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Israeli soldiers have “systematically” used Palestinians as human shields during the 19-month assault on the Gaza Strip, The Associated Press reported Saturday, citing Palestinian civilians and members of the Israel Defense Forces who described engaging in the practice that is banned under international humanitarian law.
“Orders often came from the top, and at times nearly every platoon used a Palestinian to clear locations,” AP reported, citing the account of an unnamed Israeli officer.
One Palestinian man, Ayman Abu Hamadan, said Israeli soldiers dressed him in army fatigues, attached a camera to his forehead, and forced him to enter homes to ensure they were clear of bombs and militants. Abu Hamadan said he was passed from unit to unit for over two weeks.
“Soldiers stood behind him and, once it was clear, entered the buildings to damage or destroy them, he said,” AP reported. “He spent each night bound in a dark room, only to wake up and do it again.”
Nadav Weiman, executive director of Breaking the Silence — an anti-occupation group founded by former Israeli soldiers — told AP that “these are not isolated accounts; they point to a systemic failure and a horrifying moral collapse.”
Israeli officials frequently justify attacks on homes, hospitals, and other civilian infrastructure by alleging that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilian population as human shields. But Israeli forces have long been accused of using detained Palestinians as human shields, both during and prior to the current assault on Gaza.
According to the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, “Over the years, the military practiced an official policy of using Palestinians as human shields, ordering them to carry out military activities that put their lives in jeopardy: Palestinians were forced to remove suspicious objects from roads, tell other Palestinians to come out and surrender themselves, physically shield soldiers while they fired, and more.”
“In most cases, no one was held accountable,” the group said.
Earlier this year, an anonymous Israeli officer wrote in a column for Haaretz that “in Gaza, human shields are used by Israeli soldiers at least six times a day.”
“Today, almost every platoon keeps a ‘shawish,’ and no infantry force enters a house before a ‘shawish’ clears it,” the officer wrote. “This means there are four ‘shawishes’ in a company, twelve in a battalion, and at least 36 in a brigade. We operate a sub-army of slaves.”
In response to AP’s reporting, the IDF told the Jerusalem Post that it would only investigate the claims in the story “if further details are provided.”
The reporting came as Israel continued with its large-scale ground offensive and aerial assault in Gaza, where the entire population is facing a dire hunger crisis due to Israel’s monthslong siege.
On Sunday, according to Reuters, “Israeli military strikes killed at least 23 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip… including a local journalist and a senior rescue service official.”
Hours earlier, an Israeli strike on a home in Khan Younis killed nine children of a Nasser Hospital pediatrician and badly injured her husband while she was at work.
“Targeting families in the still-standing buildings: distinguishable sadistic pattern of the new phase of the genocide,” Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, wrote in response to the deadly strike.
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