A/HRC/10/22 page 32 but they released him at the entrance to the hospital. This appears to be in direct contravention to a 2005 Israeli High Court ruling on the illegality of the use of human shields and a violation of international law. 11. There have also been allegations of Hamas effectively using civilians as human shields. In addition there have been reports of Hamas firing from densely populated places and near protected areas. The working group is currently investigating these reports. 12. On Monday 29 December 2008, at about 1:00 a.m., an IDF missile struck Imad Aqel Mosque in the centre of the densely crowded Jabalia camp, damaging the surrounding houses. A family house was hit, and five sisters aged 4-17 years were killed in their sleep when their bedroom was completely destroyed. Four children, aged 2-16 years, were injured in the same attack. 13. On 4 January, IDF foot-soldiers moved members of one extended family, from different houses, into a single residence, ordering them to stay inside. There were over 100 Palestinian civilian family members in the house. Approximately twenty-four hours later, IDF forces shelled the home, killing twenty-three, including nine children aged 8 months-17 years, and seven women. Those who survived and were able walked two kilometres to Salah Ed Din road before being transported to the hospital. An additional seven members of the same family, including three children, were killed in the same area in separate incidents during the military operation. 14. On 28 December 2008, one family was sitting around a fire in farmland near their home in al-Zaitun village. The head of household asked his 7 year old daughter to fetch tea in their home and, as soon as the girl entered the house, it was hit by a missile and reduced to rubble. Family members outside all sustained shrapnel wounds and were transferred to Al-Shifa hospital to be treated for broken bones, cuts and bruises. The young girl’s body was found only the next morning, when rescue workers finished clearing the rubble. 15. On 2 January 2009, one 8-year-old boy, his brother (11), and a member of the extended family (11) went to pick some sugar cane from an adjacent property in Al-Qarara. North of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. Upon returning from the field, they were struck by a missile fired from an Israeli drone aircraft. Two of the boys died at the scene, while the third boy died on the way to hospital. 16. On 3 January 2009, Israeli soldiers entered a family house in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City. Standing at the doorstep, they asked the male head of the household to come out and shot him dead, without warning, while he was holding his ID, hands raised up in the air, and then started to fire indiscriminately and without warning into the room where the rest of the family was huddled together. The eldest son was shouting in vain the word “children” in Hebrew to warn the soldiers. The shooting did not stop until everyone was lying on the floor. The mother and four of the brothers, aged 2-12 years, had been wounded, one of them, aged four, fatally. 17. On 18 January, the IDF fired artillery shells that hit a house located on Salah Ad-Din Street in Jabalia Refugee Camp. The shelling killed 3 children, aged 14-17 years, and injured two others from the same family.