'Used as human bait': Leaked image shows elderly Palestinian men before execution by Israeli forces
A newly leaked photograph shows two blindfolded elderly Palestinian men from Beit Lahia in Gaza, hours before Israeli forces killed them in November 2024, according to Palestinian journalist Younis Tirawi, who published the image.
The photograph shows Israeli military personnel standing between two blindfolded men, whom Tirawi identified in a post on X as Nadi Marouf and Ali Marouf.
He said the photograph was taken hours before their deaths and that the two men were "used as human bait and then executed".
In an earlier post in October 2025, Tirawi had said that troops from the 92nd Battalion of the Kfir Brigade abducted the men from Beit Lahia and held them as human shields for several days.
"Israeli troops from the 92nd Battalion of the Kfir Brigade abducted two elderly Palestinians from Beit Lahia and used them as human shields for days before killing them," Tirawi wrote.
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The Palestine Chronicle reported in October 2025 that the men had been detained for several days before being released near al-Tawam roundabout and shot.
The report said that images showed the men stripped to their underwear, with one apparently having his hands tied behind his back. It added that they had been forced to enter buildings before Israeli soldiers went inside.
Ramy Abdu, chairman of the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, said at the time: "After being used as human shields, their relatives found them after three days and they had been executed."
The newly shared photograph adds to a series of images and testimonies that have raised allegations about the treatment of Palestinian civilians during Israeli military operations in northern Gaza.
Independent reporting has previously documented incidents in which Palestinian civilians were forced to enter buildings and tunnels ahead of Israeli soldiers to check for explosives or fighters.
In May 2025, the Israeli army said it was investigating several such cases and acknowledged that using Palestinians as human shields or coercing them into participating in military operations was "strictly prohibited" under its orders.
A United Nations investigation into Israeli military conduct in Gaza previously concluded that forcing Palestinian civilians to enter houses ahead of soldiers amounted to the use of human shields and violated international humanitarian law.
Wider abuses
An Associated Press investigation published in 2025 included testimony from Palestinians who said they had been forced to enter buildings and tunnels ahead of Israeli troops. Israeli soldiers also described the practice as widespread.
Al Jazeera subsequently reported on the findings, citing seven Palestinians and two Israeli military officers who described the practice.
The developments also come as Palestinian prisoners continue to report harsh detention conditions.
Dr Mazen Rantisi, a 71-year-old Palestinian physician known as the "doctor of the poor", was detained during a pre-dawn Israeli raid on his home in Ramallah on 21 June, according to Palestinian and rights organisations.
He serves as chairman of the board of the Health Work Committees, a Palestinian organisation that provides medical services.
Rantisi told a lawyer that prison authorities had withheld his regular medication during his first 10 days in Ofer Prison and continued to deny him one of his medicines.
He also said that prison units repeatedly raided his cell and beat detainees.
His lawyer, Saja Misherqi Baransi, said Rantisi had rapidly lost weight after being given small portions of food that he described as unfit for consumption, including mouldy bread, almost-rotten tomatoes, uncooked hummus and foul-smelling rice.
Belgian rights group Viva Salud said Rantisi and another Health Work Committees official were arrested on June 21 and expressed concern about their health and access to appropriate medical care.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s broader humanitarian crisis continues to deepen.
The Gaza health ministry has reported more than 73,000 Palestinian deaths since the war began in October 2023, according to recent reports.
The scale of the killings remains difficult to establish fully because thousands of bodies are believed to remain beneath destroyed buildings.
A mass funeral in Gaza on 4 August included 112 people killed in a 2023 Israeli air strike whose remains were only recently recovered. Gaza authorities have estimated that thousands more people remain buried beneath rubble.
The UN has previously recorded 193 malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza, including 96 children.
In July 2025 alone, 11,877 children between six and 59 months who were screened were found to be suffering from acute malnutrition, including 2,562 with severe acute malnutrition.
UN agencies have continued to warn that food insecurity and malnutrition remain critical.
An analysis cited by the UN humanitarian office projected that more than 100,000 children between 6 and 59 months could suffer acute malnutrition through October 2026, including more than 31,000 severe cases.
The continuing allegations over the treatment of civilians, detainees and the dead have added to international scrutiny of Israel's conduct in Gaza, where humanitarian agencies continue to report severe restrictions on access to food, medicine and other essential supplies.
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