Israeli soldiers forced an 80-year-old Palestinian man to walk ahead of them with an explosive-laced strap around his neck—then shot him and his wife as they tried to flee.
A senior officer in the Nahal Brigade tied an explosive-laced strap around the neck of an 80-year-old Palestinian man and forced him to walk ahead of soldiers as a human shield for eight hours, according to an investigation by Israeli outlet The Hottest Place in Hell.
The incident reportedly took place in May during an operation by Division 99 in the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City.
According to testimonies from Israeli soldiers present, the officer attached a detonating fuse—connected to an initiating detonator—around the elderly man’s neck as a leash, threatening to blow up his head if he disobeyed orders.
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“They explained to him that if he did something wrong or not as we wanted, the person behind him would pull the rope and his head would be severed from his body,” one soldier told the investigative outlet.
“He walked around with us like that for eight hours, even though he was an 80-year-old man and even though he couldn’t escape us. And this was in the knowledge that there was a soldier behind him who could pull the rope at any second—and he would be finished.”
According to the report, the Israeli military refers to this practice as the ‘Mosquito Procedure’, a euphemism for forcing Palestinian civilians to serve as human shields in combat zones.
Forced into Danger, Then Shot by Another Unit
According to the investigation, the elderly man and his wife had pleaded with the soldiers to remain in their home, saying they had “nowhere to run” and could not evacuate due to their frailty.
Nevertheless, after long hours of being forced to walk ahead of the soldiers to clear houses, the couple was reportedly ordered to evacuate on foot toward the south.
“The testimony indicates that the soldiers did not inform the forces in the nearby sector that an elderly couple was about to cross the zone on foot,” the report states.
“After a hundred meters, the second battalion saw them, and shot them on the spot. They died like that, in the street.”
Other testimonies cited by the outlet stated that the Israeli army’s open-fire regulations in Gaza stipulate that “any person who moves in the zone after the evacuation deadline for a particular area has ended is considered a terrorist”—even if they are elderly civilians.
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Israeli Military Denies the Practice, Soldiers Say Otherwise
The Israeli military has repeatedly denied the systematic use of the Mosquito Procedure, but according to soldiers interviewed by The Hottest Place in Hell, it is a routine practice.
“This is a procedure that has become standard practice in the army,” one soldier said. “They may have done it in other places, but this was an extreme case.”
Another soldier described how the policy operates under unofficial sanction. “It’s something from the battalion commander level and below. It comes down as a regular order, and somewhere at the brigade commander level they deny it completely,” he said.
“When problems start to arise, they shift responsibility down and say not to do it.”
Despite Israel’s Supreme Court banning the use of human shields during the Second Intifada, reports continue to surface of its widespread use in Gaza.
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The investigation follows an earlier Haaretz report in August, which revealed similar tactics being deployed.
At the time, the Israeli army responded by stating that its directives “prohibit the use of Gazan civilians captured in the field for military missions that pose a deliberate risk to their lives.”
In response to the latest investigation, the Israeli army spokesperson’s office claimed: “An investigation conducted based on the information provided in the request indicates that the case is not known. As additional details are received, further investigation will be conducted.”
However, the soldiers interviewed say the military’s denials are meaningless. “If you go to any fighter who fought in Gaza—there is no one who will tell you that it doesn’t happen,” one soldier said.
“There is no battalion that can tell you, at least a regular one, that can tell you that we didn’t use this thing,” he added.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
