Tuesday November 23, 2010 08:24 by Defense For Children International - Palestine Branch

One day after an Israeli military court imposed a suspended sentence on two Givati Brigade soldiers of the Israeli occupation forces for using a nine-year-old boy as a human shield in Gaza, DCI-Palestine has just obtained an affidavit from a 13-year-old boy who reports being used as a human shield on 19 August, 2010. This brings the number of human shield cases documented by DCI-Palestine to three in 2010.

18 February 2010 - Voices From The Occupation (16-year-old girl from Nablus)

16 April 2010 - Voices From The Occupation (14-year-old boy from Beit Ummar)

19 August 2010 - Voices From The Occupation (13-year-old boy from near Nablus)

The practice of using human shields involves forcing civilians to directly assist in military operations or using them to shield an area or troops from attack. Both of these circumstances expose civilians to physical, and sometimes, mortal danger. Civilians are usually threatened and/or physically coerced into performing these tasks, most of the time at gunpoint. The practice is illegal under both international and Israeli domestic law.

In the latest case documented by DCI-Palestine, a 13-year-old boy from a village near Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, was beaten and then forced at gunpoint to search and open doors in a house where the army suspected a wanted person might be hiding – Nazzal A. – Voices From The Occupation.

Since April 2004, DCI-Palestine has documented 16 cases involving Palestinian children being used as human shields by the Israeli army. Fifteen of the 16 cases, occurred after the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled the practice to be illegal in October 2005, suggesting that the army is not effectively implementing the Court's decision, or simply disregarding the Court’s order altogether.

On Sunday, 21 November 2010, two soldiers from the Givati Brigade became the first soldiers to be charged and convicted of using a child as a human shield. The two soldiers were demoted from the rank of staff sergeant to sergeant and each given a three-month suspended prison sentence. DCI-Palestine is of the view that the lenient sentences handed down on Sunday are unlikely to deter the future use of children as human shields – Majed J. – Voices From The Occupation.

IDC: IOF used Palestinian children as human shields on 15 occasions

[ 23/11/2010 - 10:14 AM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)--

The international defense of children organization (IDC) has criticized an Israeli court verdict on Sunday against two Israeli occupation soldiers that sentenced them to three months suspended sentence for using a 9-year-old Palestinian child as a human shield during the war on Gaza.

The IDC, a Geneva-based international movement, said in a statement on Monday that the ruling did not reflect the severity of the violation committed by the two soldiers and did not serve justice but rather provided additional immunity for Israeli soldiers when committing crimes against Palestinian children.

It said that the verdicts did not conform with Israel's commitment to the international humanitarian law and did not seriously impose protection of civilians at times of war.

The IDC, which has a branch in Palestine, affirmed that it had documented 15 similar cases since 2005 where Israeli occupation forces used Palestinian children as human shields including three cases in 2010.