Al Mezan and Adalah: Investigations Should be Conducted in All Documented Cases; Perpetrators Should be Brought to Justice without Delay The Israeli military police has started an investigation into a number of complains about using Palestinian civilians as human shields during the last Israeli military offensive against the Gaza Strip (Operation Cast Lead).
Complaints were submitted by Adalah: the Legal Center for the Rights of the Arab Minority in Israel and Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights.
On Monday 23 July 2009, Israeli military police investigators interviewed Palestinian victims of human shielding; among whom a child and his mother, at Erez Crossing and took affidavits about the IOF using them as human shields.
The Israeli authorities refused to give permit to Al Mezan's lawyer to attend the meeting with Palestinian victims at Erez.
    Al Mezan and Adalah welcome the investigation into these three cases.
Al Mezan and Adalah calls on the Israeli authorities to investigate all the cases in which IOF used Palestinian civilians as human shield since October 2005, after the Israeli High Court ruled that the use of civilians as human shields is prohibited.
Al Mezan has documented dozens of cases in which IOF used Palestinian civilians as human shields, six of which occurred during 'Operation Cast Lead' alone.
In two of these cases children wereused as human shields.
(see Al Mezan Report: http://www.
mezan.
org/upload/8632.
pdf) .
Among these cases were: ·         The child Ala'a Al A'tar and other members of his family, in Al A'tatra area in Biet Lahia;   ·         Majdi Abed Rabbo, in Ezbet Abed Rabbo area, Jabalia; ·         Abbas Halawa, southwest Jabalia.
In one of the flagrant cases in which IOF used civilians as human shields was forcing a child to search rooms in Palestinian homes at Tal Al Hawa Area, southwest of Gaza City.
Israeli soldiers forced the child to check suspected objects.
In the two other cases, Israeli soldiers forced Majdi Abed Rabbo and Abbas Halawa to walk in front of them for long hours and to enter dozens of homes before them.
At least in one case, soldiers ordered one of the victims to enter a house in which Palestinian resistance members were sheltering and negotiate with them and collect secret information about them by camera.
Al Mezan and Adalah express their deep concern about these violations of human rights and IHL, which gravely and directly endanger the civilians' lives and injure their respect and dignity.
Using civilians as human shield is considered a grave breach to IHL, therefore perpetrators and commanders who order them must be brought to justice.
According to the ruling of the Israeli High Court on 6 October 2005, the Israeli army is banned from using civilians as human shields in OPT, The documented use of civilians as human shields during Operation Cast lead represents contempt of the Court and its ruling.
Although this investigation represents an exceptional step forward, it is still just a first step towards initiating a full-scale objective and effective investigation in this grave violation.
This investigation should pave the road towards bringing perpetrators to justice and ensure that these violations will not be repeated in the future.
Al Mezan and Adalah will closely follow the process of this investigation and take the necessary legal procedures to help victims, bring perpetrators to justice and prevent the use of civilians as human shields under any conditions in the future.
In the absence of trust in Israeli investigations and the continued immunity Israel provides for its political and military officials, Al Mezan and Adalah emphasize the importance of continuing the international investigations; particularly the investigation being conducted by UN fact finding mission led by Justice Richard Goldstone, regarding the Israeli violations of human rights and IHL.
Al Mezan and Adalah reassert the necessity of investigating all the cases of violations of human rights and IHL committed during the Operation Cast Lead in accordance with the standards provided for by international law with relation to investigation.
  Ends