In between the genocide in Palestine, Israeli army is using the bodies of Palestinian civilians as a shield during attacks. A member of ‘Breaking The Silence’, an organisation of veteran soldiers in Jerusalem who have worked in the Israeli army, disclosed brutal malpractices of the army. He said that the Israeli armed forces have not only been murdering the civilians but also using them as shields during military operations.
‘Palestinians have been going through a humanitarian crunch. So when we tell people (soldiers) to go on a specific route, we tell them to take people out of cords and houses to use them for protection,’ said Joel while explaining the internal hidden practices of the Israeli military.
He unveiled that the military forces are ‘sent to explore houses and tunnels’ where they use bodies of Palestinians as a shield to keep safe and ‘It’s happening very widely’.
Fascist Supremacy At Worst
This practice is based on fascist idea of superiority, as the Israeli soldiers believe that ‘their life is more precious’ and the lives of others don’t have any human-value. Therefore, when the armies go through any suspected areas or inspect buildings or edifices, they force the civilian population to serve as shields as if Palestinians are made of metal and or if they exist without a human existence.
‘There is pride in it’ a soldier told in a report who used innocent people for military operations. According to him it’s a tactic to help them escape the casualties and the top military officials of Israel already know it. This has now become ‘a part of the systematic process’ to keep inflaming the episodes of massacre and they don’t even regret it.
Using Military Uniform To Hide Identity
The soldiers however work as per the internal accepted and undeclared system of the Israeli army but to escape from media and global eyeballs, they often ‘use military uniforms to hide the identity’ of Palestinians. While choosing youngsters, minors and elderly people as shields, the Israeli soldiers sometimes change their uniforms and cuff their hands behind their backs to keep safe from identification and liabilities.
The investigations reveal that most Palestinians who are used as shields ‘wear sneakers’ and ‘not army boots’ and their ‘faces look extremely fearful’ under the shadow of death.
Sometimes they are set free after a period of 24-hours, 2 days or a week but mostly they are shot dead, or displaced or murdered in counter attacks.
Children’s Also Used As Shields
In the middle of the crisis, field researchers of ‘Defense for Children International-Palestine’ have also opened-up about the brutal practices of the Israeli Army during the siege of AL-Shifa hospital where the injured and wounded civilians were heading to get medical-aid after attacks. In the month of April when the hospital was encircled with explosive tanks and gigantic bulldozers, some Israeli soldiers even used the bodies of Palestinian children.
‘They put me, my mother and my brothers in the middle of the tanks and kept shooting over our heads, while the bulldozer was bulldozing around us,’ A 12-year old witness Tala, who faced the inhumane attacks, told DCI (Defense For Children International, Palestine).
When the bulldozers and armies come towards the canopies and shelters of families and children, the civilians raise flags and shout hard to declare that they are only ‘civilians’ but the army does not leave them.
Violation Of International Law
As per the international law, the use of human-shield is strictly prohibited and it’s also a violation of the protocols of Geneva Convention. Using humans in favor of a military is something ‘legally banned’ and categorised under ‘war-crimes’, but Israel has already crossed its maximum limits.
The law says that such malpractices help a party to ‘demoralise an enemy’ and ‘to establish legitimacy of power’. It also replicates that attacks must be limited to ‘military objectives’ only and must not target the common citizens, women or children.
