Israeli forces use 10-year-old girl as human shield in West Bank raids

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The Guardian
1 Sep 2024 10:05
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The Guardian has exposed some of the practices of Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank, which have surfaced as a result of the latest aggression on Tulkarm.

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A Palestinian child stares at a car, destroyed by Israeli occupation forces, inside the garage of a home in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, occupied Palestine, on August 31, 2024. (AFP)

Behind the destruction of West Bank towns and the Israeli breaches into the occupied territory's homes of locals lie the stories of Palestinians struggling for freedom and life.

An investigation launched by The Guardian has highlighted a few of the atrocious acts committed by Israeli occupation forces during their latest raid into the Nur Shams refugee camp in the Tulkarm governorate.

The camp, located on the outskirts of the occupied West Bank near the '48 occupied territories, hosted a British occupation prison before the establishment of the Israeli regime. With the continuous influx of forcibly displaced Palestinians, Nur Shams became a refugee camp that hosted Palestinian families fleeing from "Israel's" brutal occupation.

Israeli attempts to ethnically cleanse the West Bank and Judaize the territory to the detriment of locals and Palestinian refugees have seen the northern West Bank, including Tulkarm and the Nur Shams camp, build up armed resistance movements in response, putting "Israel's" expansionist project at risk.

Over the recent years, Israeli aggression on the West Bank never stopped, intensifying recently since October 7, following the Israeli war on Gaza.

Now, the Israeli political and military command launched the most wide-scale aggression on cities in the northern West Bank, attempting to hit hard against Palestinians refusing the current status quo.

Cowardly soldiers use children as human shields

The story of Malak Shihab, a 10-year-old girl, embodies the violent tactics employed by occupation forces during the raids and attacks on towns in the occupied West Bank.

Malak, who was present in her aunt's modest home in the refugee camp, experienced this violence firsthand. During a raid on the home, the occupation forces forcibly kicked out a mother and four children but seized Malak. In a display of the regime's cruelty, they unleashed an attack dog to intimidate her and then used her as a human shield. Under the threat of the dog, Malak was coerced into opening every door in the house while the forces conducted their search.

Although Malak pleaded to be with her mother, the Israeli troops raiding the home, only replied with the following words, "Open the doors."

Unable to open one of the doors in the home, the 10-year-old banged her head against it in desperation.

"I don’t know why. I just wanted it to open," she said, as quoted by The Guardian.

To the dismay of occupation forces, they were unable to find any of their targets in the home, however, they successfully terrorized yet another Palestinian family.

As has been the norm, the Israeli military command rejected Malak's account of events, refusing to take responsibility for the systematic terrorism employed by Israeli forces.

"Each time the troops have moved in, more children in Nur Shams have been exposed to violence," The Guardian wrote.

The cold-blooded execution of a mentally ill elderly man

Another story highlights the violence perpetuated by Israeli forces against vulnerable groups in Palestinian society. As detailed by the British newspaper, its team observed neighbors in a nearby area gazing at a patch of dried blood, a grim red streak marking its way into the interior of a home in the camp.

The blood belonged to Ayed Abu al-Haija, a 63-year-old man with mental health issues who struggled to grasp the severity of the danger surrounding him during the raid. His granddaughter had seen him standing in his doorway from an upstairs window on Wednesday afternoon and urged him to come inside.

But then she heard a strange sound, and upon descending, found Ayed lying on his back with part of his skull missing. His nephew Haytham suspected he had been struck by an Israeli sniper firing from a high window up the street.

The tactic has also been widely deployed during raids on the West Bank, where Israeli snipers shoot and kill unsuspecting Palestinians, including children. Ayed had previously endured torture at the hands of Israeli forces, who imprisoned him in the 1970s. This abuse had left him mentally scarred and vulnerable in the refugee camp, which has seen near-daily Israeli incursions since October 7, 2024.

These two accounts are among the numerous traumas and life-altering experiences imposed on Palestinians by the settler colonial Israeli project since 1948.