dogs around me, and many flies were gathering
on them. The flies were coming on my face and on my wounds.”

A short distance from where Shamlakh crossed the checkpoint, he met some
passersby who rushed to help him, gave him some clothes, and then called
for an ambulance to take him to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

“Passersby helped me reach here.” He said. “Until now, I am anxious
attempting to reach out to my family in eastern Gaza.

“I do not know anything about them, whether they are alive or not.”
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20240223/ee5b8967/attachment-0001.htm>