Israel accused of using child as human shield during raid in occupied West Bank

In further evidence of Israel’s systematic use of human shields, the occupation forces have been accused of using a 10-year-old Palestinian girl as a shield during a military operation in the occupied West Bank. The incident, which occurred on Wednesday night in the Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarm, is the latest in a string of allegations concerning the use of human shields by Israeli soldiers.

According to eyewitness accounts and the victim’s own testimony, Israeli soldiers separated Malak Shihab, a 10-year-old resident of the camp, from her family during a house raid. The child was then reportedly forced to walk ahead of the soldiers as they searched the building, effectively using her as a human shield against potential threats.

Malak’s terrifying experience was recounted by the Guardian. Israeli soldiers took the muzzle off their dog which went straight up to Malak and sniffed her. Frightened by the dog, the child begged to be with her mother, but the soldiers kept telling her in broken Arabic to “Open the doors”. The girl described being pushed towards each door in her aunt’s house, with soldiers positioned behind her, ready to fire at any occupants.

In a particularly distressing moment, Malak recalled desperately trying to open a stuck door, even resorting to hitting it with her head in her panic to comply with the soldiers’ demands. “I don’t know why,” she said, shaken by the ordeal. “I just wanted it to open.”

This was not an isolated incident. The use of human shields appears to be part of a broader pattern of illegal behaviour by Israeli forces. Last month, an injured Palestinian detainee who was used as a human shield by Israeli soldiers died in hospital.

READ: Israel’s creation and exploitation of Palestinian human shields

Rights group Defence for Children International has found that Israeli forces are systematically detaining and torturing Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip, including using some as human shields. The latter is banned explicitly by the Fourth Geneva Convention and is considered a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. It’s also forbidden by Israel’s own Supreme Court, which ruled against the practice in 2005.

Despite these prohibitions, reports of such incidents continue to emerge from the occupied Palestinian territories. The Israeli army’s use of Palestinian civilians as human shields has been documented on a large scale. According to a report by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, Israeli forces used Palestinian civilians as human shields on at least six occasions in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis to protect Israeli soldiers or vehicles during their ground incursion of the area. One of the cases involved the use of a child as a human shield.

READ: Palestinian used as ‘human shield’ by Israel speaks from hospital bed