Israel Army ‘Used Human Shields’
BBC News: United Nations investigators have accused the Israeli army of using an 11-year-old boy as a human shield during its recent Gaza offensive.
Their report says troops ordered the boy to walk in front of them for several hours under fire, entering buildings and opening suspect packages. The UN team responsible for protection of children in war zones says it found “hundreds” of similar violations.
Israel has denied the charges, saying morals are “paramount” in its army. Israel’s ambassador to the UN criticised the report as “unable or perhaps unwilling” to address attacks against its civilians by Palestinian militants.
The lead investigator, Sri Lankan lawyer Radhika Coomaraswamy, said the incident with the boy in the Gaza neighbourhood of Tel al-Hawa on 15 January was a violation of Israeli and international law.
Her report also accuses Israeli soldiers of shooting Palestinian children, bulldozing a home with a woman and child still inside, and shelling a building they had ordered civilians into a day earlier.
