The Israel Defense Forces have said they are investigating an incident in which soldiers strapped a wounded Palestinian man to the bonnet of a military vehicle during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Saturday.
A video circulating on social media showed a man, variously identified as Mujahid Azmi or Fayyad, from the Jabriyat neighbourhood between the towns of Burqin and Jenin, tied to the front of an off-road vehicle that is seen passing two ambulances.
According to Azmi’s family, there was an arrest raid, during which he was injured, and when the family asked for an ambulance, the army took him, strapped him to the bonnet and drove off.
Medics at Jenin’s Ibn Sina hospital said Azmi was being treated there.
The UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, condemned the incident and accused the IDF of using the wounded man as a human shield.
“Human shielding in action,” she wrote on X. “It is flabbergasting how a state born 76 years ago has managed to turn international law literally on its head. This risks being the end of multilateralism, which for some influential member states no longer serves any relevant purpose.”
#HumanShielding in action.
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) June 22, 2024
It is flabbergasting how a state born 76 years ago has managed to turn international law literally on its head.
This risks being the end of multilateralism, which for some influential member states no longer serves any relevant purpose.… https://t.co/swwjiuJYmG
The Israeli military said its forces were fired at and exchanged fire, wounding a suspect and apprehending him. Soldiers then violated military protocol, the statement said. “The suspect was taken by the forces while tied on top of a vehicle,” it said.
The military said the “conduct of the forces in the video of the incident does not conform to” its values, and that the events would be investigated.
Jenin has long been a stronghold for Palestinian militant groups, and the Israeli army routinely carries out raids in the city and an adjacent refugee camp.
Violence in the West Bank had already surged before the Israel-Hamas war broke out on 7 October and has only escalated since. At least 553 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers since the war began, according to Palestinian officials.
Attacks by Palestinians have killed at least 14 Israelis in the West Bank over the same period. On Saturday, Amnon Muchtar, 67, an Israeli civilian, was shot and killed by unknown gunmen in the West Bank city of Qalqilya after apparently going to buy vegetables.
There has been mounting concern over the IDF’s treatment of Palestinian detainees historically and during the current conflict, which has seen widespread allegations of abuse.
Palestinians held in Israeli detention since the start of the war have said they have faced systematic ill-treatment by prison authorities, whom they accused of deliberately withholding vital medical treatment.
Human rights groups and international organisations have alleged widespread abuse of inmates detained by Israel in raids in the occupied West Bank or during its military advance through Gaza. That has included the publication of images of Palestinian men and boys stripped after their capture.
Last month the UN special rapporteur on torture, Alice Jill Edwards, urged the Israeli government to investigate multiple allegations of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment against detained Palestinians since 7 October.
“Persons deprived of liberty must always be treated humanely,” Edwards said. “They must be provided with all protections required under international human rights and humanitarian law, whatever the circumstances of their detention.”
Hamas has been accused of mistreating the hostages it holds captive, including allegations of psychological, physical and sexual abuse.
