The Israeli military forced an 80-year-old Palestinian man to act as a human shield in Gaza by tying an explosive cord around his neck and threatening to have his head blown off, an investigation by the Israeli outlet The Hottest Place in Hell has found.<\/p>\n
A senior officer from the army\u2019s Nahal Brigade tied the explosive cord around the man\u2019s neck before he was ordered to scout houses. After eight hours, soldiers ordered the man to flee with his wife from their home in Gaza City\u2019s Zeitoun neighborhood in May, said +972 magazine, which reported the piece in partnership with The Hottest Place in Hell.<\/p>\n
But when another Israeli battalion spotted the elderly couple on the street, they were shot dead on the spot, according to Israeli soldiers present at the scene.<\/p>\n
The Israeli soldiers had initially encountered the couple in their home. They told Arabic-speaking soldiers that they were unable to flee to southern Gaza\u00a0due to mobility difficulties.<\/p>\n
But even in his condition, the soldiers forced the unnamed 80-year-old to walk ahead of them with his cane, while his wife was detained in their house.<\/p>\n
A soldier told the investigation that the commander had decided to use the Palestinian couple as \u201cmosquitoes\u201d, referring to a procedure where the Israeli army forces Palestinian civilians to serve as human shields to protect the Israeli forces from being shot or blown up.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe entered each house before us so that if there were [explosives] or a militant inside, he would [take the hit] instead of us,\u201d one soldier said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was told that if he did anything wrong or didn\u2019t follow orders, the soldier behind him would pull the cord, and his head would be torn from his body.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man was forced to act as a human shield for eight hours, before he was ordered, along with his wife, to walk towards the so-called \u201chumanitarian zone\u201d in southern Gaza.<\/p>\n
But the soldiers did not care to tell nearby Israeli divisions that the couple was going to pass through the area, according to the testimonies.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter 100 metres, the other battalion saw them and immediately shot them,\u201d a soldier said. \u201cThey died like that, in the street.\u201d<\/p>\n
Al Jazeera has reached out to the Israeli army for comment on the reported incident.<\/p>\n
Israeli forces\u2019 use of Palestinian civilians as human shields has been extensively reported on,\u00a0despite it being forbidden under international law<\/a>.<\/p>\n In August, the Israeli daily Haaretz published an expose revealing that Israeli troops had abducted Palestinian civilians, dressed them in military uniforms, attached cameras to their bodies, and sent them into underground tunnels as well as buildings in order to shield Israeli troops.<\/p>\n \u201c[I]t\u2019s hard to recognise them. They\u2019re usually wearing Israeli army uniforms, many of them are in their 20s, and they\u2019re always with Israeli soldiers of various ranks,\u201d the Haaretz article said. But if you look more closely, \u201cyou see that most of them are wearing sneakers, not army boots. And their hands are cuffed behind their backs and their faces are full of fear\u201d.<\/p>\n In the occupied West Bank in June, Israeli forces tied a wounded Palestinian man to the hood of their military jeep, in an\u00a0apparent use of a human shield.<\/a><\/p>\n Francesca Albanese, the United Nations\u2019 special rapporteur to the occupied Palestinian territory, slammed the incident, calling it \u201chuman shielding in action\u201d.<\/p>\n