Palestinian prisoner Israel forces used as 'human shield' dies

Ramallah: A wounded Palestinian prisoner, who was once bound to the bonnet of a military mobile of Israel, using him as a human shield, died in an Israeli hospital, IANS reported, citing Palestinian organisations.

Zaher Raddad, 19, from the town of Saida in Tulkarm, northern West Bank, died in the Israeli Meir Hospital, according to a statement by the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Authority, part of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, along with the Palestinian Prisoners Club.

Raddad was arrested on July 23 after the Israeli army shot him and "used him as a human shield during the military operation by placing him on the front of one of the Israeli military vehicles in the city," the statement said on Sunday.

With Radad's death, the number of prisoners who died in Israeli prisons since October 7, 2023, has risen to 23, according to the statement.

There has been no Israeli statement on the death of Raddad, Xinhua news agency reported.

Since October 2023, Israel has been waging a large-scale war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians after the movement carried out an unprecedented attack on Israeli towns adjacent to the Strip, which resulted in the killing of about 1,200 people.

The statement further detailed that Raddad had been held at Meir Hospital under critical and unstable health conditions, reliant on artificial respiration after undergoing several surgeries. Despite his grave condition, the Israeli authorities continued his detention until his death on Sunday.

The two Palestine organisations condemned the Israeli occupation's actions as a compounded crime, starting from the moment of Raddad's arrest and shooting, his use as a human shield, and the continued detention despite his severe health condition.

They described this incident as part of the unprecedented scale of crimes committed by the Israeli occupation since the onset of its genocidal campaign against the people of Gaza and its ongoing aggression against Palestinians across all occupied territories.

Tensions have been running high across the West Bank since Israel launched a military offensive against the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 40,400 Palestinians since last October.

At least 641 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 5,400 others injured in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

In a landmark advisory opinion on July 19, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.