The Beaumont Enterprise · Beaumont, Texas · 23 November 2006
CP-2006-004
U.S. nun, priest are human shields at Palestinian militant’s house
The Associated Press
Transcribed from the clipping
“BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip — An American priest and nun spent several hours Wednesday at a militant’s home that Israel has targeted for destruction, the first foreigners to join a weeklong standoff between Palestinian ‘human shields’ and the Israeli air force.
Father Peter Dougherty, 65, and Sister Mary Ellen Gundeck, 55, both Michigan-based peace activists, said they were sent by God to help protect the Palestinians.
The pair arrived Wednesday morning at the family home of Mohammed Baroud, a militant involved in rocket attacks on Israel… The use of human shields is a new tactic in the Palestinians’ war against Israel’s mighty military.
Since militants allied with the ruling Hamas party kidnapped an Israeli soldier in June, the air force has destroyed the homes of at least 73 militants, usually after calling owners and warning residents to evacuate. House demolitions are considered harsh punishment in crowded Gaza.
Most people live in densely populated apartment blocks with extended families, and dozens are often left homeless when one building is destroyed… ‘It is wrong for Israel to bomb people’s houses,’ Dougherty said. ‘We are here in solidarity, and to try to communicate to the world what is really going on.’
The nun and priest, dressed in shirts and pants, said they were staying for several hours at each of the targeted houses. They were warmly welcomed by Ahmed Baroud, a brother of the militant… However, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said militants calling on civilians to act as human shields was a ‘war crime.’
‘There is no excuse for calling civilians to the scene of a planned attack,’ said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director. The rights group also criticized Israel’s policy of shelling houses. The Israeli military said the militants were exploiting civilians. ‘It just further demonstrates the cynical use of civilians by terrorists,’ said Israeli army Capt.
Noa Meir… Visiting U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbor said Tuesday the human shield tactic was a sign of Palestinian desperation. ‘There is something frankly almost pathetic in the sense of despair … civilians rallying in a defensive gesture,’ she said during a Gaza visit.”
Context added by this archive
Three days later, the human shields are an American nun and an American priest. The page carries the answers from all sides: the activists, Human Rights Watch calling the tactic a war crime, the Israeli army, and the U.N. commissioner. The paper spells her Arbor.
Cite this clipping
"U.S. nun, priest are human shields at Palestinian militant’s house," The Beaumont Enterprise, 23 November 2006, p. 1. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2006-004. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2006-004
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Last updated 2 November 2026
This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1724 to 2023. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.
The clipping belongs to the newspaper that printed it, or to the news agency that supplied the copy. It is reproduced here for research, criticism and commentary. A city here is where the newspaper was published, not where the story came from, and on most records it was taken from the masthead.
Something wrong here, or something you know about this clipping? The archive is still being built and corrections are wanted: maria@rozumstudio.com, quoting CP-2006-004.
Read in: How “human shields” changed sides in three years
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