😢 Two Palestinian Elders Taken — Used as Human Shields, Then Murdered by the IDF

Photo shows elders stripped to their underwear amid ruins; relatives say they were taken as human shields and then killed. Human shields, cruel treatment, summary execution—each a war crime.

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The photograph

Every single accusation from Israel is ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS a confession. For 2 years they’ve talked about human shields, but here we see them using Palestinians as human shields.

An older man, shirtless, in underwear and sandals, stands on broken concrete in a blasted-out room amidst the rubble of Gaza. His head is bowed; his hands are pulled behind him, tied. Through the hole in the wall, another elder — also stripped down — is gripped from behind by a soldier and marched across a moonscape of ruins. You can feel the humiliation in the posture. You can hear the silence of a home turned to rubble.

What the families say

A relative, Rafat Alnajar, identified the men and wrote (Arabic post translated to English):

“The person in the front is our relative — the husband of my sister’s husband’s sister — and the one in the back is the muezzin (the person who gives the call to prayer from the mosque, five times a day) of the mosque near their house. There were also two other people with them. After using them as human shields and leaving them without food or water for three days, they killed them in cold blood.”

Community accounts circulating with the image name two of the men that were killed as: Haj Nadi Marouf and Haj Ali Marouf — “Haj” is a respectful honorific used for elder men and for those who have performed the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. The family says the two were taken from their home in Beit Lahiya, used as cover, and later found executed.

Israeli authorities owe the world an answer — not a generic “under examination,” but names, units, orders, and custody records.

What the law says — without euphemism

You don’t need a law degree to know this is wrong, but the law is not silent:

• Human shields are prohibited (Customary IHL Rule 97; Rome Statute art. 8(2)(b)(xxiii)/(e)(xxiii)).

• Murder of protected persons is a grave breach (Fourth Geneva Convention art. 147; Rome Statute art. 8(2)(a)(i)).

• Cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, humiliating and degrading treatment are banned (Common Article 3; Rome Statute art. 8(2)(c)(i), 8(2)(b)(xxi)).

• Starvation and withholding essentials are prohibited (AP I art. 54; Rome Statute art. 8(2)(b)(xxv)).

If elders were seized, used as shields, denied food and water for three days, and killed, that’s not a “tragic incident.” That is a cluster of war crimes.

Dignity of elders

Every moral tradition treats elders with special regard. Age is not armor; it is a call to care. To strip an elder, bind his hands, march him through the bones of his own home and then end his life is not a security measure. It is an attempt to erase dignity — to tell a family, a neighborhood, a people that they have no worth even in their final hour.

What accountability requires now

Identify the unit and commander present in Beit Lahiya at the time of this photograph. Secure the originals of the image and any accompanying video; collect medical records, custody logs, and communications; take sworn depositions from soldiers and neighbors; release the findings to an independent body with authority to prosecute. Spare us the boilerplate. Human beings died. They have names: Haj Nadi Marouf and Haj Ali Marouf.

I will not publish images like this without also trying to publish their names and the laws broken. These men were not abstractions. One was the muezzin, the trusted voice that called his community to prayer; both were elders deserving of care and respect.

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Love and appreciate each of you.
Your friend and brother,
Shaun

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