FALCON POWERS – Israeli soldiers and former Palestinian prisoners revealed to CNN that the Israeli army forced Palestinians to enter homes and tunnels that were potentially booby-trapped in Gaza to avoid putting its forces at risk.
According to the network, a soldier disclosed that his unit detained two Palestinian prisoners for the explicit purpose of using them as human shields to scout dangerous areas, confirming that this practice is widespread among Israeli units in Gaza.
He explained, “We asked them to enter the building before us… If there were any booby traps, they would explode on them, not us,” noting that “this tactic is very common in the Israeli army and is referred to as the ‘mosquito protocol.'”
The American network stated that the exact scale and scope of this practice by the Israeli army are unknown. However, the testimony of the soldier and five civilians indicates that this phenomenon has been widespread throughout the Gaza Strip: in northern Gaza, Gaza City, Khan Younis, and Rafah.
The soldier expressed his doubts about this practice, recounting that one of his commanders told him, “It’s better for a Palestinian to explode than our soldiers.” He added, “It’s extremely shocking, but after a few months in Gaza, you tend to stop thinking clearly. You are just tired. Clearly, I would prefer my soldiers to live. But that’s not how the world works.”
He confirmed that he and his comrades refused to continue this practice after two days and confronted their commander about it. The soldier stated that their commander, who initially told them not to “think about international law and that their lives are more important,” ultimately yielded and released the Palestinians, indicating that “the fact that they were released made it clear to him that they had no connection to Hamas and that they were not terrorists.”
The report noted that the soldier’s account aligns with interviews conducted with five former Palestinian detainees in Gaza, all of whom described how they were captured by Israeli forces and forced to enter potentially dangerous areas ahead of the army.
