Israeli court reproaches two soldiers for using child as human shield

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, — An Israeli military court condemned on Sunday two Israeli soldiers for forcing a nine-year-old Palestinian child during Gaza war to approach what they suspected as explosives, but it did not take punitive measures against them.

The court panel explained that during the Israeli army’s attempts to take over a residential building in Tel Al-Hawa in Gaza city on January 15 2009, the two soldiers forced the residents to gather in one place and forced the little child to look into two suitcases they found in a toilet in order to check if they contained explosives or not.

The panel also wrote in their report that the scared boy was not provided with any protective wear like the soldiers and wet his pants from the horror of the situation.

When the child failed to open one of the bags, the soldiers violently pushed him aside and opened fire at the bag which put all Palestinian civilians at the scene in danger.

This incident brought to mind many similar violations in which Israeli soldiers use civilians as human shields, including that they use neighbors to knock at the doors of raided homes to reduce the soldiers’ possible exposure to fire or harm.