A new report by Physicians for Human Rights accuses Israel of using human shields and attacking medical workers and facilities during last summer’s war in the Gaza Strip.
The report is based on testimony from eight overseas medical experts who made three visits to Gaza and interviewed doctors and wounded Palestinians.
Several incidents described in the report took place in Khuza’a, which was under Israeli attack from July 21-25. In one, Ramadan Qdeih accused Israeli soldiers of killing his 65-year-old father, Muhammad, by shooting him twice at close range as he stood in his own doorway.
Afterward, Ramadan said, the soldiers used him as a human shield, forcing him to walk ahead of them down the stairs of the house and threatening that if anyone was hiding there, the soldiers would kill Ramadan immediately.
“At the door to the basement, one soldier placed the barrel of his rifle on Ramadan’s shoulder and fired into the basement,” the report said. “When Ramadan began to shout in fear, he was struck with the rifle butt and insulted by the Israeli soldiers.”
There is no documentation of the foreign doctors’ interview with Ramadan, but based on the report’s description, it seems this incident is one already being investigated by the Military Police.
Shortly after this incident, the report said, seven blindfolded young men were taken to the second floor of the Qdeih house and two were placed at windows from which the glass had been removed. “The Israeli soldiers placed the rifle barrels onto the men’s shoulders and fired out the windows,” it said. “They did not fire continuously, but now and then over approximately one hour.”
Two days earlier, on July 23, several hundred Khuza’a residents had tried to leave the town, carrying white flags. Dr. Kamal Qdeih, who was in the front row, told the foreign doctors that when they reached a group of Israeli tanks, the soldiers ordered them to go back.