As he attempted to look outside to see if Israeli soldiers had infiltrated his uncle’s neighborhood, a Palestinian man named Mujahid Abadi was shot in both the arm and the foot. Subsequently, he was captured by the IDF and strapped to the hood of an Israeli military vehicle.
After first suspecting Abadi of being a militant, the army eventually determined he was really trapped in the crossfire and did not represent any threat. Images of Abadi being hoisted onto the vehicle went viral on social media, drawing outrage from all across the world, including the US. Since Israel has often accused Hamas of employing human shields in its conflict with the group in Gaza, many saw this as evidence that Israeli forces were doing the same to him.
The military stated that it was investigating the incident and that its ideals were not reflected in it.
Violence has escalated since the Oct. 7 bombing by Hamas sparked the conflict in Gaza, and the Palestinians viewed it as another harsh act in Israel’s onslaught on the occupied West Bank. Abadi, who was speaking from a hospital bed on Tuesday, said that on Saturday, he heard a noise and went outside his uncle’s house in the unstable West Bank city of Jenin. His cousin, who was standing close by, was also wounded in the barrage of random gunshots. He took cover behind his family’s car after being injured in the arm; he was then hit in the foot again.
A few hours later, Israeli forces located him and brutally attacked him, hitting him on the head, face, and legs. After dragging him by the legs, they hoisted him by the hands and feet and tossed him across the military jeep’s searing hood. For around thirty minutes, Abadi was bound to the vehicle before being handed over to the paramedics.
Both the regions that Israel gained in 1967 and the ones that the Palestinians desire for their future state have a history of human shield incidents, according to rights organizations.
Human rights groups have persistently documented instances of the Israeli military employing Palestinians as human shields, even after the Supreme Court of Israel issued a 2005 decision prohibiting the practice.
