Israelis using Palestinian civilians as human shields in Gaza: Report

The Israeli army uses Palestinian men as human shields to search tunnels in the besieged Gaza Strip for Hamas resistance fighters and booby traps, according to a report.

"It is better that they (Palestinians) explode and not the (Israeli) soldiers," Israeli army officials said in a Haaretz newspaper report published on Tuesday.    

Multiple Israeli troops said they abducted Palestinian civilians to use them as human shields with the full knowledge of top army officials, including Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, according to the report.

The newspaper reported that the Palestinians, including old men and teenagers,  are forced to wear Israeli army uniforms along with their tennis shoes or sandals, while their "hands are cuffed behind their backs and their faces show fear.”

"They said that our lives are more important than their lives," Israeli soldiers said adding that in the end, “it is better that our soldiers are alive and that they explode from an explosive device."

Numerous Israeli soldiers said they were sent to find and abduct Palestinian men who are "suitable" for this.

Two months ago Al-Jazeera published a video in which Israeli soldiers were seen dressing Palestinian detainees in uniforms and vests, cuffing their hands behind their backs, attaching cameras to them, and sending them into destroyed homes and tunnel openings.

"When I saw the Al-Jazeera report, I said: 'Oh, yes, it's true,'" said an Israeli soldier who took part in using Gazans as human shields.

"Then I saw the response of the IDF, which does not reflect reality at all. This was done at least with the knowledge of the brigade … the IDF knows that this is not a one-time incident of a young and stupid MP who decides on his own to take someone," he added, calling Israeli occupation forces IDF.

The Israeli army has previously used Palestinians as human shields, Haaretz noted. During "Operation Protective Wall"  in 2002, this was an accepted practice in the army and was known as the "Neighbor Procedure."

Israel committing ‘flagrant war crimes’

Izzat Al-Rishq, a member of the Hamas resistance movement's political bureau, said that the Haaretz newspaper's investigation “confirms once again that the enemy army is committing flagrant war crimes that must be condemned by the entire world.”

“We call on the International Court of Justice to include these confessions within the file of war crimes for which the occupation is being tried,” he said.

“We urge international and rights organizations to expose and condemn these crimes, and hold the Nazi occupation leaders accountable,” he added.

South Africa filed a genocide case against Israel in December 2023 over its war on the Gaza Strip. According to South Africa’s application, Israel's actions in Gaza were "genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group."

UN’s top court says Israel's presence in Palestinian territories ‘illegal’

The United Nations’ top court has ruled that Israel’s presence in the 1967-occupied Palestinian territories is “unlawful” and must end.

The ICJ’s final ruling on the broader South African case may take months if not years to rule, but the court can order urgent measures while weighing its decision.

In January, the ICJ, whose orders are legally binding but lack direct enforcement mechanisms, issued an interim ruling, ordering the occupying regime to take all measures to prevent genocide in Gaza, but stopped short of ordering a ceasefire.

The Israeli regime’s Washington-backed bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 92,152 others. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.

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