Shaiel Ben-Ephraim
In a shocking account from Gaza, IDF soldiers from the Nahal Brigade committed a horrific act that defies basic human dignity. During a military operation in the Zeitoun neighborhood in May 2024, a senior officer forced an 80-year-old Palestinian man to serve as a human shield by tying an explosive cord around his neck. The elderly man was threatened that if he made a wrong move, the cord would be pulled, decapitating him. For eight excruciating hours, he was forced to walk in front of soldiers, checking houses for potential threats. The soldiers even explained that if he didn't comply, his head would be "disconnected from his body." After this traumatic ordeal, the soldiers ordered the elderly couple to evacuate. Tragically, when they attempted to move, another battalion spotted them and shot them dead in the street - treating them as potential threats simply because they were moving. This isn't an isolated incident. Soldiers describe the "Mosquito Procedure" (Procedure Yatush) as a standard, albeit denied, practice of using Palestinian civilians as human shields - a method explicitly forbidden by international law and Israeli Supreme Court rulings. The verified accounts of atrocities committed in Gaza against innocent people are continuing to come out. We are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.