The video of a bloody man attached to the hood of a jeep has gone around the world. The wounded man is 24-year-old Mujahid Abadi. He is from Jenin on the West Bank. Now he tells how he on Saturday 22 June, even up on the hood of the Israeli military (IDF). – I went out to see what happened, and looked towards the neighbour’s house, where I saw the army, Abadi told the AP news agency. Abadi even up on the hood of an Israeli military jeep in the city of Jenin on the West Bank. The image taken by the dashboard camera of a Palestinian ambulance. Photo: Ibn Sina Emergency Center / AP When he tried to go back to the house, the soldiers fired at him, he continued. Abadi was shot in the arm and foot. He hid behind the family’s car. A few hours later, the soldiers found him. Abadi says he was hit in the head, face and in the area where he had been shot. The soldiers then dragged him by the legs and threw him onto the bonnet, before beating him. – I screamed because of the heat. The soldiers yelled and asked me to be quiet. Wasn’t a threat The IDF has said that they tied him to the bonnet in order to transport him to paramedics. The Red Crescent rejects it. Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the rescue service, says that the IDF had cordoned off the area and prevented paramedics from treating the wound for at least an hour. The AP news agency has video footage showing that the jeep Abadi was tied to drove past at least two ambulances without the IDF stopping. The IDF responded that Abadi was a suspected militant. They later went back on this claim. Abadi was first said to be a militant, but now the IDF says he did not pose a threat. Photo: Maya Alleruzzo / AP They say that he had not posed any threat to Israeli forces, and was caught in crossfire between them and militants. The Israeli forces will now investigate the incident, and say that it does not reflect their values. Palestinians see it as yet another brutal act in the occupied West Bank, where violence has increased since Hamas’ terrorist attack on October 7 triggered the war in Gaza. Survived the attack Abadi is now in hospital with gunshot and burn injuries. The father, Raed Abadi, was worried that his son would die. The son had called him after he was shot and told him that he could not move. – I said that he should try not to lose consciousness and continue talking to me, says the father. The father Raed is with his son at the hospital. There he is being treated for fire and bullet injuries. Photo: Maya Alleruzzo / AP The conversation gradually broke down. When the father read on social media that a Palestinian was shot and killed after an action, he was dismayed. – I broke up, because I was 90 per cent sure that it was my son, he says. The reports about the son’s death turned out to be false. Use of humans as shields The UN has condemned the treatment of Abadi, calling it a clear violation of international human rights law. The US has called the video shocking. – Civilians should never be used as human shields. The IDF should quickly investigate what happened and hold people accountable, he said, referring to the Israeli military, Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the State Department, told the AP. Using civilians as human shields is an argument that is often used by Israel, which blames Hamas for using Palestinian civilians in densely populated Gaza as human shields. According to the Israeli human rights organization B’tselem, Israel itself has a long practice of using Palestinians as human shields. In 2005, the Supreme Court of Israel ordered the military to stop using Palestinians as human shields. Nevertheless, the “practice” is maintained by the IDF, according to human rights groups. The situation in the occupied West Bank is critical, according to the UN, which says that 500 Palestinians have been killed since the terrorist attack on 7 October. Interested in more content from news’s foreign editors? Listen to this: Published 27.06.2024, at 12.16 Updated 27.06.2024, at 13.10
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Wounded Palestinians tied to a military jeep – was not a threat – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
