#Palestine / Israeli forces used 80-year-old Palestinian as human shield before killing him

Ha-makom independent investigative news site exposed another use of human shields in Gaza. In this incident, an #IDF officer attached a detonator cord to the elderly man's neck, threatening to detonate it if he didn't comply. The man was then forced to walk in front of the soldiers as they cleared houses for eight hours.

The so-called "Mosquito Procedure" is a commonly used practice where IDF soldiers force civilians to enter buildings ahead of them, allegedly to check for booby traps or militants. In this case, after the operation, the man and his wife were ordered to evacuate on foot to a "humanitarian zone." However, the soldiers did not inform other units in the area of their movement and the couple was subsequently shot and killed by another unit of the Israeli army, after walking only 100 meters.

While the IDF often blames the soldiers, denying the existence of a formalized procedure, soldiers interviewed claim it is a common practice. In a previous case which IDF investigated, the spokes' office said that "lessons were learned".

IDF's rules of engagement in Gaza are extremely strict, and anyone moving in a zone after the evacuation deadline is considered a militant (a practice which is also illegal under international humanitarian law, which requires parties to a conflict to distinguish between combatants and civilians, and to only target combatants).

Hebrew https://www.ha-makom.co.il/1057919-2/

See also:

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/11/un-special-committee-finds-israels-warfare-methods-gaza-consistent-genocide

https://www.un.org/unispal/document/update-report-08nov24/

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