Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank tied an injured Palestinian to the hood of a military vehicle during a raid on the city of Jenin, appearing to use him as a human shield.
A video posted online on Saturday and verified by Tel Aviv Tribune shows Moudjahid Azmi, a Palestinian resident of Jenin, tied to a military jeep as it drives past two ambulances.
Azmi’s family told the Reuters news agency that Israeli forces carried out an arrest raid in Jenin, during which he was injured.
When the family called for an ambulance, the soldiers took Azmi, tied him to the hood of their jeep and left.
Abdulraouf Mustafa, a Palestinian ambulance driver, said Israeli soldiers refused to hand Azmi over to them.
“The jeep passed and the injured man was on the hood,” Mustafa told Tel Aviv Tribune. “One arm was attached to the windshield and the arm was on his abdomen. They passed in front of us. They refused to give us the patient.
The Israeli military said in a statement that Israeli forces came under fire and exchanged fire, injuring one suspect and apprehending him.
The soldiers then violated military protocol, the statement said. “The suspect was arrested by law enforcement while he was tied to the top of a vehicle,” the statement said.
The army said that “the conduct of forces in the video of the incident is not consistent with the values” of the Israeli military and that the incident will be investigated and addressed.
Israeli soldiers then released Azmi, allowing paramedics to transport him to the hospital where he was taken to the operating room, according to health workers.
The incident occurred as violence in the occupied West Bank, which was already on the rise before Israel’s war on Gaza, continues to escalate. These include frequent Israeli military raids on West Bank towns and villages, rampages by Jewish settlers in Palestinian villages, and attacks by Palestinians.
The apparent human shield incident sparked widespread outrage.
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, called it “human protection in action.”
“It is astonishing to see how a state born 76 years ago managed to literally overturn international law,” she wrote in an article on certain influential Member States, is no longer of any use. relevant objective. »
#Human shield in action.
It is astonishing to see how a State born 76 years ago managed to literally turn international law upside down.This risks meaning the end of multilateralism, which, for certain influential Member States, no longer meets any relevant objective.…
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur, TPO (@FranceskAlbs) June 22, 2024
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim advocacy and civil rights organization in the United States, also condemned the incident, as well as Israel’s killing of some 43 people during attacks on the Shati refugee camp and the Tuffah neighborhood in northern Gaza. .
“These Israeli-American massacres and war crimes must stop. American taxpayer dollars should not be used to kill, maim or starve innocent civilians,” said Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR national communications director. “The Biden administration must end its complicity in this genocide and begin recognizing the humanity of the Palestinian people. »
David Des Roches, a professor at the National Defense University in the United States, said that if the Israeli army fails to discipline the soldiers involved in the incident, then others might consider their actions as permission to do the same thing.
“This is not a common practice. I hope that the investigation will find out who did this and I hope that exemplary sanctions will be imposed. Otherwise, you can make the case that this is evolving into a policy,” Des Roches told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“The reaction of the Israeli military to this is going to be very telling and, again, if the soldiers who did this are not disciplined appropriately, you can make the argument that this will be considered permission to others to do this. ,” he added. “But ultimately it is difficult to see that there is any tactical advantage to this, and Israel has suffered serious strategic damage from it.”
This incident is not the first time that the Israeli military has been forced to address the misconduct of its troops.
In May last year, Palestinian rights groups accused Israeli troops of using five children as human shields, including during a raid near Jericho in the occupied West Bank.
The same month, the Israeli military opened an investigation after a video surfaced showing a soldier burning what appeared to be a Quran.
The bombing of the Red Crescent headquarters in southern Gaza in January this year is also under investigation. Five people were killed in the attack on the site housing some 1,400 people.
Also in January, Israeli soldiers in Gaza blew up the main building of a university earlier this year, after using it as a military base for several weeks. The army said its troops had not obtained permission to destroy the building.
The following month, Israel’s top military lawyer warned troops against violations, saying the soldiers’ actions would ultimately cause strategic damage to the nation.