Human shields in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

The accusation of the use of human shields is a common theme in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has used civilians as human shields multiple times to discourage Palestinian combattants from attacking, and to perform life-threatening tasks. Accusations against Palestinian militant groups including Hamas that they use Palestinian civilians as shields are commonly made by Israel and allied countries but have been contested by independent investigations; use of Israeli civilians as shields in the October 7 attack, however, has been evidenced by victim testimony. In addition, many activists have often voluntarily used themselves as human shields to stop Israeli violence against Palestinians: these include the International Solidarity Movement, and Israeli leftists.

The use of Palestinians as human shields by Israeli Defense Forces has been documented by human rights organizations including Human Rights Watch, B'Tselem and Amnesty International, with some scholars in the area believing the IDF may be the only military force systematically engaging in this practice in recent decades. According to B'Tselem, IDF soldiers put Palestinian civilians in front of them or otherwise putting civilians in the line of fire, and forcing Palestinians to remove suspicious objects (possible explosives). IDF soldiers also force Palestinian civilians to walk through suspected booby-trapped buildings. Israel also formerly employed the "neighbor procedure" in which Palestinian civilians were forced to attempt to persuade wanted individuals to surrender themselves to the IDF. The latter practice was defended by the Israeli defense ministry, but prohibited in 2005 by the Israeli Supreme Court, though there have been accusations of its employment even after the ruling. During the 2009 invasion of Gaza, IDF reportedly used Palestinian families (both adult and children) as human shields. A Haaretz investigation found that Palestinians, dressed up as Israeli soldiers, are widely used by the IDF in the Israel Hamas war as human shields to explore tunnels in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas has also been accused of using human shields strategically by the UN Secretary General, the European Union, the United States, along with Israel. Launching rockets from and positioning military infrastructure in civilian areas has been observed in various conflicts, including the 2008, 2014, 2021, and 2023 wars, although is not considered as human shielding according to human rights organizations. These actions have been criticized by various international bodies, including Amnesty International, which has documented instances where Palestinian militias stored munitions in and launched rockets from or nearby civilian structures. This has been cited as a justification for Israel's attacks on civilian infrastructure. Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have found no evidence of human shielding by Hamas in past conflicts, while human rights and legal scholar Neve Gordon argued that Israeli claims serve as a "pre-emptive legal defense" against war crime accusations.

Definition

The law of armed conflict requires that warring parties distinguish between combatants and non-combatants–the former may be legitimately killed, and the latter are protected. A human shield refers to the placement of a non-combatant in the line of fire, thus preventing the legitimate military objective from being targeted without harming the non-combatant.

Use by Israeli forces

See also: Israeli war crimes

The Israeli Defense Forces have been accused of using Palestinians as human shields. Examples of this include: IDF soldiers putting Palestinian civilians in front of them or otherwise putting civilians in the line of fire; forcing Palestinians to remove suspicious objects (possible explosives); sending Palestinians to try and persuade militants to surrender themselves (so-called "neighbor procedure").

1948–1967

During the 1956–1957 occupation of Gaza Strip by Israel (as part of the Suez crisis), Israeli forces would search homes of suspected Palestinian fedayeen for weapons, caches or concealed fighters. Because these homes could have booby traps or snipers waiting for Israeli soldiers, they would use Palestinian children as human shields.

Second Intifada

Israeli officials reported that the Israel Defense Forces made use of the "human shield" procedure on 1,200 occasions during the Second Intifada (2000–2005). This procedure resulted in at least one instance of a Palestinian civilian being killed: a 19-year-old called Nidal Abu-Mohsen. In April 2004, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy was photographed after being tied to an Israeli armored vehicle for the stated purpose of discouraging stone-throwing by Palestinian protesters.

According to human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) used Palestinian civilians as human shields during the 2002 Battle of Jenin. The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said that "for a long period of time following the outbreak of the Second Intifada, particularly during Operation Defensive Shield, in April 2002, the IDF systematically used Palestinian civilians as human shields, forcing them to carry out military actions which threatened their lives". Al Mezan reported the systematic use of human shields during the invasion of Beit Hanoun in 2004. Human shields were also employed by Israeli soldiers to subdue a stone-throwing protest in Hebron in 2003.

Amnesty gave the following example: on April 5, 2002, an IDF officer took a Palestinian man from his house and asked him to come with them. When the Palestinian man, whose children were around him, repeatedly refused, the IDF officer said "I would prefer not to use force". The IDF officer then grabbed the Palestinian man by the collar and forced him to walk in front of the IDF soldiers. The IDF officer crouched behind the Palestinian man and started firing. Over the course of several hours, IDF soldiers had him repeatedly stand in front of them as they fired at suspected Palestinian militants. During this time the Palestinian man asked to be released but the IDF refused. Finally during one incident the Palestinian man received a bullet on his leg and was finally released by the IDF.

In 2002 the Supreme Court of Israel issued a temporary injunction banning the practice in the wake of the death of 19-year-old Nidal Abu Mohsen, who was shot dead when he was forced by the IDF to knock on the door of his neighbor, Hamas militant Nasser Jarrar, in the West Bank village of Tubas and inform him of the Israeli army's demands that he surrender.

In 2004, a 13-year-old boy, Muhammed Badwan, was photographed tied to an Israeli police vehicle in the West Bank village of Biddu being used as a shield to deter stone-throwing protesters. Rabbi Arik Ascherman was placed under arrest after he tried to intervene.

In 2005, Israel's High Court of Justice banned the practice, with the Israeli Defense Ministry appealing the decision. While acknowledging and defending the "use of Palestinians to deliver warnings to wanted men about impending arrest operations", a practice known in Israel by the "neighbor procedure" euphemism, the IDF denied reports of "using Palestinians as human shields against attacks on IDF forces", saying it had already forbidden this practice.

In 2006, however, initial investigations by B'Tselem indicated that the IDF used civilians as human shields in Beit Hanun. Defence for Children International has also found that, of the 26 cases of Palestinian children being used by Israeli forces as human shields that it has documented since 2004, the large majority happened after the Supreme Court ban.

In February 2007, the footage was released of an incident involving Sameh Amira, a 24-year-old Palestinian, whom video showed serving as a human shield for a group of Israeli soldiers, getting inside apartments suspected to belong to Palestinian militants ahead of the soldiers. A 15-year-old cousin of Amira and an 11-year-old girl in the West Bank independently told B'Tselem in February 2007 that Israeli soldiers forced each of them in separate incidents to open the door of a neighboring apartment belonging to a suspected militant, get inside ahead of them, and open doors and windows.

The Israeli Army launched a criminal investigation into the incident involving Amira. In April 2007, the Israeli army suspended a commander after the unit he was leading was accused of using Palestinians as human shields in a West Bank operation. In April 2007, CBS News reported that, according to human rights groups, the IDF did not stop the use of human shields, but the incidence was dropping.

"Neighbor procedure"

See also: Criticism of Israel § Neighbor Procedure

The IDF's practice of "Neighbor procedure", used during the Second Intifada, utilized Palestinians as human shields. Under this procedure, people picked at random were forced by IDF to approach the houses of suspected militants and persuade them to surrender, a practice which arguably placed the former's lives in danger. Israeli NGO Adalah legally challenged the practice before Israel's High Court of Justice in 2002. However, the IDF persisted in using Palestinians in its 'neighbor procedure', whereby people picked at random were made to approach the houses of suspects and persuade them to surrender, a practice which arguably placed the former's lives in danger. The court ruled in October 2005 "that any use of Palestinian civilians during military actions is forbidden, including the 'prior warning procedure'." According to B'tselem, reports indicate that the practice has continued nonetheless, in military operations like Operation Cast Lead, and Operation Protective Edge, and the "vast majority of these reports were never investigated, and those that did result in no further action".

2008–2009 Gaza War

During the 2008–09 Gaza War known as Operation Cast Lead, Israeli military forces were accused of continuing to use civilians as human shields by Amnesty International and Breaking the Silence. According to testimonies published by these two groups, Israeli forces used unarmed Palestinians including children to protect military positions, walk in front of armed soldiers; go into buildings to check for booby traps or gunmen; and inspect suspicious objects for explosives. Amnesty International stated that it found cases in which "Israeli troops forced Palestinians to stay in one room of their home while turning the rest of the house into a base and sniper position, effectively using the families, both adults and children, as human shields and putting them at risk". The UN Human Rights Council also accused Israel of using human shields during the 2008–09 Gaza conflict.

The Guardian compiled three videos and testimony from civilians about alleged war crimes committed by Israeli soldiers during the 2008–09 Gaza War, including the use of Palestinian children as human shields. In the videos, three teenage brothers from the al-Attar family said that they were forced at gunpoint to kneel in front of tanks to deter Hamas fighters from firing at them and that they were used to "clear" houses for the Israeli soldiers.

An IDF soldier's testimony for Breaking the Silence told that his commander ordered that for every house raided by the IDF, they send a "neighbor" to go in before the soldier, sometimes while the soldier placed his gun on the neighbor's shoulder; according to the soldier, "commanders said these were the instructions and we had to do it". Gazan civilians also testified of being used at gunpoint as human shields by Israeli soldiers. An Israeli military official responded to these allegations: "The IDF operated in accordance with the rules of war and did the utmost to minimize harm to civilians uninvolved in combat. The IDF's use of weapons conforms to international law." An Israeli embassy spokesperson alleged Hamas pressured the people of Gaza into making those accusations.

On 12 March 2010, the Israel Defense Forces prosecution filed indictments against two staff sergeants of the Givati Brigade for forcing a 9-year-old Palestinian boy to open a number of bags they thought might contain explosives in January 2009. The boy told he was hit by the soldiers and forced to work for them at gunpoint. The IDF said it opened the investigation after the incident was brought to its attention by the United Nations. On 3 October 2010, a conviction in this matter, accompanied by a demotion and suspended sentence, was handed down by the military court against both defendants, though neither soldier was jailed. The sentence was criticized as too lenient by Human Rights Watch and the boy's mother.

2009 to the 2014 Gaza War

A United Nations human rights body, Committee on the Rights of the Child, accused Israeli forces in June 2013 of "continuous use of Palestinian children as human shields and informants", voicing with deep concern 14 such cases had been reported between January 2010 and March 2013. It says almost all accused soldiers involved in the incidents have gone unpunished.

In an interview with Breaking the Silence, a former Israeli soldier recounted that the commander of his unit employed the policy, that of forcing Palestinian civilians to enter the homes of suspected militants ahead of Israeli soldiers, despite acknowledging its ban, as the commander would rather that a Palestinian civilian be killed carrying out the duty than one of his men. He told young Palestinian boys were also used by this particular unit to carry out military duties for the Israeli army.

Defense for Children International-Palestine reported 17-year-old, Ahmad Abu Raida (also: "Reeda"), was kidnapped by Israeli soldiers, who, after beating him up and threatening him, including with sexual abuse, used him as a human shield for five days, forcing him to walk in front of them with police dogs at gunpoint, search houses and dig in places soldiers suspected there might be tunnels. The New York Times stated that his assertions could not be independently corroborated; the Israeli military confirmed that he had been detained, noting his father's affiliation with Hamas, who was a senior official in the Gaza Tourism Ministry. No material evidence of the physical violence allegedly suffered by Raida, e.g. photos, medical reports or lingering wounds resulting from repeated blows, was produced.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor conducted an investigation during and following the military operation. The investigation found that, during the 2014 Gaza War, Israeli soldiers used Palestinian civilians as shield in Khuza'a. A family told the group that Israeli soldiers had killed the family's patriarch after he took a step toward them, then proceeded to place the surviving members of the family, including children, by the house's windows as the soldiers started shooting around them.

2021–2023

In July 2021, Israeli forces held Associated Press photographer Majdi Mohammed against his will as he was on media duty during an operation in the West Bank and Palestinian protesters threw stones at troops. Mohammed related an officer told him that he was being held to prevent further stone-throwing, at which point he told the officer that this amounted to using him as a human shield.

In May 2022, Israeli soldiers were accused of using a 16-year old girl as a human shield during a firefight with Palestinian militants in Jenin. The girl told Defence for Children International in an interview that Israeli soldiers forced her to stand in front of an Israeli military vehicle for two hours. When Amira Hass from the Ha'aretz contacted Israeli police regarding this incident, they declined to comment on the declined to comment on specifics, stating only that the force had behaved "ethically and professionally".

A UN report found three examples of Israel using Palestinian children as human shields in the year 2022.

In May 2023, before the beginning of the Israel–Hamas war, Defence for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) had already documented that five children had been used as human shields by the Israeli army since the beginning of that year, with two of the victims being 2-year-old twins.

2023–2024 Israel–Hamas war

The abuse of Palestinians as human shields by Israeli forces has been widespread during the war. At least 11 Israeli army squads have deployed human shields in five Gaza cities, often with the support of Israeli intelligence officers. Palestinian detainees, including civilians and children, have been used to check Hamas-built tunnels and other locations where the Israeli army believes Palestinian militants may have set up an ambush or booby trap. Analysis by both the New York Times and Haaretz writer Amos Harel estimates that this practice has become increasingly common during the war. According to soldiers who have either been involved in or witnessed it, the practice is routine. International law scholar Michael N. Schmitt, interviewed by the Times, said he was unaware of any other military force that had used either civilians or prisoners of war as human shields in recent decades.

An investigation by the DCIP has detailed that the Israeli army used several children as human shields in the Al-Tuffah area of Gaza City on December 27, 2023. On that occasion, 50 Palestinians were detained, including children. Two brothers, aged 12 and 13, told investigators that soldiers forced them to strip off, tied their hands and forced them to walk in front of Israeli tanks along with other Palestinians. The younger brother also reported being slapped, kicked and beaten by the Israelis.

On January 16, 2024, a Palestinian shop owner in the West Bank village of Dura accused IDF soldiers of using him as a human shield. Mobile phone video footage shows an Israeli soldier walking down the street with the man in front of him, as the soldier laid a rifle on the victim's shoulder.

The DCIP reported that Israeli forces used three boys aged 12 to 14 as human shields in separate incidents in Tulkarem in the beginning of May 2024. A UN report on child abuse committed during the Israel-Hamas war verified five cases since Oct 7 where Israeli forces have used Palestinian boys as human shields during "law enforcement operations" in the West Bank.

On June 22, 2024, a video was posted of an injured Palestinian man, 23-year-old Mujahed Abbadeh, strapped to the hood of an Israeli jeep driving through Jenin. Another eyewitness asserted that the IDF paraded the wounded man around on the hood, keeping the victim under the hot sun for several minutes, until handing him over to a Palestinian Red Cross ambulance which was parked nearby. This, the source argued, was evidence that the wounded man was not a suspect, as the IDF later maintained. A UN expert said the incident amounted to taking human shields. A cousin of Abbadeh told the press that Israeli forces had recently done the same to three other people. Two other Palestinians subsequently came forth and testified to the BBC, showing video evidence, that they too had been shot and strapped to a jeep in a different operation.

On the night of 28 August 2024, during an incursion into Tulkarm, it was reported that Israeli troops used a 10-year old girl, Malak Shihab, as a human shield in the Nur Shams refugee camp. A woman and four children were forced away from their home while one girl was detained and, intimidated also by an unmuzzled military dog unleashed to sniff her, ordered to successively open the doors in her aunt's house. The IDF rejected the girl's testimony, stating that such events 'are inconsistent with the IDF’s code of conduct.'

According to a Haaretz investigation based on many Israeli soldiers' testimony, Palestinian teenagers and adults are regularly used as human shields in exploring the tunnel network in the Gaza Strip. These shawashim are dressed up, apart from sandshoes, to look like Israeli soldiers, handcuffed, blindfolded and, with a video camera attached to their bodies, sent into houses where Hamas combatants are suspected to hide, or into tunnels that might be booby-trapped. On occasion even elderly Palestinian men have been forced to undertake this work. The practice is said to be widely known to IDF field commanders. They would use Palestinians when neither sniffer dogs nor drones were available.

Satellite imagery has demonstrated that Israeli army also used a school in the village of Juhor ad Dik and the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital as bases for military operations, prompting rebuke from the Turkish government.

Use by Palestinian forces

As early as 2004 Amos Harel wrote in Haaretz that during the Second Intifada (2000–2005) Palestinian gunmen "routinely" used civilians and children as human shields and claimed that there was photographic evidence for it.

On 22 November 2006, Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Muhammad Wail Baroud, a military commander in the Popular Resistance Committee, of using civilians for shielding homes against military attacks but later stated that they erred. There was no evidence that the house was being used for military purposes at the time of the planned attack, nor did the IDF explain what military objective it could have had. They considered the destruction in light of Israel's longstanding policy of destroying homes as punitive measures instead of as legitimate military targets. HRW acknowledged they did not consider the motives of the civilians, such as whether they willingly assembled or not, and emphasized that it did not want to criticize non-violent resistance or any other form of peaceful protest, including civilians defending their homes. Former UN human rights official Craig Mokhiber has said that UN investigations into Israel's 2008 and 2014 wars in Gaza found there was no evidence that Palestinian fighters had used Palestinians as human shields, and maintains instead that Israel cynically uses such allegations to justify the intentional killing of Palestinian civilians.

Use by Hamas

Main article: Use of human shields by Hamas

Further information: Human shields in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Hamas has been accused of using human shields in the Gaza Strip, purposely attempting to shield itself from Israeli attacks by storing weapons in civilian infrastructure, launching rockets from residential areas, and telling residents to ignore Israeli warnings to flee. Israel has accused Hamas of maintaining command and control bunkers and tunnel infrastructure below hospitals, with some of the accusations being supported by the United States, the European Union, and the United Nations Secretary General. Hamas has denied using civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, as human shields.

Israel has said that Hamas's actions have caused Israel to kill civilians as collateral damage. Human rights groups have said that “even if Hamas were using human shields”, Israel must still abide by international law, especially the principle of proportionality.

Neve Gordon, professor of international law and human rights and co-author of the 2020 book Human Shields: A History of People in the Line of Fire, has stated that Israeli military and government claims of Hamas using Palestinian civilians as human shields "should be understood as a pre-emptive legal defence against accusations that Israel is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza." He also accuses state actors such as Israel of using human shielding allegations to hypocritically justify their own war crimes against civilians, adding: "This justification, however, functions only in one direction. When state actors kill civilians, it’s become standard to describe them as human shields. But when non-state actors attack military targets in urban settings, the civilians they kill are still recognised as civilians."

Janina Dill, a laws of war professor at University of Oxford, stated, "Even if Hamas uses civilians as human shields, those civilians are entitled to full protection under international law unless they directly participate in the fighting". Scholars in international law have cautioned that accusing Hamas of using human shields requires proving intent to shield a military target with civilians.

Amnesty International investigated Israeli claims that Hamas used human shields during the 2008–2009 Gaza War and the 2014 Gaza War but found no evidence to support these claims. In their report on the 2008–2009 war, Amnesty stated they found no evidence of Hamas directing civilians to shield military assets or forcing them to stay near buildings used by fighters. They did find that Hamas launched rockets from civilian areas, which endangered civilians and violated the requirement to protect civilians from military action, but this does not qualify as shielding under international law. In 2014, Amnesty reported they had no evidence that Hamas or other Palestinian armed groups intentionally used civilians as shields to protect specific locations or military assets from Israeli attacks. They suggested that Hamas's urging of residents to ignore Israeli evacuation warnings might have been intended to minimize panic and displacement, rather than to use civilians as human shields. Human Rights Watch (HRW) also stated they found no evidence that Hamas used human shields during the 2009 conflict.

During the Israel–Hamas war of 2023–2024, EU nations accused Hamas of using hospitals as human shields, while the UN Secretary General said "Hamas and other militants use civilians as human shields". In 2023, HRW said that "Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups need to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians under their control from the effects of attacks and not use civilians as 'human shields.'" In 2024, HRW reported at least two incidents where Palestinian fighters appear to have used Israeli hostages as human shields during the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. According to the New York Times, some Gazans showed opposition to their usage as human shields by Hamas and some have refused the entry of militants to some shelters.

Activists as human shields

Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall, Western International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteers in the Palestinian territories, who died in 2003 and 2004 respectively have been described as "human shields" campaigning against house demolition. ISM, however, strongly takes offence at the use of the term "human shield" to describe their work, preferring it be used only to refer to when armed combatants uses civilians as shields.

Amnesty International has also rejected the definition of volunteer activist's actions or activist's actions for non-military property as "human shields", and regards only the direction of "specific civilians to remain in their homes as "human shields" for fighters, munitions, or military equipment" as “human shields”.

In 2008, Rabbis for Human Rights stated they would act as voluntary "human shields" during the annual olive harvest to protect Palestinian villages from settlers.

See also

• War crimes in the 2023 Israel–Hamas war

References

Sources

Books

• Baconi, Tareq (2018). Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 9781503605817.
• Gordon, Neve (2008). Israel's Occupation. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-25530-2.
• Gordon, Neve; Perugini, Nicola (2020). Human shields: a history of people in the line of fire. Oakland, California: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-97228-5.
• Rosen, Richard D. (2012). "Chapter 15, The Protection of Civilians During the Israeli-Hamas Conflict: The Goldstone Report". In Lovell, David W.; Primoratz, Igor (eds.). Protecting Civilians During Violent Conflict: Theoretical and Practical Issues for the 21st Century (ebk-ePUB). Routledge. ISBN 9781317074342.
• Zanotti, Jim; Sharp, Jeremy M.; Migdalovitz, Carol; Addis, Casey L.; Blanchard, Christopher M. (2010). "Chapter 2: Israel and Hamas: Conflict in Gaza (2008 - 2009)". In Kardelj, Nejc (ed.). Israel vs. Hamas. New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc. pp. 67–112. ISBN 978-1-61470-176-7.

Journal articles

• Ezra, Ovadia (2015). "Israel's Human Shields Defense: Shielding Israeli War Crimes". Tikkun. 30 (4): 32–35. doi:10.1215/08879982-3328817. S2CID 111013691.
• Otto, Roland (2004). "Neighbours as human shields? The Israel Defense Forces' "Early Warning Procedure" and international humanitarian law" (PDF). International Review of the Red Cross. 86 (856): 771–787. doi:10.1017/S1560775500180459 (inactive 14 September 2024). S2CID 146416861. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 January 2023.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of September 2024 (link)
• Rosen, Richard D. (2009). "Targeting Enemy Forces in the War on Terror: Preserving Civilian Immunity". Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law. 42 (3): 683–777.
• Rubinstein, Amnon; Roznai, Yaniv (2011). "Human Shields in Modern Armed Conflicts: The Need for a Proportionate Proportionality" (PDF). Stanford Law & Policy Review. 22 (1): 93–128. SSRN 1861161. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 November 2023.
• Schmitt, Michael N. (2008). "Human Shields in International Humanitarian Law". Israel Yearbook on Human Rights. 38: 17–59.