Israeli troops reportedly used child as shield

Israeli soldiers used an 11-year-old Palestinian girl as a “human shield” during an operation against militants in the West Bank city of Nablus last week, an Israeli human rights group said Thursday.

The Israeli army said it was checking the report from the B’Tselem group, which monitors Israeli actions in the occupied territory. Israeli law bans the military from using human shields.

B’Tselem said the girl, Jihan Daadush, told the group’s representatives that Israeli soldiers had entered her family’s home and questioned her and her relatives about the whereabouts of gunmen who had fired at the troops.

The soldiers, she said, threatened to arrest her unless she led them to a nearby house.

A soldier “ordered me to go toward the house,” B’Tselem quoted the girl as saying. “Three soldiers walked behind me.

“When we reached the house, there were a lot of soldiers. The soldiers ordered me to go inside the house, and I went inside.”

B’Tselem said Jihan told the group’s interviewers that the soldiers shone flashlights and asked about the rooms of the house. The girl said two soldiers then returned her home.

There was no mention in the group’s report of whether soldiers found militants inside the house.

One soldier “told me, ‘Thank you, but don’t tell anyone,’ ” the girl said, according to B’Tselem. “I was afraid they would kill me or put me in jail. I am still afraid the soldiers will invade the city again and take me away.”

B’Tselem also said the army had used a 15-year-old Palestinian boy and a Palestinian man for a similar purpose during the five-day raid of Nablus, a militant stronghold.

The Israeli army ended the operation March 1. During the incursion, troops shot dead a Palestinian civilian who had observed the raid from his rooftop. Soldiers also detained some suspected militants.