JENIN, West Bank (AP) — As Mujahid Abadi walked out to check on Israeli forces in his uncle’s neighborhood, he was fired upon, wounding his arm and leg. Little did he know, this was the beginning of his painful ordeal. Hours later, after suffering beatings and severe blood loss, he was found tied up on the scorched hood of an Israeli military jeep driving down a deserted road.
Initially labeled a suspected terrorist by the military, later revelations acknowledged that Abadi posed no threat to Israeli forces and had unknowingly been caught in a crossfire involving terrorists.
Footage of the 24-year-old man tied to a jeep quickly circulated on social media, drawing widespread condemnation, including in the United States. Critics argued that it depicted Israeli forces acting as human shields – an accusation often leveled by Israel against Hamas during its conflict with the group in Gaza.
The military responded by launching an investigation and said the incident was not in line with its values. However, Palestinians considered it another example of brutality amid Israel’s intensified measures in the occupied West Bank, where violence escalated after Hamas’ October 7 attack sparked conflict in Gaza.
Abadi, speaking to The Associated Press from his hospital bed on Tuesday, saying he rushed outside his uncle’s house in the restive West Bank city of Jenin on Saturday after hearing a disturbance.
“I went out to see what was happening and I saw the army near neighbours’ houses,” he recalled. “As I tried to return home, I was suddenly caught in the heavy, indiscriminate firing. My cousin, who was nearby, was also killed.”
After being injured in the arm, he hid behind his family’s car. Moments later, he was shot in the leg. Unable to move, he called his father, fearing for his life.
“I told him to stay alert and keep talking to me,” Raed Abadi said, standing near his son’s hospital bed. “Then, the call suddenly disconnected.”
Ra’ad was devastated when he saw misinformation circulating on social media, falsely reporting Palestinian deaths in the raid. “I fainted because I was so sure it was my son,” he said.
Despite inaccurate reports, Abadi was alive, although his ordeal was far from over.
A few hours later, Israeli soldiers found him. He said he was hit repeatedly on the head and face, especially where he was injured. Then they dragged him by his legs, picked him up and threw him on the hood of a military jeep.
“The heat was unbearable and I started screaming,” he recalled. “One of the soldiers cursed at me and ordered me to be quiet.”
The army claimed that they had tied Abadi to the jeep to facilitate his transport to medical personnel. However, Nabel Farsakh, a spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service, said that troops had blocked access to the area, delaying the arrival of paramedics by at least an hour.
Dashboard camera footage obtained by the AP shows the Jeep passing at least two ambulances. Abadi estimated that he remained tied to the jeep for about half an hour before the soldiers finally released him to paramedics.
Washington DC. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller expressed surprise after seeing the video.
“The use of civilians as human shields is unacceptable,” he said, referring to the Israeli military. “The IDF must immediately investigate this incident and ensure accountability.”
Israel has consistently accused Hamas of employing civilians as human shields by operating in densely populated residential areas in Gaza. It holds Hamas responsible for significant casualties in Gaza, where local health officials have reported more than 37,000 Palestinian deaths since the beginning of the conflict, without specifying civilian casualties. The initial attack by Hamas sparked a conflict that resulted in the deaths of approximately 1,200 Israelis, mainly civilians.
In the West Bank, Israeli forces frequently conduct night-time operations, often leading to armed confrontations with militants, resulting in the deaths of more than 550 Palestinians.
Human rights organizations allege that Israel has a history of using Palestinians as human shields during military operations in both the West Bank and Gaza, territories captured during the 1967 war and demands by Palestinians for their own future state. Was done.
According to the Israeli rights organization B’Tselem, for decades, the army routinely instructed Palestinian civilians to remove suspicious objects from the streets and called residents out of their homes for military arrest, known as the “neighborhood process”. Is known.
In 2005, Israel’s Supreme Court issued a ruling barring the army from using Palestinians as human shields. Despite this directive, human rights groups have consistently documented examples of such practices over the years. In a notable incident in 2021, Israeli troops in the West Bank detained an AP photographer against his will in an area where Palestinians were engaged in stone-throwing, after Israeli troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets.
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