Israeli forces used three Palestinian boys as human shields in the northern occupied West Bank last week, Defense for Children International – Palestine said in a statement.

Karam, 13, Mohammad, 12, and Ibrahim, 14, were used as human shields by Israeli forces in separate incidents during an Israeli military incursion into the Tulkarm refugee camp on 6 May, according to documentation collected by the rights group.

In all three incidents, armed Israeli soldiers forced the boys to walk in front of them as soldiers searched Palestinian homes and neighborhoods in the Tulkarm refugee camp, and in two cases Israeli forces fired weapons positioned on the boys’ shoulders.