NABLUS,
August 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Israeli army faced
fresh accusations of using Palestinian civilians as human shields, as
a teenager was shot dead in the town of Tubas when the army forced him
to go into a residence where the Jenin chief for the Islamic movement
Hamas, Nasser Jarrar, was hiding during what they say was an operation
to arrest him.
Nidal
Abu Mohsen, 17, was shot dead after the Israeli army used him as a
“human shield” to go into the house where the Jenin military chief
for the Islamic movement Hamas, Nasser Jarrar, was hiding in the town
of Tubas, the victim’s family told Agence France-Presse (AFP)
They
said the teenager, who had no political affiliation, was struck down
by Israeli bullets in an exchange of fire between the Hamas chief and
the army.
The
young man’s uncle, Ali Daragameh, a field worker for the Israeli
rights group B'Tselem, said “his nephew was taken by the soldiers
and was forced to go to Jarrar's house at gunpoint,” the rights
group said in a statement.
The
army confirmed Abu Mohsen’s death, saying he had been shot dead
while trying to enter the house to negotiate with Jarrar, AFP said.
The
strategy to use a human shield in attempts to assassinate resistance
fighters is a new way adopted by the Israeli army calls
“neighborhood procedure”, which means that neighbors of wanted
Palestinians are sent to the targeted house to convince people inside
to surrender.
However,
the army strongly denied Abu Mohsen had been used as a human shield,
although armed soldiers asked the 17-year-old to enter the house and
then handed him a bullet proof vest before doing so.
“Several
attempts were made to get Jarrar to turn himself over, including the
use of loud-speakers, but he didn’t respond,” an army spokesman
said.
“There
was a Palestinian at the spot and we thought it would be best if a
Palestinian would try and tell Jarrar to hand himself over peacefully,
so we used loudspeakers to tell them he was coming in,” he said,
adding the teen entered the house alone.
But
as Abu Mohsen opened the door, the soldiers saw him get shot in the
head, the spokesman claims, stressing that the army did not think
those inside the house would kill the teenager.
However,
the teenager’s family said Israeli bullets had killed him, saying he
had been forced into the role of a “human shield” for the army.
A
senior military source said that after Abu Mohsen was shot, a gunfight
broke out when the people inside the house opened fire on the army.
Jarrar,
who had no arms or legs, died in what the Israeli army called a
battle.
The
army said it was possible that more people had been killed in the
gunfight.
“Judging
from the amount of fire, which came from several directions within the
house, there must have been more than just him there because he only
has one hand and he couldn’t have done that alone,” the spokesman
said.
A
second Palestinian was lightly wounded in the gun battle and the army
arrested him before taking him to an Israeli hospital for treatment,
he added.
Describing
the operation as “complicated”, the spokesman said the army went
in to arrest Jarrar, not to kill him.
“These
people have more value alive than dead because you can talk to them
and find out information,” he said.
The
army then blasted the house and Jarrar was later found decapitated
under the rubble, Hamas members told AFP.
The
house, which belonged to fellow Hamas member, was then demolished by
Israeli tank shelling and bulldozers, they said.
 |
|
Jarrar
was assassinated by the Israeli army
|
The
Israeli army said in a statement that despite losing both legs and an
arm when a bomb he was planting went off last year, Jarrar, 44 had
been planning a “mega-attack” to blow up a high-rise building in
central Israel.
Meanwhile,
a senior Hamas leader in Gaza, Abdel-Aziz Rantissi, warned that there
would be reprisals for Jarrar’s death, BBC’s online service said.
“The
Zionist enemy will pay a heavy price for this crime which they
committed against a crippled person,” he told news agencies.
Israel
has pursued a controversial policy of pre-emptive strikes on
Palestinian resistance members it accuses of planning attacks against
Israelis.
Last
month the Israeli army killed Sheikh Salah Shahada, founder of
Hamas’s military wing, along with 18 others including 12 children in
a missile strike on a residential building.
An
attack on the Hebrew University in Jerusalem earlier this month, which
killed seven people, was claimed by Hamas to be in revenge for
Shahada’s killing.
The
use of Palestinian human shields became an issue during Israel's
sweeping military operations in April, when human rights organizations
petitioned the supreme court to order a stop to the practice, BBC’s
online service said.
International
human rights organizations reported that the Israeli army used
Palestinian civilians as human shields during their incursions of the
Palestinian territories in March 2002, especially in the refugee camp
of Jenin, where more than 60 civilians, including women and children,
were killed with the same way.
The
Israeli human rights group, B'tselem, strongly condemned the incident
as another example of Palestinians being used to shield Israeli forces
from potential danger.
