Deir el-Balah, Gaza – Blood all over his face and his eyes swollen. Ramadan Shamlakh arrived at the hospital after passers-by found him struggling to walk south from northern Gaza.
The 21-year-old said he suffered beatings, stripping and a war crime – he was used as a human shield – by Israeli soldiers during a raid on his family home in the Zeitoun neighborhood , in Gaza, Tuesday morning.
His story and desperate flight south on foot comes as the Israeli army renews its ground military operations in the neighborhood east of Gaza City, prompting residents to flee again to al-Shifa hospital , west of the city.
Shamlakh was at home with his mother, injured brother and four sisters, when they were all surprised by the advancing tanks surrounding them in the area.
“It was around 6:30 a.m. when Israeli soldiers blew up a wall of our house and then opened fire randomly on us. »
“The soldiers brutally attacked me and my brother, who has been suffering from a foot injury since the 2014 war, and beat us badly,” Shamlakh said.
“We were telling them that we are civilians and it is not our fault, but in vain,” Shamlakh told Tel Aviv Tribune, while receiving treatment at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip.
He said soldiers insulted his mother and sisters with “obscene remarks” and “forced them to take off their hijabs.” When Shamlakh, in anger, told his sisters and mother not to listen to the soldiers, he was beaten.
“Then the soldiers arrested my mother, my sisters and my injured brother and took them in a direction I don’t know. Then they took me away, handcuffed me, and forced me to walk ahead of them up the stairs to search the upper floors. »
What followed, according to Shamlakh’s account, was a war crime under Protocol 1 of the Geneva Conventions. The soldiers used him as a “human shield” when entering the apartments on the upper five floors. “I opened the doors for them and they pulled hard.
“When we reached the top floor, the soldiers beat me like crazy with their heavy shoes on my face, stomach and eyes,” he said. “There were about 15 soldiers, and they all took turns hitting me with shoes. »
He screamed, warned them that he might lose his sight – but they continued to kick and trample him. The soldiers questioned Shamlakh about the Hamas tunnels and where he was on October 7 and whether he participated in the attacks that day.
“I repeatedly affirmed my civilian status and my dissociation from Hamas, but they were not convinced and continued to beat me. »
One soldier, Shamlakh recalled, “kicked me in the head every time I picked him up. Another grabbed a knife and started cutting my fingers while I screamed.
After a period of torture and interrogation, the soldiers ordered Shamlakh to strip to his underwear and head south. “I walked with great difficulty, my body was bleeding and my face was covered in blood. The cold chilled me to the bone and I shivered uncontrollably.
“After a few moments of walking, I saw tanks on the road, so I raised my hands in surrender. One of the tanks pointed its cannon at me. An Israeli patrol stopped me, questioned me for a while, then released me. »
Shamlakh continued walking for about two and a half hours until he finally reached an Israeli checkpoint.
“At the checkpoint, Israeli soldiers stopped me and asked me who I was. They asked me about my injuries,” Shamlakh recalls. “Although they explained that they were inflicted by the army, they doubted my account.”
Soldiers detained Shamlakh for nearly an hour, standing in the cold with blood on his face, before letting him pass.
“There were bodies of dead dogs around me and many flies were gathering on them. Flies were coming to my face and my wounds. »
A short distance from where Shamlakh crossed the checkpoint, he encountered passersby who rushed to help him, gave him clothes, then called an ambulance to take him to hospital of the martyrs of Al-Aqsa.
“The passers-by helped me get here.” He said. “So far, I look forward to trying to reach out to my family in eastern Gaza.
“I don’t know anything about them, whether they’re alive or not.”
