Palestinian man shot after being ordered to enter building with soldiers
An Israeli commander shot and murdered a Palestinian man while he was being used by the Israeli army as a human shield in Gaza in August last year, a report by an Israeli news site has revealed.
An expose piece by Hamakom Hachi Ham Bagehenom, or The Hottest Place in Hell in English, said that the 931st Battalion of the Nahal Brigade was using a Palestinian as a human shield during one of their operations in Rafah, southern Gaza, when he was targeted.
According to the report, a commander who was not aware that the Palestinian man, who has not been identified, was part of the operation shot him dead.
‘He did not know that [the Palestinian man] had received permission to enter the building and stay with the fighters. He also did not bother to check. He believed that he was a danger and quickly pulled the trigger,’ the piece read.
An Israeli army spokesperson confirmed the events to the publication, and did not deny the use of Palestinians as human shields.
The Hottest Place in Hell noted that Palestinians used in these tactics are either threatened with getting killed or blackmailed into carrying out the army’s orders.
Moreover, individuals forced to participate in these operations are sometimes used due to a ‘shortage of sniffer dogs trained to detect explosives’.
Use of Human Shields Prohibited under International Law
The Israeli army has been previously accused by human rights organisations and news reports of using Palestinians as human shields in numerous operations across Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
In August, Haaretz revealed in an investigation that Israeli forces weaponised Palestinians to inspect potential hazardous zones in the besieged enclave.
‘Our lives are more important than their lives,’ soldiers were told on numerous occasions, the report said.
In December 2023, Marwan Abu Saada, a doctor who worked at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza during an Israeli siege and bombardment, spoke to Middle East Eye about the ‘horrifying hours’ when Israeli soldiers held medical staff and used them as human shields inside the hospital.
‘When they stormed the ground stores, they used us [doctors] as human shields to enter and search them. They found the technical maintenance employees there and interrogated them, before they detained them,’ the doctor said.
While moving from one department to another and searching the different offices and rooms of the hospital, Israeli forces took several doctors with them.
‘We felt that we were hostages, used to [protect] Israeli soldiers. They took me and Dr Abu Silmiya and interrogated us.’
Al Jazeera has also found footage supporting reports of Israeli soldiers forcibly using Palestinian detainees as human shields.
Exclusive footage released by Al Jazeera last year showed two instances where Palestinian prisoners were forced to search destroyed buildings in Gaza while being monitored by cameras and drones.
Al Jazeera has also previously obtained footage of a Palestinian man forced by Israeli soldiers to search an abandoned UNRWA school in Gaza City while being monitored by Israeli drones.
The controversial practice is prohibited under international humanitarian law (IHL), where the use of ‘a civilian or other protected person as a shield for military operations is a clear violation of IHL and is also considered a war crime’.