Israel confirms more cases of army using Palestinians as human shields in West Bank

An Israeli media report on Monday said that the Israeli military had confirmed three cases of troops using Palestinian captives as human shields by strapping them onto the hood of army jeeps.

Last week footage of 23-year-old Mujahid Azmi clinging to the bonnet of an Israeli army jeep during a raid near Jenin in the occupied West Bank sparked international outrage.

The Jerusalem Post reports that the Israeli military confirmed two more cases of Palestinians being forced onto the bonnet of army jeeps and drove them, often at high speeds, through Palestinian villages.

The cases were first revealed to the BBC on Sunday in a report in which the victims of this human shielding by the Israeli army spoke to the news service.

This prompted the Israeli military to then confirm the veracity of these two additional cases to The Jerusalem Post.

The other two cases involve almost identical circumstances to that of Azmi, with Samir Dabaya and Hesham Isleit both 25 and from Jabariyat near Jenin being captured and used as human shields.

Both cases are thought to have occurred on the same day as that of Azmi. 

The practice, which is a war crime under international law, is supposed to deter Palestinians from throwing rocks or shooting at the vehicles of Israeli forces.

Speaking to the BBC, Dabaya, now in a hospital in Jenin, says he was shot in the back while running from Israeli forces during the Jabariyat raid. He was left lying face down and bleeding for hours until Israeli soldiers found him and then beat him with their guns.

He was then picked up, thrown onto the car, stripped naked below the waist and strapped onto the jeep. He showed the BBC footage of his ordeal, including him being punched when trying to hold on to the side of the jeep.

Isleit was shot in the leg while running away from Israeli forces, he was then captured, stripped naked and strapped to the burning hot jeep.

All three men were unarmed at the time of their capture and quickly released by the Israeli army after identity checks.

The report in The Jerusalem Post speculates that despite Israeli army assurances, it is likely that the practice is widespread and military leaders do not have a hold on the practice.

The Israeli military told the newspaper that they cannot be “100 percent sure” that the practice is not being used elsewhere in the occupied Palestinian territories.

There are hundreds of other eyewitness testimonies of Palestinians being used as human shields by Israeli forces, including those documented by Israeli human rights monitor B'tselem.