JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel's Supreme Court on Thursday banned the military's practice of using Palestinian civilians as "human shields" in arrest raids, saying it violates international law.
Human rights groups filed a petition in May 2002 in response to the army's use of Palestinian civilians in dozens of instances during West Bank arrest operations.
In August 2002, the court issued a temporary injunction against the practice. Human rights groups have said the military has repeatedly violated the ban since then.
In Thursday's final ruling, the court said the practice amounts to a "slide down the slope toward a severe violation of international law."
The army had argued that the practice should be permissible in some cases in order to prevent possible shootouts and bloodshed. Israeli hard-liners said the new restrictions would make it more difficult for the army to act against militants.
However, the three-judge panel said international law clearly prevents the army from using civilians in its military activities.
"No one among the civilian population should be 'volunteered' to cooperate with the army," wrote Judge Aharon Barak. "The central tenet is that it is mandatory to distance innocent local residents from the area of the hostile actions."
Israel's Justice Ministry said that the state would immediately act to implement the decision. The army spokesman would not comment.
The human shield practice became an issue in the spring of 2002, when the Israeli military carried out a major offensive in the West Bank in response to a series of suicide bombings by Palestinian militants.
During arrest raids, soldiers would sometimes force Palestinian civilians to approach the homes and hideouts of wanted people.
In August 2002, a 19-year-old Palestinian student, Nidal Daraghmeh, was killed in such an incident in the West Bank town of Tubas.
At the time, troops called Daraghmeh out of his house and forced him to knock at the door of a neighboring building where a senior Hamas fugitive was hiding out. Gunfire erupted and Daraghmeh was killed.
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http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/...el.shields.ap/
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