Use Of Human Shields By Hamas

During the course of its conflicts with Hamas, Israel has often charged the militant group with using Palestinian civilians as human shields to deter Israeli military attacks or to cause large civilian casualty tolls and provoke international condemnation of the Jewish State—charges denied by the Hamas leadership. While such allegations have received occasional support from Israel’s geopolitical allies, such as the United States and the European Union, investigations by the United Nations and independent human rights groups have failed to substantiate them, while at the same time gathering evidence of Israel's own extensive involvement in using Palestinians as human shields during conflicts in the Gaza Strip or police operations in the occupied West Bank. While acknowledging that Hamas has launched rocket attacks against Israeli targets not far from civilian infrastructure in Gaza, Amnesty International says such behavior does not equate to the use of human shields.

International rights scholars have argued Israel exploits such allegations to cover up atrocities against Palestinian civilians and pre-empt sanctions for breaches of international law. Prominent civilian targets, such as the Al-Jalaa media tower, have been destroyed by Israeli forces under accusations that Hamas had misused them militarily, though these accusations have not been confirmed by third party investigators or have been refuted by survivors and witnesses.

More recently, however, ''Israeli'' civilians who survived the October 7, 2023 attack have told media and human rights groups that Hamas used them as human shields. However, accusations that Hamas has used Gaza hospitals and schools as military bases, made by Israel to justify, among other things, the attack on Al-Shifa hospital and the destruction of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, remain unsupported or have been refuted by media investigation.

Human rights groups noted that Israel must still abide by international law—especially the principle of proportionality—regardless if humans shields were used by Hamas.

History of alleged usage

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. Israel has said that Hamas's actions have caused Israel to kill civilians as collateral damage. Hamas has denied using civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, as human shields.

In many rounds of Israel-Gaza conflict, many sources have presented evidence that Hamas uses human shields. Many sources have also presented evidence that Hamas has been falsely accused of using human shields.

Response by Hamas

In 2009, Hamas said "Hamas did not use human shields and did not fire rockets from residential areas". In 2014, Hamas denied that it had used human shields, and they pointed to prior United Nations investigations of claims that it had fired rockets from schools finding the allegations to be untrue. Hamas leaders said that the extremely high population density in Gaza resulted in Hamas operating near civilian areas. In a 2014 televised interview, senior Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri stated: "The policy of people confronting the Israeli warplanes with their bare chests in order to protect their homes has proven effective against the occupation... we in Hamas call upon our people to adopt this policy in order to protect the Palestinian homes."

In 2023, Hamas said it did not use Al-Shifa Hospital as a human shield, saying the allegations have "no basis in truth".

Denial of civilian status

Danny Danon, then the Israeli ambassador to the UN, said of the 2018–2019 Gaza border protests that "terrorists continue to hide behind innocent children to ensure their own survival", with Gordon and Perugini remarking that the framing of protestors as terrorists or human shields effectively "categorizes any Palestinian from Gaza who participates in civil protests as a terrorist who is consequently killable"; they find that the usage of the human shield accusation both during war and civil protest has caused the very idea of a Palestinian civilian to have "disappeared" in Israeli discourse.

2008–2009 Gaza War

During the 2008–2009 Gaza War, Israel destroyed numerous civilian targets, including schools, mosques, UNRWA buildings, bridges, government administration buildings, courthouses, police stations, fire stations, agricultural facilities, bird farms etc.George E. Bisharat, Israel's Invasion of Gaza in International Law, 38 Denv. J. Int'l L. & Pol'y 41 (2009). Israel claimed it attacked these areas because Hamas fighters allegedly returned fire on Israeli troops from there. However, George Bisharat disputes Israel's claims. Bisharat points out that the war started with an Israeli surprise attack on civilian targets, such as an attack on a graduation ceremony for a local police college, and thus there was no Hamas return fire at the time Israel attacked. Israel also destroyed Gaza's industrial sector in the final days of the war, after Hamas resistance had already ended and Israeli troops had withdrawn.

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. During the war, Amnesty International pointed to several cases of destruction of houses, schools and mosques, which Israel said were housing ammunition; Amnesty found no example of "secondary conflagration", which would be expected if weapons were present. 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.

In a post-war analysis of the conflict, Amnesty International stated that: "Contrary to repeated allegations by Israeli officials of the use of "human shields", Amnesty International found no evidence that Hamas or other Palestinian fighters directed the movement of civilians to shield military objectives... orthat Hamas or other armed groups forced residents to stay in or around buildings used by fighters, nor that fighters prevented residents from leaving buildings or areas which had been commandeered by militants." Amnesty also found that Hamas "launched rockets and located military equipment and positions near civilian homes" – though not necessarily when civilians were present – "endangering the lives of the inhabitants by exposing them to the risk of Israeli attacks".Norman Finkelstein
''Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom,''
University of California Press, 2018 pp.68–81 pp.70–71, p.70.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) also stated they found no evidence that Hamas used human shields during the 2009 conflict. 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.

2014 Gaza War

Numerous reports during the 2014 Gaza War stated that Hamas used human shields. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay accused Hamas militants of violating international humanitarian law by "locating rockets within schools and hospitals, or even launching these rockets from densely populated areas". A UN inquiry found "weapons had been placed inside an UNRWA school in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip and that it was highly likely that an unidentified Palestinian armed group could have used the school premises to launch attacks." The European Union condemned Hamas, and in particular condemned "calls on the civilian population of Gaza to provide themselves as human shields"."EU strongly condemns indiscriminate Hamas rockets on Israel and use of Palestinian population as human shields, 'terrorist groups in Gaza must disarm', calls for 'immediate ceasefire
, ''European Jewish Press'', 22 July 2014."European Union: Hamas, other Gaza terror groups must disarm"
, ''Haaretz'', 22 July 2014. In an August 2014 interview, Hamas political leader Khaled Mashal said to a CNN interviewer that the group did not use its people as human shields. In a September 2014 interview, a Hamas official acknowledged to Associated Press that the group fired at Israel from civilian areas. He ascribed the practice to "mistakes", but said the group had little option due to the crowded landscape of the Strip, with its dearth of open zones. He denied accusations that rockets were launched "from schools or hospitals when in fact they were fired 200 or 300 meters (yards) away".

In interviews with Gazan refugees, reporters for ''The Independent'' and ''The Guardian'' concluded it was a "myth" that Hamas forced civilians to stay in areas under attack against their will; many refugees told them they refused to heed the IDF's warnings because even areas Israel had declared safe for refugees had been shelled by its forces. The BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen also said he "saw no evidence of Hamas using Palestinians as human shields". An Amnesty International document (dated 25 July 2014) asserts that they do "not have evidence at this point that Palestinian civilians have been intentionally used by Hamas or Palestinian armed groups during the current hostilities to 'shield' specific locations or military personnel or equipment from Israeli attacks". Amnesty International's assessment was that international humanitarian law was clear in that "even if officials or fighters from Hamas or Palestinian armed groups associated with other factions did in fact direct civilians to remain in a specific location in order to shield military objectives from attacks, all of Israel's obligations to protect these civilians would still apply". The human rights group, however, still found that Palestinian factions, as in previous conflicts, launched attacks from civilian areas.

Hamas Arabic-speaking spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called up Gaza civilians on Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV 8 July 2014 to stay put in areas under fire by Israel, prompting accusations from Israel and others – the European Union, for example – that Hamas was calling on people to volunteer as "in effect human shields". For Amnesty International, however, Hamas' call may have been "motivated by a desire to avoid further panic" among civilians, considering both the lack of shelters in Gaza and the fact that some civilians who heeded the IDF's warnings had been casualties of Israeli attacks. Abu Zuhri was also quoted as saying, in a 13 July interview, that "Hamas despise those defeatist Palestinians that criticize the high number of civilian casualties. The resistance praises our people... we lead our people to death...I mean, to war."

During the war, Israel also damaged hospitals, alleging they were concealing "hidden missiles". A team of Finnish journalists from Helsingin Sanomat working at the Gaza Al-Shifa hospital reported seeing rockets fired from near the Al-Shifa hospital. However, two Norwegian doctors who have been working at the hospital for decades have denied there was militant presence nearby, saying the last armed man they saw by the building was an Israeli doctor at the time of the First Intifada. In 2014, ''The Guardian'' journalists came across "armed men" inside one hospital, and sightings of "senior Hamas leaders" have been reported inside another. ''The Washington Post'' described Al-Shifa hospital as a "de facto headquarters for Hamas leaders, who can be seen in the hallways and offices". French-Palestinian journalist Radjaa Abu Dagg reported being interrogated by an armed Hamas member inside Al-Shifa Hospital and ordered to leave Gaza.

In 2015, ''The Washington Post'' said that an Amnesty International report condemned Palestinian militias for storing munitions in, and launching rockets from civilian structures and reported that the launching of attacks and storing of rockets "very near locations where hundreds of displaced civilians were taking shelter." The report stated "the available evidence indicates that Palestinian armed groups fired rockets and mortars from residential areas during the July/August 2014 conflict, and that on at least some occasions, projectiles were launched in close proximity to civilian buildings...significant areas within the 365km2 of territory are not residential, and conducting hostilities or launching munitions from these areas presents a lower risk of endangering Palestinian civilians...Palestinian armed groups stored rockets and other munitions in civilian buildings and facilities, including UN schools, during the conflict... storing munitions in civilian buildings or launching attacks from the vicinity of civilian buildings, violate the obligation to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians from the effects of attacks. But they do not necessarily amount to the specific violation of using "human shields" under international humanitarian law, which entails "using the presence (or movements) of civilians or other protected persons to render certain points or areas (or military forces) immune from military operations." According to Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International, "evidence suggesting that a rocket launched by a Palestinian armed group may have caused 13 civilian deaths inside Gaza underscores how indiscriminate these weapons can be and the dreadful consequences of using them". He also stated that "the devastating impact of Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians during the conflict is undeniable, but violations by one side in a conflict can never justify violations by their opponents."

In 2019, a paper by the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence said that Hamas "has been using human shields in conflicts with Israel since 2007".

2018-2019 Gaza border protests

Rouzan al-Najjar

Rouzan al-Najjar was a Palestinian nurse/paramedic who lived in Khuzaa, a village near the Gaza Strip's border with Israel. Her family lived in an apartment within eyeshot of Israeli soldiers stationed over the border. Their area had a concrete wall installed to shield local residents from Israeli fire.

She was killed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) while volunteering as a medic during the 2018 Gaza border protests. She was fatally hit by a bullet shot by an Israeli soldier as she tried to help evacuate the wounded near Israel's border fence with Gaza. The IDF first denied that she was targeted, while not ruling out that she may have been hit by indirect fire. Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said that al-Najjar was shot intentionally.

After her death, the IDF released footage in which she purportedly admitted to participating in the protests as a human shield at the request of Hamas. The video was later found to be a clip from an interview with a Lebanese television station that had been edited by the IDF to take al-Najjar's comments out of context. In the unedited video, she didn't mention Hamas and called herself a "rescuing human shield to protect and save the wounded at the front lines", with everything following "human shield" trimmed out of the Israeli clip. The IDF was widely criticized for attempting posthumous character assassination by tampering with the video.

Destruction of media tower in Gaza

In 2021, Israel bombed a skyscraper in Gaza that housed several international media outlets, including the Associated Press and Al Jazeera. Israel claimed that Hamas officers were operating from the building and that such deployment amounted to human shields. This claim was denied by journalists working there. Despite claiming to have evidence of Hamas's misuse of the facility and promising to release it, Israel has never substantiated its allegations. The attack was condemned by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Reporters Without Borders called for a war crimes investigation by the International Criminal Court. Gary Pruitt, CEO of the Associated Press, said the news agency was "shocked and horrified that the Israeli military would target and destroy the building housing AP's bureau and other news organizations in Gaza". He added that "the world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today."

2023-present Gaza war

Israeli accusations

During the 2023 Gaza War, Israel stated that Hamas has strategically placed portions of its military tunnel system and command network beneath civilian infrastructure, including Gaza's al-Shifa Hospital. Israel released what it said were videos of confessions of two alleged members of Hamas' armed wing in which the people on camera supported the assertion that Hamas militants are using hospitals as a means of protection from IDF strikes. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Physicians for Human Rights Israel have denounced such taped alleged confessions, stating that they were likely extracted under torture, violate international law and basic human rights, and should be considered inadmissible as credible evidence. They also called on the Israeli government to cease publishing taped "confessions".

The Israeli army accused Hamas of sending over one hundred women and children to a compound it was targeting to act as human shields. It said two of its soldiers were killed while withdrawing from the compound.

On 8 November, the IDF and Shin Bet footage from what it said was an intercepted phone call and the interrogations of terrorists who participated in the October 7 massacre. The ''Times of Israel'' reported that "an apparent Hamas operative" said to another man in Gaza that he "can leave with any ambulance" he wants.

Israel accused Hamas of "double war crimes" in using civilian locations to launch attacks. An IDF spokesman told CBS News that "a systemic abuse by Hamas of sites and locations that are supposed to enjoy special protection under the Geneva Convention and humanitarian law". The IDF shared with CBS photos it said showed Hamas members launching rockets from near UN facilities.

On 18 November CNN aired footage taken by the IDF showing what the IDF claims was a person armed with an RPG launcher entering the premises of Al-Quds Hospital.

On 19 November, the IDF released footage of an underground tunnel under al-Shifa. The tunnel, which is 160 meter long and 10 meter deep, passes directly under the Qatari building of the hospital; it has air-conditioned rooms, bathrooms, a kitchenette, electricity connections and communication infrastructure, and is protected by a blast door. The IDF also released CCTV footage that appears to show two of the hostages being led in the hospital's corridors, as well as Hamas and stolen IDF vehicles in its courtyard. Hamas had previously publicized taking hostages to receive medical treatment. On 21 December, ''The Washington Post'' published analysis concluding that the hospital buildings in question were not actually connected to the tunnels.

According to Israel, Ahmad Kahlot, who they reported to be the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, while being interrogated by the Shin Bet said that Hamas had taken control of the hospital as a military operations center and that he himself was Hamas member. Israel said that during the interrogation he said that many hospital staff members served in the al-Qassam brigades. According to the Israeli military, he said that Hamas used the hospital for holding an IDF soldier hostage and employed ambulances to transport the bodies of Israeli hostage and that Hamas had separate offices, ambulances, and equipment with distinct colors and signs.

On 1 January 2024, the Jerusalem Post released selected footage of the IDF's Unit 504 interrogations of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants. The investigation alleged various tactics Hamas employed to exploit Gazan civilians. Zohadi Ali Zahadi Shahin, an alleged Hamas member, said Hamas prevented civilians from fleeing towards Rafah crossing and instead relocated them to Al-Shifa Hospital where they were kept while Hamas terrorists hid in tunnels underneath. Shahin also said Hamas terrorists would forcibly take over civilian homes, plant explosives, and intimidate residents, with one militant threatening Shahin directly. Another alleged operative, Muhammad Darwish Amara from Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said Hamas planted a bomb in his home where his children were staying to coerce him into participating in terrorist activities.

These interrogations and use of selected video footage of alleged confessions by alleged Hamas militants have been widely criticized by human rights organizations as they likely involve the use of torture, do not give due process to detainees, and are selectively edited for release.

In March 2025, Israel reduced the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital – the only one specializing in cancer treatment in Gaza – to rubble in a controlled explosion, saying the hospital was being used as a military base by Hamas. Israel has not provided evidence of the accusation, and media investigations had previously reported that it was Israeli soldiers who were using the hospital.

Hamas responses

A top Hamas official stated in October 2023 that they are not responsible for the protection of civilians in Gaza, and that instead the UN and in particular Israel are responsible for this under international law given that it is the occupying power over the Occupied Palestinian Territories, which includes Gaza.

International reactions

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said that the United States has intelligence indicating that Hamas is using the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City for military purposes, possibly for weapon storage and also for holding captives. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan stated that "you can see even from open-source reporting that Hamas does use hospitals, along with a lot of other civilian facilities, for command-and-control, for storing weapons, for housing its fighters... this is Hamas' track record, both historically and in this conflict". According to another US official, "Hamas has a command node under the Al-Shifa hospital, uses fuel intended for it and its fighters regularly cluster in and around t" The US assessment that Hamas and other Palestinian militants were operating within the Al-Shifa hospital included communication intercepts of fighters inside the complex.

During the Gaza 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 in Kibbutz Be'eri and Nahal Oz.

In November 2024, the UN reported that in most instances Israel does not provide substantial evidence for its human shields allegations in Gaza nor could they independently verify these allegations. The same report raised concerns regarding the actions of Palestinian armed groups and their compliance with International Humanitarian Law with respect to locating military objectives near densely populated areas and placement of civilians in areas regarded as military objectives under IHL. Nonetheless, they stressed that "Regardless of any use of human shields, Israel must uphold the principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack".

US President Joe Biden stated that Hamas was using innocent Palestinians as human shields and emphasized the need to protect them. US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, called on Hamas to stop using civilians as human shields. Secretary-General of the UN Antonio Guterres has also stated that Hamas and other Palestinian factions have been using civilians as human shields.

On 13 November 2023, 27 European Union nations jointly condemned Hamas for the use of hospitals and civilians as human shields.

During the Gaza war, Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, stated that Israel's labeling of every Palestinian casualty as a "human shield" in the Gaza Strip was "transforming everything and everyone into either a target or collateral damage, hence killable or destroyable."

Response by locals

After the 2024 Nuseirat rescue operation, locals criticized Hamas for hiding hostages within the houses of civilians.

In the aftermath of the Al-Tabaeen school attack in August 2024, which killed 80 people who had taken shelter in the school, Israel justified its actions by accusing some of the fatalities of being members of militant groups and using the others as shields. Relatives of the accused by Israel, however, described them as a Beit Hanoon Hospital administration director, a retired principal, and scholar of Arabic language and literature; one of the people named by Israel was a man who had already been killed in December 2023. "Israel is always looking for flimsy excuses to target civilians, especially in shelters," said the daughter of one of the victims.

In some buildings being used as shelters by civilians, they have refused to have Gaza police stationed at the shelters and deny entry to any armed person. Civilians in many such shelters have set up their own committees to oversee food, water, and medical distribution, with the presence of weapons being strictly banned regardless of political affiliations or membership of powerful clans and families.

Media coverage

According to a ''New York Times'' report, "Hamas has long been accused of using civilians as human shields and positioning underground bunkers, weapon depots and rocket launchers under or near schools, mosques and hospitals."

DW military analyst Frank Ledwidge has said that "it's been described... as 'common knowledge' that many of the headquarters f Hamasare located under hospitals... ithentries and exits in places like mosques or schools... r evenUN facilities... that's why we've seen... so many non-combatant casualties so far".

John Spencer has said that " amas hasbuilt many of their tunnel entrances and exits and passageway underneath protected sites like hospitals, schools, mosques, because it restricts the use of force that the IDF can take without going through the... laws of war calculation".

According to Daphne Richemond-Barak, associate professor of counter-terrorism at Reichman University and author of the 2017 book ''Underground Warfare'', Hamas militants operate under Al-Shifa Hospital gain "the highest level of protection available under the laws of war", as well as a "unique opportunity to operate far from surveillance drones, GPS, and other intelligence-gathering technology". She added that "in Gaza, tunnels are dug in civilian homes, pass under entire neighbourhoods, and lead into populated areas inside Israel... hichenables Hamas to conceal entry and exit points, and facilitates undetected movement and activity."

Avi Issacharoff has said that Hamas militants are "under the houses and neighborhoods of Gaza City, hoping that Israel won't attack them because they're hiding underneath human shields, and that if Israel will attack those neighborhoods, it'll kill many civilians, and the whole world is going to accuse Israel for war crimes". "The sad thing about all this", Issacharoff said, "is hatHamas doesn't care about their own people" and aims "not only to kill Israelis but for as many Palestinian civilians asualties as well.

Ben Burgis, writing for ''Jacobin'', called Israel's "human shields" defense of "its indiscriminate campaign of bombing apartment buildings, hospitals, ambulances, mosques, churches, and refugee camps in Gaza" an obscenity and compared it to a policeman firing indiscriminately at a criminal who had taken a child hostage.

Following Israel's release of video evidence on 22 November, multiple news agencies concluded that the evidence did not demonstrate the use by Hamas of a command center. The ''New York Times'' also said the evidence does not show conclusive evidence of a vast network of tunnels, while Haaretz concluded that Hamas did use the hospital for military purposes. Amnesty International said on 23 November 2023 that "Amnesty International has so far not seen any credible evidence to support Israel's claim that al-Shifa is housing a military command centre" and that "the Israeli military has so far failed to provide credible evidence" for the allegation.

According to the New York Times, Gazan civilians have been pushing away Hamas fighters from their school shelters in order to prevent the schools from being attacked by Israel. According to the New York Times, the interviewed Gazans were not willing to be human shields. According to the Gazans interviewed by the New York Times, Hamas police officers were sometimes not allowed into shelters. The Gazan civilian interviewed said "We simply want to save all families, women and children and not let there be any potential threat against us because of the existence of police and members of the Hamas government,". The New York Times said it was difficult to know how widespread is the phenomenum of school shelters not allowing militiamen in their shelters.

Input from other parties

Human Rights Watch called on both Israel and Hamas to protect civilians under their control and not use them as "human shields." Human rights organizations have also demanded the release of hostages held by Hamas and cautioned that using them to shield military assets is prohibited under international law.

According to Swedish philosopher Per Bauhn, "moral responsibility for the killing of human shields in the context of morally legitimate attacks on military targets should be assigned to the side that tried to benefit from the presence of the shields in the first place".

Analysis

International law

Neve Gordon, professor of international law and human rights at Queen Mary University of London and co-author of the 2020 book ''Human Shields: A History of People in the Line of Fire'', stated in December 2023 that the Israeli military and government's 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 the human shielding allegation to hypocritically justify their own war crimes against civilians: "In recent years the 'human shield' accusation has been adopted by several state militaries trying to justify the killing of civilians in Mosul in Iraq, Raqqa in Syria and elsewhere. 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." This is endorsed by former United Nations human rights official Craig Mokhiber, who has noticed Israel's own extensive use of Palestinians as human shields.

Gordon and co-author Nicola Perugini also claimed that Israeli accusations of human shields during the Great March of Return were an attempt "to shift the blame from the hunter to the prey, since, according to international law, the party responsible for the death of human shields is not the one killing them but the one using them."

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 argues that the presence of Hamas weapons in civilian areas is not sufficient to prove intent. They cite "a growing gun culture in Gaza and the increasing internal tensions between Palestinian factions" as other possible reasons for weapons to be found in civilian areas.

Strategy

According to a paper published by NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, the tactical deployment of human shields by entities such as Hamas strategically capitalizes on Israel's commitment to reducing unintended civilian harm and the heightened sensitivity of Western audiences to non-combatant casualties. This approach enables Hamas to potentially charge Israel with war crimes when civilian casualties increase due to intensified actions by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), potentially leading to international sanctions. On the other hand, should the IDF restrain its military engagements to minimize civilian casualties, Hamas gains an advantage, being less exposed to Israeli military strikes and able to safeguard its resources and continue its activities. Moreover, the issue of civilian casualties often creates internal debates within Israeli society, especially between the left-wing, who may critique the operation's consequences, and right-wing factions.

Seen as a form of 'lawfare', according to the Centre of Excellence, this strategy is about leveraging legal frameworks and public sentiment against an adversary, aiming to undermine their legitimacy, engage their resources in legal battles, or secure a victory in the court of public opinion.

According to Charles Freilich, a former Israeli deputy national security advisor, Hamas have strategically embedded their forces among civilian populations, utilizing them as human shields and intentionally provoking Israel to cause civilian casualties in its responses. Simultaneously, Freilich claims that Israel has consistently taken extensive measures to minimize innocent enemy casualties, employing special tactics and risking personnel – a record favorable in comparison to other countries dealing with terrorist threats.

However, Gordon and Perugini have questioned whether the use of human shields by Hamas would be an effective strategy against Israel, because the Israeli military considers a high ratio of civilian casualties permissible and "deterrence is successful only when the attacking party values the shield's humanity and feels morally compelled to stop the attack in order not to harm the person who serves as a shield."

As an act of perfidy

All combatants, including insurgents, are bound by the law of war.

Louis René Beres believes Hamas is using human shields and this constitutes an act of perfidy, a breach of Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations and Protocol I of 1977, Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice. By contrast, Stephanie Bouchie de Belle, writing in the ''International Review of the Red Cross'', argues that though the use of human shields is prohibited, it is not an act of perfidy. An act of perfidy, she argues, must necessarily be done with the intent to kill, wound or capture an enemy, but a human shield that ''defends'' combatants from enemy attack does not fit the definition of perfidy.

Comparison to IDF bases in civilian areas

Israeli journalist Amira Hass, writing in 2014 that the Israeli media portrays the conflict in a biased manner, wrote of the human shield accusation "If I'm not mistaken, the Defense Ministry is in the heart of Tel Aviv, as is the army's main 'war room.' And what about the military training base at Glilot, near the big mall? And the Shin Bet headquarters in Jerusalem, on the edge of a residential neighborhood? ... Why is it all right for us and not for them? Just because they don't have the phallic ability to bomb these places?"

Neve Gordon and Nicola Perugini argue that whether civilians are framed as "human shields" by virtue of their physical proximity to belligerents ("proximate shields"), depends largely on whether the belligerents in question are military or irregulars: "Israeli citizens in Tel Aviv are not classified as shields when Hamas launches rockets towards the Israel Defense Forces military command headquarters located in the city center. By sharp contrast, Palestinian civilians are cast as human shields when Israel bombs Hamas command centers and military infrastructures in Gaza. In other words, if Hamas kills Israeli civilians, it is to blame, and if Israel kills Palestinian civilians, then Hamas is also to blame, since, at least ostensibly, it is Hamas that has deployed these civilians as shields."

Gordon also refers to the extensive use of civilian buildings such as synagogues, primary schools, and medical facilities by Zionist paramilitaries such as the Lehi to hide combatants and store arms in before the establishment of Israel in 1948, which is commemorated today with plaques, concluding: "The attempt by the Israeli authorities to justify their carpet bombing and blame Palestinians for bringing disaster on themselves through the use of 'human shields' is not only political sophistry, but forgetful of Israel's own history."

Amnesty International, in its analysis of the 2008 Gaza War, wrote that while it is uncontested that Hamas weapons and fighters were located in civilian areas, that in itself does not itself constitute human shielding. Amnesty contrasts the Palestinian and Israeli positions, stating that "The close proximity of the military and weapons to civilian areas is also not unusual in Israel. The headquarters of the Israeli army is in a densely populated area of central Tel Aviv. In Ashkelon, Sderot, Bersheva and other towns in the south of Israel... ndelsewhere in the country, military bases and other installations are located in or around residential areas, including kibbutzim and villages."

Ha'aretz writer Michael Brizon argued in 2014 that Israel's charge of human shields is hypocritical given the IDF military command center is located near Ichilov Hospital. Many Kibbutzim are co-located with military bases, such as Nahal Oz.

See also

* Human shields in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
* Deif family killings
* Francesca Albanese
* Alleged military use of al-Shifa hospital
* War crimes in the Gaza war
* Children in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
* Human shield action to Iraq

References

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