Israeli army uses Palestinian civilians as human shields: ‘It’s better if they explode’

The Israeli army (IDF) has used Palestinian civilians for this purpose search tunnels and buildings during its operations in the Gaza Strip. “It is better that they explode and not the soldiers,” is the justification the Israeli army has received from its top commanders.

This was reported by the Israeli newspaper HaaretzThese practices have been carried out repeatedly, with the knowledge of senior IDF commanders and against Palestinian civilians detained specifically for this purpose.

“They said that our lives are more important than theirs, that in the end it is better for our soldiers to live than to be blown up by an explosive,” said some of the soldiers who were able to speak to the aforementioned Israeli newspaper, one of the largest in circulation.

The IDF in turn has assured that These kinds of practices are prohibited and that this information is already being investigated.

Soldiers arrested for sodomizing Palestinian prisoner under house arrest

On the other hand, the five Israeli soldiers who were still being held for sexually abusing a Palestinian prisoner in the Sde Teiman Prisonin the south of the country, will be placed under house arrest until Thursday of next week at the request of the Public Prosecutor, as confirmed by the same Israeli newspaper.

The past July 29, 10 soldiers They were arrested over the alleged mistreatment of the Palestinian prisoner, who arrived at the hospital with several broken ribs and signs of abuse in other bones, as well as a laceration to the colon and damage to a lung as a result of the introduction of a foreign object rectally, as the doctor who treated him told Israeli public radio shortly after the incident.

Since then, the soldiers’ detention has been extended on a weekly basis only five remain in the process.

The Islamic organization Hamas He has assured that placing the five detainees under house arrest is an “open complicity” of the military with them and “an attempt to cover up the heinous crimes committed” with the protection of the Israeli authorities.

Furthermore, Hamas has called on the international community – especially legal organizations – to investigate the case: “We affirm that the ridiculous Zionist investigation cannot replace international investigations.”

It is not an ‘isolated case’

According to a recent report from the Israeli NGO B’TselemThe Sde Teiman case is not an “isolated case.” The organization interviewed 55 prisoners and among their testimonies is that of another Palestinian who said he was again sexually abused by a soldier when he tried to insert a carrot anally into him.

There the Israeli authorities practice torture, ill-treatment and sexual abuse in areas without security cameras against Palestinians, many of whom are detained without formal charges being filed against them, according to complaints by the NGO Doctors for Human Rights of Israel and Amnesty International.

Since October 7, thousands of Palestinians, mainly from the Gaza Strip, have been interned in Sde Teiman, located in the southern Negev desert. During the same period, 60 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons, 48 ​​of them from Gaza, according to B’Tselem.