<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-top-anchor"></div>
<div id="gmail-toolbar" class="gmail-toolbar-container">
</div><div class="gmail-container" lang="undefined" dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-header gmail-reader-header gmail-reader-show-element">
<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241024-israel-using-palestinian-detainees-as-human-shields-in-gaza-report/">middleeastmonitor.com</a>
<div class="gmail-domain-border"></div>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Israel using Palestinian detainees as human shields in Gaza: Report</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Middle East Monitor</div>
<div class="gmail-meta-data">
<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time">October 24, 2024<br></div>
</div>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="gmail-content">
<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div>
<p>Israel has used Palestinians as human
shields in the besieged Gaza Strip, forcing detainees into potentially
booby-trapped buildings and tunnels to avoid casualties among its ranks,
according to a report published Thursday, <em>Anadolu Agency</em> reports.</p>
<p>The <em>CNN </em>report is based on testimonies from an Israeli
soldier and five former detainees. The soldier said the practice was
widespread among Israeli units operating in Gaza, and acknowledged his
unit detained two Palestinians for the explicit purpose of using them as
human shields.</p>
<p>“We told them to enter the building before us,” he said. “If there are any booby traps, they will explode and not us.”</p>
<p>The practice is so commonplace that Israeli forces pejoratively call it the “mosquito protocol”. But <em>CNN</em>
said the extent that the practice is employed is not firmly understood,
but has taken place in northern Gaza, Gaza City, Khan Yunis and Rafah.</p>
<p>The soldier told the news network that, in the spring an Israeli
intelligence officer came to his unit with two Palestinians – a
16-year-old boy and a 20-year-old – and instructed the soldiers to use
them as human shields, claiming they were somehow connected to Hamas.
When the soldier questioned the directive, the officer replied, “It’s
better that the Palestinian will explode and not our soldiers.”</p>
<p>“It’s quite shocking, but after a few months in Gaza you [tend not
to] think clearly,” the soldier said. “You’re just tired. Obviously, I
prefer that my soldiers live. But, you know, that’s not how the world
works.”</p>
<p>The soldier said he and other members of his unit complained to a
senior officer who first instructed them not to “think about
international law”, before he eventually acquiesced and freed the two
Palestinians.</p>
<p><strong>READ: <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241024-new-book-reveals-netanyahus-resistance-to-humanitarian-aid-for-gaza-during-us-high-level-talks/">New book reveals Netanyahu’s resistance to humanitarian aid for Gaza during US high-level talks</a></strong></p>
<p>Their release, the soldier said, showed that they were not affiliated
with the Palestinian group, and “that they are not terrorists”.</p>
<p>Israel has repeatedly alleged that Hamas uses Palestinians as human
shields, claiming the practice justifies air strikes that have inflicted
widespread carnage among Gaza’s civilian population.</p>
<p>In the more than one year since Israel began its onslaught following a
Hamas-led cross-border attack, over 42,800 people, mostly women and
children, have been killed in Gaza. Some 1,200 people were killed in
Hamas’ 7 October, raid, and 250 were taken to Gaza as hostages.</p>
<p>However, since then, it has been revealed by <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231211-another-israel-witness-confirms-israeli-tanks-killed-own-citizens-on-7-october/"><em>Haaretz </em></a>that helicopters
and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139
soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the
Palestinian Resistance.</p>
<p>One of the former Palestinian detainees used by Israeli forces as human shields told <em>CNN</em>
that he was apprehended by Israel while he was attempting to get food
aid for his family after being displaced from his home in Jabalia by air
strikes.</p>
<p>He was transferred to an Israeli military facility where he was held
for 47 days and was forced regularly into conducting reconnaissance
missions to keep Israeli troops, who were horrified of improvised
explosives, out of harm’s way.</p>
<p>“They dressed us in military uniforms, put a camera on us, and gave
us a metal cutter,” he said. “They would ask us to do things like, ‘move
this carpet’, saying they were looking for tunnels. ‘Film under the
stairs,’ they would say. If they found something, they would tell us to
bring it outside. For example, they would ask us to remove belongings
from the house, clean here, move the sofa, open the fridge and open the
cupboard.”</p>
<p>Mohammad Shbeir, 17, said after being abducted by Israeli forces from
his home in Khan Yunis, he was used to clear demolished houses and
areas that could have been booby-trapped with explosives or posed other
dangers.</p>
<p>Another 59-year-old man recalls being used to clear up to 80
apartments after being detained from the Al-Shifa Medical Complex, once
the coastal enclave’s premier health care facility before Israel reduced
it to rubble.</p>
<p>Israel claimed the facility was being used as a Hamas command and
control centre – false accusations that were never corroborated despite
Israel occupying the site twice.</p>
<p>The soldier said that the “mosquito protocol” was reinstated within his unit after he left.</p>
<p>“My own soldiers who refused it in the beginning were back to using
this practice,” he said. “They have no strength like they had in the
beginning.”</p>
<p><strong>WATCH: <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241024-new-israeli-attacks-increase-risk-of-famine-in-gaza/">New Israeli attacks increase risk of famine in Gaza</a></strong></p>
</div></div></div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div></div>
</div>
</div></div>