Israel's top general has ordered the army to stop using Palestinian civilians as human shields in arrest raids.
Thursday's order from General Dan Halutz came hours after the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the army's practice of forcing Palestinian civilians to approach the homes of suspected militants violates international law.
The court ruling grew out of a 2002 case brought by Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups, after a Palestinian teenager was forced to knock on the door of a suspected West Bank militant. The teenager was shot dead when gunfire erupted moments later.
In August of 2002, the court issued a temporary injunction against the practice.
But a 2004 photograph of a Palestinian boy strapped to the front of an Israeli jeep under attack by Palestinian stone-throwers prompted human rights activists to complain the army was ignoring the court order.
Some information for this report provided by AP and Reuters.
