The young Palestinian man, Hazem Alwan, who was released by the Israeli army on Friday morning, after 8 months of detention, said that the army uses detainees as human shields during its storming of homes and buildings in the northern Gaza Strip.
Alwan said that the Israeli army interrogated him inside Zikim detention center in northern Gaza, before using him as a human shield in its military operations in the northern Gaza Strip.
He added, “I was forced to carry out dangerous tasks, which included wearing the Israeli army uniform and a military helmet, being equipped with a camera, and entering homes that may have been booby-trapped under the threat of physical and psychological torture, with the aim of inspecting the homes before the soldiers entered them.”
Alwan pointed out that the Israeli army used him as a human shield in Jabalia, where he was forced to accompany military teams while storming homes and buildings, which posed a great danger to his life.
He added, “The Israeli army was beating us in sensitive areas, and threatening us with death if we refused to carry out orders.”
According to Alwan, “The use of Palestinians as human shields is a common practice in the northern Gaza Strip, where each military division accompanies 5 to 6 Palestinian detainees on its movements.”
The witness spoke about a horrific incident that happened to a Palestinian prisoner named Muhammad Nabhan, who “was injured as a result of a house bombing while he was inside it. He was taken to the hospital and his fate is not yet known.”
Speaking about the circumstances of his arrest, Alwan explained that “the Israeli army arrested him while he was at Al Fakhoura School, which was housing displaced people in Jabalia, where the soldiers handcuffed his hands, blindfolded him, and took him to Zikim Detention Center.”
Huge destruction
While the Israeli army was taking him as a human shield, Alwan witnessed the massive destruction in the northern Gaza Strip.
He pointed out that the occupation “was forcing the detainees to enter the houses first to ensure that they were free of members of the Palestinian resistance or explosive devices.”
Stressing that these Israeli practices constitute a flagrant violation of international laws, Alwan said: “The houses were sometimes empty, and at other times we found elderly civilians or families still taking shelter inside them.”
During the recent period, the Israeli army released dozens of Palestinian detainees from Gaza in separate batches, most of whom suffered a deterioration in their health conditions as a result of torture.
Since it began its ground operation in Gaza on October 27, 2023, the army has arrested thousands of Palestinians, including women, children, and health and civil defense workers, and later released a small number of them, while the fate of others remains unknown.
Human rights organizations and Israeli media revealed that Palestinian detainees from Gaza were subjected to torture and medical neglect, which led to the death of many of them in Israeli detention centers.