Dozens of Palestinians were killed and injured in the Gaza Strip by Israeli raids on various areas of the Strip, on the 460th day of the Israeli war on the Strip.
In the northern Gaza Strip, civil defense crews recovered a body and several injured people from the home of a family bombed by the Israeli army in the Sheikh Radwan area, north of Gaza City, while 4 missing people remained under the rubble, difficult to reach.
Civil Defense crews also recovered 5 bodies and a number of injuries as a result of the Israeli forces bombing a house near Bilal Mosque in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City. A number of people, most of them children, were killed as a result of the bombing of a house in Jabalia al-Balad.
Later, Palestinian media sources reported that 15 people were killed in two separate Israeli raids on the northern Gaza Strip since dawn today.
There was also a huge explosion resulting from a bombing of residential buildings in Jabalia al-Nazla, north of the Gaza Strip, the sound of which was heard from the Central Governorate.
In the middle of the Gaza Strip, 3 people were killed as a result of the bombing of a house in the city of Deir al-Balah. A number of Palestinians were injured as a result of an Israeli air strike on a house in the Bureij refugee camp in central.
In the south of the Gaza Strip, 19 people were killed as a result of the Israeli bombing on the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, including 8 children and 5 women.
The Israeli army has continued its war on the Gaza Strip since October 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 45,885 people and 109,196 injuries, according to the latest toll issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Strip.
An Israeli army commander kills a Palestinian prisoner within the “Mosquito Protocol”
In a related context, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported from an investigative report that a commander in the Israeli Nahal Brigade killed a Palestinian prisoner who was being used as a human shield to search buildings in the southern Gaza Strip.
The newspaper explained that the liquidation occurred after a commander in the Nahal Brigade discovered that the Palestinian prisoner was inside a residence, so he opened fire on him without knowing that the prisoner was there with the approval of the army forces.
The Israeli army confirmed the details of the incident, and said in its response to the investigative report, “The incident was investigated by the brigade’s command, and conclusions were drawn that will be applied during the forces’ ongoing operations.”
Last August, Haaretz newspaper reported that the Israeli army used Palestinians as human shields for soldiers during operations in the Gaza Strip, and said that the occupation soldiers call the Palestinian prisoners who force them to do so “shawish,” and send them to buildings to conduct searches before the soldiers enter the sites.
The newspaper quoted phrases common among the occupation forces, such as “Our lives are more important than their lives,” and “It is better for the Israeli soldiers to remain alive and for the sergeants to be the ones who explode any explosive device.”
In late October, CNN reported that Palestinians – including teenagers – confirmed that they were forced to work as human shields in Gaza, and explained that the use of Palestinians as human shields is known as the “mosquito protocol” among Israeli soldiers.
Haaretz reported that the use of Palestinian prisoners as human shields did not begin in the current war on Gaza. During Operation “Defensive Shield,” which was carried out in 2002 in the West Bank, the Israeli army resorted to what it called the “Neighbor Protocol,” where soldiers used civilians to search for traps. Or they sent Palestinians into homes before the forces entered to search for wanted people.
The newspaper explained that the continuous revelation of similar stories prompted human rights groups to submit a petition to the Supreme Court in Israel to stop this practice. The court accepted the petition in 2005 and ruled that the practice contravened international law and was therefore illegal. The Israeli Army Chief of Staff at the time, Dan Halutz, ordered the army to implement the court ruling, but the new cases confirm that the occupation forces are not abiding by that ruling.
Last updated: January 8, 2025 – 12:25
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