World

Israeli soldiers used 80-year-old Palestinian as Gaza human shield: Report

Published

4 weeks ago

February 16, 2025

Israeli soldiers used 80-year-old Palestinian as Gaza human shield: Report

Israeli army forced elderly man to scout buildings with an explosive cord tied around his neck, before he was later shot dead along with his wife.

The Israeli military forced an 80-year-old Palestinian man to act as a human shield in Gaza by tying an explosive cord around his neck and threatening to have his head blown off, an investigation by the Israeli outlet The Hottest Place in Hell has found.

A senior officer from the army’s Nahal Brigade tied the explosive cord around the man’s neck before he was ordered to scout houses. After eight hours, soldiers ordered the man to flee with his wife from their home in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood in May, said +972 magazine, which reported the piece in partnership with The Hottest Place in Hell.

But when another Israeli battalion spotted the elderly couple on the street, they were shot dead on the spot, according to Israeli soldiers present at the scene.

The Israeli soldiers had initially encountered the couple in their home. They told Arabic-speaking soldiers that they were unable to flee to southern Gaza due to mobility difficulties.

But even in his condition, the soldiers forced the unnamed 80-year-old to walk ahead of them with his cane, while his wife was detained in their house.

A soldier told the investigation that the commander had decided to use the Palestinian couple as “mosquitoes”, referring to a procedure where the Israeli army forces Palestinian civilians to serve as human shields to protect the Israeli forces from being shot or blown up.

“He entered each house before us so that if there were [explosives] or a militant inside, he would [take the hit] instead of us,” one soldier said.

“He was told that if he did anything wrong or didn’t follow orders, the soldier behind him would pull the cord, and his head would be torn from his body.”

The man was forced to act as a human shield for eight hours, before he was ordered, along with his wife, to walk towards the so-called “humanitarian zone” in southern Gaza.

But the soldiers did not care to tell nearby Israeli divisions that the couple was going to pass through the area, according to the testimonies.

“After 100 metres, the other battalion saw them and immediately shot them,” a soldier said. “They died like that, in the street.”

Al Jazeera has reached out to the Israeli army for comment on the reported incident.

Israeli forces’ use of Palestinian civilians as human shields has been extensively reported on, despite it being forbidden under international law.

In August, the Israeli daily Haaretz published an expose revealing that Israeli troops had abducted Palestinian civilians, dressed them in military uniforms, attached cameras to their bodies, and sent them into underground tunnels as well as buildings in order to shield Israeli troops.

“[I]t’s hard to recognise them. They’re usually wearing Israeli army uniforms, many of them are in their 20s, and they’re always with Israeli soldiers of various ranks,” the Haaretz article said. But if you look more closely, “you see that most of them are wearing sneakers, not army boots. And their hands are cuffed behind their backs and their faces are full of fear”.

In the occupied West Bank in June, Israeli forces tied a wounded Palestinian man to the hood of their military jeep, in an apparent use of a human shield.

Francesca Albanese, the United Nations’ special rapporteur to the occupied Palestinian territory, slammed the incident, calling it “human shielding in action”.

And in January 2024, Palestinian shop owner Bahaa el-Din Abu Ras, 36, recounted how Israeli soldiers used him as a human shield for nearly two hours in Dura, in the occupied West Bank.

“So many questions went through my mind: Will I get to go back to my family? Will I be shot or would a rock hit me? Will I be arrested by these soldiers for whatever reason? When or how can I be released, in the middle of this warzone?” Abu Ras said. “I spent about an hour and a half like that, not sure when I would be killed and whether I would ever rest again.”

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World

Georgia ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili handed second prison sentence

Published

53 minutes ago

March 17, 2025

Press Room

Georgia ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili handed second prison sentence

Saakashvili was found guilty of illegal border crossing and given a second prison sentence of four and a half years on Monday, in addition to his existing sentence on charges of abuse of power and embezzlement.

A Georgian court sentenced former President Mikheil Saakashvili to another prison term on Monday, extending his imprisonment time to 12 and a half years.

Saakashvili, who served as Georgia’s president from 2004-2013, had previously been sentenced on charges of abuse of power and embezzlement that he and his defence have rejected as politically motivated.

Judge Badri Kochlamazashvili sentenced the 57-year-old ex-president to an extra four years and six months on charges of illegal border crossing, adding time to his existing sentence.

Speaking by videoconference, Saakashvili dismissed the verdict as an “absolutely illegal, unjust sentencing of me for crimes I have not committed.”

“They want to annihilate me in prison,” he said. “But no matter what, I will fight till the end,” he vowed.

According to his lawyer, Beka Basilaia, Monday’s verdict “again showed that Saakashvili is a political prisoner.”

Saakashvili, a controversial reformist

Saakashvili is also accused of repressing demonstrators who claimed that his fervour had turned into dictatorship.

The former president, who led the country in a more pro-Western direction, led the so-called Rose Revolution protests in 2003 that drove his predecessor out of office and enacted a series of ambitious reforms tackling official corruption.

In 2008, he oversaw a brief but intense war with Russia that ended with the humiliating loss of the remaining Georgian bases in two separatist territories.

His reign was brought to an end in the 2012 election when the then newly formed Georgian Dream Party defeated Saakashvili’s United National Movement party.

Saakashvili left for Ukraine in 2013 and became a citizen. From 2015 to 2016, he governed the southern Odesa region.

However, he was swiftly detained when he returned to Georgia in October 2021 in an attempt to strengthen opposition forces before the national municipal elections.

Georgian Dream accused of influencing verdict

Saakashvili’s lawyer on Monday accused the ruling Georgian Dream of influencing the latest extension of the ex-Georgian leader’s prison term.

“As long as Georgian Dream remains in power, the judiciary is a farce and will make whatever decision it is instructed to,” Basilaia said.

Since 2012, when Saakashvili was ousted from office, the Georgian Dream Party has remained in power and itself has recently been facing criticisms and popular protests on allegations of a crackdown on democratic freedoms.

The party is also accused of steering the country away from the path toward European Union membership and back into Russia’s sphere of influence.

After going on multiple hunger strikes, Saakashvili is currently being treated at the Vivamedi facility, where he is being monitored for a number of chronic illnesses, according to the clinic.

World

Thousands gather in Rio de Janeiro to demonstrate support for Bolsonaro

Published

10 hours ago

March 17, 2025

Press Room

Thousands gather in Rio de Janeiro to demonstrate support for Bolsonaro

Thousands of people gathered on Copacabana Beach on Sunday in a show of support for former President Jair Bolsonaro, who faces charges of leading a plot to topple the government and undermine Brazil’s democracy after he lost a 2022 election.

World

US military shoots down Houthi drones as Trump's strikes against terrorist group continue

Published

11 hours ago

March 17, 2025

Press Room

US military shoots down Houthi drones as Trump's strikes against terrorist group continue

U.S. warships have shot down roughly a dozen Houthi drones since President Donald Trump launched airstrikes against the terrorist organization on Saturday, Fox News has learned.

A senior defense official told Fox News of the developments on Sunday. The drones were aimed at the U.S. Navy’s Truman Carrier Strike Group, and were shot down “well before” they posed a serious threat, the official added.

The latest military action came after nearly a year and a half of attacks from Houthis, both on commercial merchant vessels and U.S. military ships. In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump wrote that he had “ordered the United States Military to launch decisive and powerful Military action against the Houthi terrorists in Yemen.”

“It has been over a year since a U.S.-flagged commercial ship safely sailed through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, or the Gulf of Aden,” Trump continued. “The last American Warship to go through the Red Sea, four months ago, was attacked by the Houthis over a dozen times.”

US NAVY SHIPS REPEL ATTACK FROM HOUTHIS IN GULF OF ADEN

U.S. warships intercepted and shot down around a dozen Houthi drones since President Donald Trump’s airstrikes were launched on Mar. 15. (Getty Images/AP)

Trump wrote that the “relentless assaults have cost the U.S. and World Economy many BILLIONS of Dollars while, at the same time, putting innocent lives at risk.”

“To all Houthi terrorists, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON’T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!” his post concluded.

TRUMP RE-DESIGNATES IRANIAN-BACKED HOUTHIS AS TERRORISTS: ‘THREATEN[S] SECURITY OF AMERICAN CIVILIANS’

U.S. President Donald Trump speaking at a meeting

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on February 26, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Trump re-designated the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) in January. His first administration had named the Houthis as an FTO, but the Biden administration later reversed the move.

On Sunday, the White House released photos of Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz monitoring the strikes.

Trump, in golf attire, monitoring airstrikes

President Trump is taking action against the Houthis to defend U.S. shipping assets and deter terrorist threats, the White House posted on X on March 15, 2025. (The White House)

“President Trump is taking action against the Houthis to defend US shipping assets and deter terrorist threats,” the White House wrote on X. “For too long American economic & national threats have been under assault by the Houthis. Not under this presidency.”

Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.