Sharon Zhang
Truthout / August 21, 2024
Israeli troops have forced children to strip and walk in front of Israeli tanks to avoid getting targeted.
Israeli forces regularly use children as human shields in Gaza, a rights group finds in a new report shining a light on horrific stories of abuse faced by children detained by Israeli forces.
As part of its genocide in Gaza, the military registered by the UN as a violator of children’s human rights is “systematically” detaining and torturing children, according to Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP).
The group detailed an incident on December 27 in which Israeli troops stormed a neighborhood in Gaza City, destroying homes and detaining dozens of residents, including at least eight children.
Israeli soldiers forced three of these children, aged 11, 12 and 13, to strip, and, with their hands bound, stand in front of Israeli tanks and bulldozers in order to shield themselves from attacks.
“They insulted us, slapped me on my face, and kicked me in my stomach and waist. I almost died from the beating,” the 12-year-old identified as Karim S., told DCIP. “Then they made us walk in front of bulldozers and tanks in the streets so that the resistance wouldn’t target them.”
In another case, 14-year-old Hasan S. said that Israeli forces forced him and his family, who were wielding a white flag after fleeing their home that was bombed by Israel, to walk in front of their tanks. Then, when they reached the neighborhood of Shujai’ya, Israeli forces tied up, blindfolded and stripped the men and boys in the group.
Like adults in Israel’s custody, children told DCIP of how troops beat them bloody; threatened to kill them; humiliated them; deprived them of food; stripped them naked; and sicced dogs on them.
“The officer told me, ‘You are all Hamas,’ and that he would slaughter me with the knife in his hand,” said one 16-year-old, Abdulmunim D., to DCIP. Abdulmunim and his 15-year-old brother were taken from their family amid the incursion. In Israeli detention, the two were beaten, blindfolded, tied up, deprived of food and water, and left on gravel in the cold.
“They beat me with rifles on my head, back, and waist, and blood was pouring from my entire body,” Abdulmunim said.
In all, since 2000, DCIP has recorded 31 cases of Israeli troops using Palestinian children as human shields. Israeli forces are also “intentionally and systematically” separating children from their families as part of its genocide, the group said.
This echoes other reports finding that Israeli troops are, in fact, told by military officials to use Palestinians as human shields — even as Israeli officials spread uncorroborated claims of Hamas forces using civilians as human shields that Israel often uses to justify the killing of thousands of civilians.
A recent investigation by Haaretz found that Israeli units will often dress Palestinians up as Israeli soldiers and make them walk, handcuffed, in front of troops or into tunnels and houses to serve as shields. These Palestinians are specifically selected by Israeli troops for this, presumably so that they can blend in with the Israeli military. Sometimes those who are chosen for this purpose are children.
Military officials as high as the chief of staff are aware of this practice, suggesting that it is not only okay with the military leadership, but condoned. Soldiers are told, the report found, “our lives are more important than their lives.”
Sharon Zhang is a news writer at Truthout covering politics, climate and labor
