Ramallah – Together – Defense for Children International revealed that the Israeli occupation forces used three children as human shields during their recent storming of Tulkarm camp on the fifth and sixth of this month of May.

The international movement reported the testimonies of the three children it documented, each separately, and how the occupation soldiers forced them to walk in front of them in the camp’s alleys, search homes and ask residents to leave. In two cases, the soldiers placed their rifles on the shoulders of two children and shot them.

The child Karim (13 years old) said in his testimony to Defense for Children International, that on the morning of the sixth of this month, corresponding to Monday, while the child was with his family in their residential apartment located on the third floor of the camp, about 30 Israeli soldiers stormed the apartment and detained the family in One of the rooms, and then the soldiers forced him to walk in front of them into the apartment, open the doors of
the rooms and enter it before them, and then took him to the fourth floor of the building with the rest of his family members, to find that all the residents of the building were detained on that floor.

The child, Karim, added that the occupation soldiers took him to the stairs of the building, and they were accompanied by a huge police dog, as the child described. While they were walking, one of the soldiers placed his rifle on the child Karim’s right shoulder and fired two bullets at one of the apartments in the building.

He said: “I was crying and shaking from fear, and whenever I begged the soldiers, they would scream at me and ask me to be silent.”

He continued: “After the soldiers searched the apartments of the building that I was entering before them, I asked them while crying, Where are you taking me? One of them answered me in Arabic that I will accompany them and show them the way, in addition to opening the doors of the neighboring houses and entering them before them.”

When the child, Karim, a
rrived at the first floor of the building, where his grandmother (his father’s mother) was present, who, due to her age and health condition, was unable to climb to the fourth floor, as the child stated in his testimony, a verbal altercation occurred between her and the soldiers, and she began screaming at them and asking them to release him, so they stood up. Take him back to the fourth floor.

The child said: ‘While we were climbing the stairs in the building, three soldiers assaulted me severely with black sticks that they had. They beat me on my lower limbs and my back for about five minutes, and they were telling me that I was a terrorist… When I reached the fourth floor, I was exhausted and could not stand as a result of the beating.’ And fear, and I remained detained with the residents of the building until about seven o’clock in the evening of that day, and during that period the soldiers did not allow us to eat any meal.’

The same happened with the child Muhammad (12 years old), who reported to De
fense for Children International that his family decided to go to the house of their relatives in the camp so that they would not be left alone, after they heard that the occupation soldiers had stormed the camp and besieged it, and their relatives’ house was an apartment located on the first floor. The second is in one of the buildings.

The child Muhammad added that at approximately eight o’clock in the morning on Monday, the sixth of this month, the occupation soldiers stormed the apartment and asked those inside it to leave, and when they saw him, they took him away from his family, despite his mother’s pleas and her desperate attempts to free him from their hands.

The child said: ‘I was left alone with the soldiers, after they asked my mother and siblings to go up to the fourth floor of the building. I started crying and shaking from fear because I did not know what they would do to me. They were armed, masked, and had frightening appearances, and they were accompanied by a huge police dog that made ter
rifying sounds.’

He continued: ‘After that, they asked me to knock on the doors of the residential apartments in the building, and they were standing behind me a fairly short distance, and to ask the residents of the apartments to come out, and this is what I did, and when we arrived at the door of one of the apartments and there was no one in it, the soldiers blew up its door and forced me to To enter it on my own and inspect and search it, and after I told them that it was empty of residents, they entered it, while I remained detained by one of the soldiers at the door of that apartment.’

He added: ‘While I was detained at the door of the apartment, the soldier assaulted me by beating me with a wooden stick for about 10 minutes. He hit me on the head and back. After the soldiers left the apartment, they took me to the fourth floor. During our ascension, one of the soldiers hit me with his hands on my head, so I fell to the ground and hit my face with an object.’ grades,

One of the soldiers also put his r
ifle on my shoulder and fired several bullets at the ceiling at the beginning of the stairs of the building… I stayed with them for about two hours and was crying out of fear, terror, and pain. I begged them a lot to no avail, and when we reached the fourth floor, the soldiers searched me and forced me to take off my upper clothing. After that, I was detained with the rest of the building’s residents until seven o’clock in the evening of the same day, without allowing us to eat any meal.’

The same event was repeated with the child Ibrahim (14 years old), who told Defense for Children International that while he was with his family in their home in Tulkarm camp on the morning of the sixth of this month, and at approximately nine-thirty in the morning, the occupation soldiers stormed the house in a ‘barbaric and terrifying manner.’ They searched it and vandalized its contents.

He added: “A number of soldiers took me to one of the rooms and began interrogating me about the whereabouts of the wanted men. When
I told them that I did not know anything, one of them threatened me in Arabic and said to me, ‘I’ll punch you if you don’t talk,’ and then he beat me with his feet and hands for several minutes, before… He handcuffed my hands behind my back with a plastic tie, then took me outside and asked me to walk in front of the soldiers.’

The child continued: ‘I was trembling with intense fear and terror. At first I thought they wanted to arrest me, but they asked me to walk in front of them in the alleys of the Sawalma neighborhood in the camp. They would hide in the alley and ask me to show the way. After that, they untied my hands, and whenever we passed in front of a house or building, they would They asked me to enter and ask the residents to leave and go to the soldiers so that they would then raid those houses. During the raid, they would ask me to open the interior doors of the houses and apartments.’

After about two hours, the soldiers took the child Ibrahim to one of the houses in the camp and detained him
with the residents of that house until they withdrew from the camp, according to what he reported.

Defense for Children International affirms that detaining children as human shields is a war crime committed by the occupation army, noting that since 2000, occupation soldiers have used 34 children as human shields in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Global Movement states that international law explicitly prohibits the use of civilians as human shields, forcing them to provide direct assistance to military operations, or using them to protect armed forces, armed groups or targets from attacks, a practice also prohibited under Israeli law based on a 2005 ruling. About the Israeli Supreme Court.

Source: Maan News Agency