JENIN, West Bank, May 14 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Israeli troops used Palestinian civilians, including young children, as human shields in an incursion Wednesday, May 14, in the West Bank city of Jenin, witnesses said.

An undercover unit of soldiers dressed as Palestinians moved into the center of the autonomous city and stopped two civilian cars less than 100 metres (yards) away from the house sheltering the militants, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent said.

The soldiers forced some of the occupants out of one and used the vehicle to approach the house before opening fire on the building, near the central hospital.

Ewa, a 24-year-old Polish-British woman volunteering with various local humanitarian organizations, said she approached the scene of the clashes when she heard the first shots being fired.

"I joined three girls, aged four, six and nine, and a very distressed woman who were not allowed to leave the scene of the fighting and forced to sit on the floor against a wall facing the targeted building," she told AFP, declining to reveal her surname.

"Palestinian men were then brought out of the building, handcuffed and forcibly thrown to the ground," before the assault was completed, she said.

"I was briefly allowed to leave and when I came back with water for the woman, who needed medical care, I was shoved to the ground and we had to sit against the wall," said the human rights activist.

"Some soldiers were standing beside us holding big metal shields to protect themselves, and others were behind the wall against which we were sitting, hurling grenades inside the building where the men were," she explained.

Her account was confirmed by the AFP correspondent on the scene and a neighbor, 42-year-old Mahmad Rehat, who said the human shields were kept for around an hour, while the army was shooting at the building.

Three resistance fighters were finally captured, including a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah group.

Said Atatra, a nurse at the hospital, said a boy was killed and six other Palestinians wounded during the clashes, stressing that all of them were hit inside the hospital compound.

"When the shooting started, many of the civilians and neighbors of the house took refuge inside the hospital walls," he explained.

When contacted by AFP Wednesday evening, the army made no immediate comment.

Israeli and Palestinian rights groups have documented several cases of Israeli troops using civilians, often children, as human shields during their almost daily West Bank incursions.

They have repeatedly demanded that the army issue an unambiguous order not to use civilians during military assignments.