The Commission of Prisoners' Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners' Club reviewed the testimony of the young man (M.D.) (21 years old) from Gaza, who was used by the occupation army as a human shield for more than (40) days, along with another detainee who was with him, in addition to being subjected to acts of abuse, deliberate subjugation, humiliation, assault, starvation, terrorization and threats, after the occupation soldiers arrested him and a group of citizens in June 2024, from the (Kerem Abu Salem) crossing while he was working in transporting goods, as the occupation deliberately kept him at a concentration point belonging to a force from the Israeli occupation army between the Philadephia and Rafah axis.

According to the young man’s testimony, “the occupation forces used him as a human shield on a daily basis, through several methods, including: “Putting him on the front of the military vehicles of the occupation army, with his hands and feet tied, in addition to forcing him to wear the military uniform of the occupation army and providing him with a camera. If he refused, he was beaten, and a drone accompanied him to guide him during his movement. Throughout that period, the occupation soldiers practiced a policy of starvation against him, and they also deprived him of using the bathroom or showering. This continued throughout the period of his detention, as he faced death every moment, according to his expression, until he was shot in the chest on August 6, and remained for about half an hour without treatment.”

According to his testimony, “The next day, he found himself in the Israeli Soroka Hospital, where he stayed for three days, until he was released on August 9, through the Kerem Shalom crossing, and was transferred by ambulance to Nasser Hospital. It turned out that the injury had caused him a fracture in his chest, and another injury to his lung, and the exit from the injury is still open and he needs urgent treatment.”

The Authority and the Club stated that the young man (M.D.) and his family, like hundreds of thousands of citizens from Gaza, were displaced to more than one area as a result of the ongoing war of extermination. During the war, his father was martyred, and there are members of his family who are missing.

In this context, the Prisoners’ Authority and the Prisoners’ Club confirm that the young man (M.D.) was subjected to a complex and horrific war crime, starting with his arrest and use as a human shield for this entire period, his abuse, torture and humiliation, his subsequent injury, and his release from the hospital without completing his treatment. Although international law and international agreements have prohibited the use of civilians as human shields as a war crime, the occupation, as well as all the systematic crimes it practices, continues to pursue them, so that this testimony constitutes one of dozens of testimonies of detainees from Gaza, against whom systematic torture crimes were practiced in Israeli prisons and camps. The (Sde Teiman) camp was one of the most prominent stations for crimes of torture, starvation, medical crimes and sexual assaults against them, which led to the martyrdom of dozens of detainees from Gaza, most of whom the occupation continues to conceal their identities, in addition to the field executions it carried out.

It is noteworthy that the Israeli occupation has adopted the crime of using Palestinian citizens and detainees as human shields, as this crime constitutes one of the most prominent historical policies, and has escalated especially since the beginning of the war of extermination. The competent institutions have followed up on several cases of citizens and detainees who were used as human shields, which according to the International Criminal Court and the Rome Statute constitutes a war crime, in addition to the Geneva Conventions prohibiting their use, in addition to a group of video clips that were published and documented the occupation soldiers’ use of this crime in Gaza and the West Bank.

We remind you that since the beginning of the war of extermination, the occupation has carried out and continues to carry out systematic and escalating arrest campaigns throughout Palestine. The number of arrests in the West Bank has reached more than ten thousand, in addition to thousands of citizens from Gaza, who have been subjected to the crime of enforced disappearance. The arrests were accompanied by crimes and violations - unprecedented in their level - and this continued after they were transferred to investigation and detention centers, prisons and camps, which have turned into areas for torture crimes.

The Commission and the Club renewed their demands for international human rights institutions to restore their necessary and required role in the face of the ongoing war of extermination and systematic crimes carried out by the occupation against prisoners and detainees, and to assume their necessary responsibilities, and to overcome the terrifying state of helplessness that surrounds their role, and to go beyond this role based only on monitoring crimes and violations and issuing positions and statements, to a level that leads to holding the occupation and the forces supporting it accountable.