Israeli troops strap injured Palestinian to jeep in West Bank as strikes kill 39 in Gaza

Israeli soldiers strapped an injured Palestinian man to the bonnet of their vehicle during a raid in the West Bank city of Jenin on Saturday, inviting condemnation over their use of people in the occupied territories as a human shield.

A video circulated on social media showed a wounded Palestinian man, identified as Mujahed Azmi, lying on the bonnet of a military jeep as it drove past two ambulances.

The Israeli military confirmed that the incident had taken place and said that the soldiers had violated protocol after they were fired at during the raid.

“During the exchange of fire, one of the suspects was injured and apprehended,” the military claimed in a statement, referring to Mr Azmi. “In violation of orders and standard operating procedures, the suspect was taken by the forces while tied on top of a vehicle.”

The “conduct of the forces in the video of the incident does not conform to the values” of the military, it said, adding that the incident would be investigated.

Mr Azmi’s family claimed that they had asked for an ambulance for the injured man, but the soldiers strapped him to their jeep and drove off. He was eventually transferred to the Red Crescent for treatment.

The incident occurred on the same day that a 12-year-old Palestinian boy succumbed to his wounds after being shot by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank, Haaretz reported. The child was shot in the torso during clashes in the city of El Bireh last week.

Israeli soldiers fatally shot two Palestinian men they alleged were militants in Qalqilyah city on Saturday. An Israeli man in his sixties was also shot dead in the same area, reportedly by Palestinian militants.

Violence in the occupied West Bank had been rising before 7 October and has sharply escalated since, with frequent raids by Israeli forces on suspected militants, rampages by Jewish settlers in Palestinian villages, and deadly Palestinian street attacks.

The Israelis have killed at least 480 Palestinians in the West Bank since the war in Gaza began, according to the UN.

Israel launched its war on Gaza after Hamas stormed southern Israel and killed around 1,200 soldiers and civilians before taking some 250 people hostage. Israel responded by bombarding and invading the territory, killing more than 37,400 Palestinians so far and displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million.

The latest round of Israeli bombardment on Sunday killed at least 39 Palestinians across northern Gaza, according to Palestinian and hospital officials in the Hamas-run territory. Rescue workers were scrambling to find survivors beneath the rubble.

Fadel Naem, director of al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, said that more than three dozen bodies had arrived at the facility.

Israel said on Saturday that its fighter jets had struck two Hamas military sites in the Gaza City area, but did not elaborate further.

The killings came just a day after at least 25 people were killed in Israeli strikes on tent camps housing displaced Palestinians, and 50 wounded, near the southern city of Rafah.

As Israel continued to pound Gaza, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Tel Aviv calling for new elections and for Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to bring the hostages home. Among the protesters were the parents of Naama Levy, an Israeli soldier who marked her 20th birthday in captivity.