Use of 'human shields' condemned

Israel routinely orders air attacks on suspected weapons-storage facilities


"There is no excuse for calling civilians to the scene of a planned attack. Whether or not the home is a legitimate military target, knowingly asking civilians to stand in harm’s way is unlawful."

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch


NOVEMBER 22, 2006

A human rights organisation has condemned the use of "human shields" by Palestinian armed groups as a breach of international humanitarian law.

Human Rights Watch [HRW], the New York-based human rights organisation, released the statement in response to recent gatherings of Palestinian civilians at homes targeted by the Israeli military.

A press release by the HRW said: "Calling civilians to a location that the opposing side has identified for attack is at worst human shielding, at best failing to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians from the effects of attack."

Israel was forced to abandon an air strike on the home of Mohammed Baroud, a leader of the Popular Resistance Committees, after Palestinian civilians surrounded the building.

Hundreds of people were called to protect Baroud's home in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, on Saturday, after he was informed by the Israeli forces that the building was going to be bombed.

Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW's Middle East director said: "There is no excuse for calling civilians to the scene of a planned attack. Whether or not the home is a legitimate military target, knowingly asking civilians to stand in harm’s way is unlawful."

She urged Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister and head of the Hamas-led government, to denounce the tactic.

Israeli strikes

Israel routinely orders residents out of their homes before air attacks on what it says are suspected weapons-storage facilities.

Nour Odeh, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza, reported that the 'human shield' gathering at Baroud's home was the first time such an act had been seen in the Gaza Strip.

Later an Israeli military spokesman confirmed that the raid had been called off because of the protest.

HRW also demanded an Israeli explanation for its air strikes.

Whitson said: "The IDF should immediately explain what its military objective is in targeting the homes that it has ordered to be vacated."

According B’tselem, the Israeli human rights information organisation, the Israeli forces destroyed 251 homes in Gaza leaving 1,577 people homeless between July and November 15 2006.

Source: Al Jazeera

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Update:

American Priest, Nun Join Gaza Human Shields

Hisham Abu Taha, Arab News

GAZA CITY, 23 November 2006 — An American priest and a nun joined human shields yesterday at a Palestinian fighter’s home that Israel wanted to destroy, the first foreigners to join a weeklong standoff between Palestinians and the Israeli Air Force.

Father Peter Dougherty, 65, and Sister Mary Ellen Gundeck, 55, both Michigan-based peace activists, said they were there to help protect the Palestinians. The pair arrived yesterday morning at the family home of Mohammed Baroud, a fighter involved in rocket attacks on Israel, and said they would stay for several hours.

For the past week, Palestinian fighters and civilians have crowded into five houses, to bodily thwart Israeli threats to hit them with missiles. The use of human shields is a new tactic in the Palestinians’ war against Israel’s mighty military.

Meanwhile, Israeli ground troops, tanks and armored vehicles advanced on two northern Gaza towns yesterday besieging a well-known Hamas lawmaker’s house and engaging fighters in ferocious clashes, Palestinian officials said. Fighters, undeterred by Israel’s military might, pressed ahead with their rocket attacks on southern Israel. A 22-year-old Palestinian affiliated with the military wing of the ruling Hamas party was shot dead while launching a projectile, the group said. Earlier, a rocket hit an Israeli school just before pupils arrived.

The surge in violence coincided with the Red Cross’ decision to suspend activities in Gaza after two of its workers were briefly kidnapped. The suspension dealt a major blow to aid efforts in the area where Red Cross ambulances are a common sight.

Snipers positioned themselves on more than a dozen rooftops in Beit Hanoun and Jabaliya in northern Gaza as the ground troops fanned out, Palestinian security officials said. Three teenage Palestinian girls were wounded by Israeli bullet fire outside a school in Beit Hanoun, hospital and security officials said.

Fighters faced off against Israeli troops in both towns with land mines, antitank missiles and rocket-propelled grenades, security officials said. Hamas commanders instructed their gunmen not to travel in cars for fear they would draw Israeli airstrikes.

Soldiers took over the home of a Hamas legislator who earlier in the month helped to organize a women’s demonstration that let dozens of fighters escape an Israeli siege on a Beit Hanoun mosque, the lawmaker, Jamila Shanti, told The Associated Press.

She was not in the house in Jabaliya at the time, contrary to Palestinian security officials’ earlier report.

A bulldozer chipped away at the walls of the two-story structure so troops could enter, relatives inside the house and neighbors told her, she said. Once inside, they locked about 15 members of her family, including five children, into a single room and threw furniture and clothes out of windows, she said. “They are only making us more stubborn,” she said. “We will resist with our last drop of blood.”

The Israeli Army confirmed it was operating in the area against Gaza rocket squads, but gave no other details. It said it had no information that its troops were at Shanti’s house.

Beit Hanoun was the site of a weeklong incursion earlier this month in which some 50 fighters and at least seven civilians were killed. The operation left a wide swath of destruction, but didn’t curb rocket attacks. In the first three weeks of November, fighters launched 155 rockets, up from about 70 in October and 65 in September, the army said.

“We advise the occupation to spare itself the effort of invading Gaza, because this is not going to stop rockets” said Hamas military wing spokesman Abu Obeidah. “It’s going to escalate rocket fire.”

“No government would tolerate such attacks, and neither will Israel,” said Israeli government official David Baker, after the second rocket fatality within a week.

Six rockets were fired at Israel yesterday, and three landed, including the one that hit the school entrance, the army said. No injuries were reported.