This 20-year-old says IDF used him as a human shield when searching houses in Gaza. He’s not the only one [Video]

It’s 6 a.m. on a summer day in June, and Mohamed Saad, 20, is jolted awake by  soldiers from the Israel Defence Forces. 

They help him put on clothes: IDF military fatigues. He’s reluctant to accept the help but has little choice in the matter — he’s in Israeli custody at a temporary detention facility in Rafah, and the uniform is the least of his concerns. 

Saad is put in a tank with IDF troops and taken to an apartment building. He’s given a camera and an earpiece. Then, he’s told he must enter and search for explosives, Hamas militants and tunnel shafts, clearing the building for troops to follow behind.

There are, indeed, militants inside this particular building — and when they see Saad in his IDF uniform, they shoot at him. 

“God saved and protected me,” he told CBC freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife when recounting the near …