Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank appear to be using an injured Palestinian man as a human shield by tying him to the bonnet of a military vehicle during a raid on the city of Jenin.
A video posted online on Saturday and verified by Al Jazeera showed Mujahid Azmi, a Palestinian resident of Jenin, being strapped into a military jeep and driven past two ambulances.
Azmi’s family told Reuters he was wounded during an arrest raid by Israeli forces in Jenin.
The family called for an ambulance, and the military took Azmi away, tied him to the bonnet of a jeep and drove off.
Palestinian ambulance driver Abdul-Rauf Mustafa said Israeli soldiers had refused to hand over Azmi.
“The injured man was on the bonnet when a jeep passed by,” Mustafa told Al Jazeera. “One arm was tied to the windscreen and the other was placed on his stomach. They passed by us. They refused to hand over the patient to us.”
In a statement, the Israeli army said Israeli troops were fired upon, leading to a gunfight in which one suspect was wounded and arrested.
The statement said the soldiers had violated army regulations and that “the suspect was tied to the top of a vehicle and taken to the army.”
“The actions of the troops seen in the video of the incident are not in keeping with the values of the Israeli army,” the army said, adding that the incident would be investigated and addressed.
Medical workers said Israeli forces then released Azmi and allowed paramedics to take him to the hospital and take him to an operating theatre.
The incident comes amid an escalation of violence in the occupied West Bank that was already on the rise before Israel’s war on Gaza, including frequent Israeli military raids on West Bank cities and villages, violence by Jewish settlers in Palestinian villages, and attacks by Palestinians.
The apparent human shield incident sparked widespread outrage.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, called it a “human shield operation.”
“It is astonishing that a state that was born 76 years ago can literally upend international law,” she said in a post on X. “This threatens to lead to the end of multilateralism, which no longer serves any purpose for some powerful member states.”
#HumanShield in action.
It is astonishing that a country that was born 76 years ago can literally upend international law.This threatens to lead to the demise of multilateralism, which no longer serves any purpose for some influential member states. … https://t.co/swwjiuJYmG
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the Conflict in Palestine (@FranceskAlbs) June 22, 2024
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights group in the United States, also condemned the attack and condemned Israel’s attacks on the Shati refugee camp and Tufa neighborhood in northern Gaza that killed about 43 people.
“These genocides and war crimes committed by Israel and the United States must stop. American taxpayer money should not be used to kill, maim, and starve innocent civilians,” said Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for CAIR. “The Biden administration must end its complicity in this genocide and begin to recognize the humanity of Palestinians.”
Meanwhile, David De Roche, a professor at the United States Defense University, said that if the Israeli military does not take disciplinary action against the soldiers involved in the incident, other countries could view the Israeli military’s actions as a license to do the same.
“This is not standard practice and we hope that the investigation will uncover who did it and that punishment will be imposed. If not, we can legitimately argue that this is evolving policy,” Des Roches told Al Jazeera.
“The Israeli military’s response to this action will be highly significant, and again, if the soldiers who carried out this action are not properly disciplined, an argument can be made that this will be seen as a license for others to do the same,” he added. “But ultimately, there is little tactical advantage to this action and Israel has suffered significant strategic losses as a result.”
This incident is not the first time the Israeli military has been forced to address misconduct within its forces.
Last May, Palestinian human rights groups accused Israeli forces of using five children as human shields, including during a raid on the occupied West Bank neighborhood of Jericho.
That same month, the Israeli army launched an investigation after a video was released showing soldiers burning what appeared to be a Quran.
They are also investigating the January bombing of the Red Crescent headquarters in southern Gaza, which was home to around 1,400 people and left five dead.
Also in January, Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip blew up the main building of a university that had been used as a military base for several weeks earlier this year. The army said the soldiers did not have permission to destroy the building.
The following month, Israel’s top military lawyer warned soldiers that their actions would ultimately cause strategic damage to the country.
