The accusation of the use of human shields is a common theme in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) [1] has used civilians as human shields multiple times to discourage Palestinian combatants from attacking and to perform life-threatening tasks.[2][3] Accusations against Palestinian militant groups[4] including Hamas[5] that they use Palestinian civilians as shields are commonly made by Israel and allied countries but have been contested by independent investigations;[6] use of Israeli civilians as shields in the October 7 attack, however, has been evidenced by victim testimony. In addition, international and Israeli activists have voluntarily used themselves as human shields to stop Israeli violence against Palestinians.[7][8]
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,[9][10][11] with some scholars in the area believing the IDF may be the only military force systematically engaging in this practice in recent decades.[2] According to B'Tselem, IDF soldiers put Palestinian civilians in front of them or otherwise put civilians in the line of fire,[12] and forcing Palestinians to remove suspicious objects (possible explosives).[12] 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.[13] The latter practice was defended by the Israeli defense ministry, but prohibited in 2005 by the Israeli Supreme Court,[14] though there have been accusations of its employment even after the ruling.[15][16] During the 2009 invasion of Gaza, IDF reportedly used Palestinian families (both adult and children) as human shields.[17][18] 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.[3]
Hamas has also been accused of using human shields strategically by the UN Secretary General,[19] the European Union,[20] the United States,[21][22] along with Israel.[23] 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.[10] 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.[24][25][26] This has been cited as a justification for Israel's attacks on civilian infrastructure.[27][28][29] 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.[30][31]
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.[32][33] 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.[32]
The Israeli Defense Forces have systematically used Palestinians civilians 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;[12] forcing Palestinians to remove suspicious objects (possible explosives);[12] sending Palestinians to try and persuade militants to surrender themselves (so-called "neighbor procedure").[12]
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.[34]
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).[35] This procedure resulted in at least one instance of a Palestinian civilian being killed: a 19-year-old called Nidal Abu-Mohsen.[36][37] 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.[35][38]
According to human rights groups Amnesty International[39] and Human Rights Watch,[40] 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".[41][42]Al Mezan reported the systematic use of human shields during the invasion of Beit Hanoun in 2004.[43] Human shields were also employed by Israeli soldiers to subdue a stone-throwing protest in Hebron in 2003.[44]
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.[45]
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.[35][38][46]
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.[35][47] Rabbi Arik Ascherman was placed under arrest after he tried to intervene.[38]
In 2005, Israel's High Court of Justice banned the practice,[36][48] with the Israeli Defense Ministry appealing the decision.[36][49] 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,[44] the IDF denied reports of "using Palestinians as human shields against attacks on IDF forces", saying it had already forbidden this practice.[48]
In 2006, however, initial investigations by B'Tselem indicated that the IDF used civilians as human shields in Beit Hanun.[50]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.[51]
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.[52][53] 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.[54]
The Israeli Army launched a criminal investigation into the incident involving Amira.[52] 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.[55] 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.[41][52]
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".[56]
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.[18] 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.[18][30]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".[17] The UN Human Rights Council also accused Israel of using human shields during the 2008–09 Gaza conflict.[57][58]
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.[59]
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;[60] according to the soldier, "commanders said these were the instructions and we had to do it".[60] Gazan civilians also testified of being used at gunpoint as human shields by Israeli soldiers.[61] 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.[59]
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.[62] The IDF said it opened the investigation after the incident was brought to its attention by the United Nations.[63] 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.[64] The sentence was criticized as too lenient by Human Rights Watch[65] and the boy's mother.[62]
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.[66]
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.[67] He told young Palestinian boys were also used by this particular unit to carry out military duties for the Israeli army.[67]
Defense for Children International-Palestine reported 17-year-old, Ahmad Abu Raida (also: "Reeda"),[68] was kidnapped by Israeli soldiers, who, after beating him up and threatening him, including with sexual abuse,[69] 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.[68][70]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.[71] 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.[72]
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.[68]
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.[73]
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.[74] When Amira Hass from the Ha'aretz contacted Israeli police regarding this incident, they declined to commenton specifics, stating only that the force had behaved "ethically and professionally".[75][76]
A UN report found three examples of Israel using Palestinian children as human shields in 2022.[77]
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.[78]
2023–2024 Israel–Hamas war
The abuse of Palestinians as human shields by Israeli forces has been widespread during the war. By October 2024, at least 11 Israeli army squads have deployed human shields in five Gaza cities, often with the support of Israeli intelligence officers.[2] 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.[2] Analysis by the New York Times estimates that this practice has become increasingly common during the war.[2] According to soldiers who have either been involved in or witnessed it, the practice is routine.[2] Israeli pundit Amos Harel wrote for Haaretz that the IDF use of Palestinians as human shields has been widespread in the Israel–Hamas war, placing it in the context of a more general breakdown of order and discipline among Israeli soldiers that also includes wanton killings of civilians, unjustified torching of homes, and sexual abuse and torture of prisoners of war.[79] 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.[2] In an editorial, Neve Gordon, an Israeli professor of International Law at Queen Mary University of London, stated Israel's use of human shields was "two war crimes in a single action."[80]
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.[81]
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.[82]
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.[83] 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.[84]
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.[85] 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.[86] A UN expert said the incident amounted to taking human shields.[87] A cousin of Abbadeh told the press that Israeli forces had recently done the same to three other people.[88] 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.[89]
In August 2024, a Palestinian man forced to serve as a human shield for the Israeli army was shot and killed by an IDF commander in Khan Yunis.[90] On the night of 28 August 2024, duringan 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.[91]
According to a Haaretz investigation based on many Israeli soldiers' testimonies, Palestinian teenagers and adults are regularly used as human shields in exploring the tunnel network in the Gaza Strip. Termed "shawashim" by Israeli soldiers, they 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.[90] 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.[3][2] They would use Palestinians when neither sniffer dogs nor drones were available.[2] An October 2024 investigation by CNN found that while the scale and scope of the practice was unknown, testimony from civilians and an Israeli soldier showed Israel's use of Palestinians as human shields was widespread across the Gaza Strip.[92] In November 2024, an investigation by The Washington Post further corroborated these investigations, with witnesses, victims, and an Israeli soldier stating civilians were being used as human shield to prevent harm to Israeli soldiers.[93]
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.[95][96]
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.[97]
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.[98] 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.[6]
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,[99] as human shields.[100]
Israel has said that Hamas's actions have caused Israel to kill civilians as collateral damage.[101] 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.[102][103]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.[104] 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.[102]Human Rights Watch (HRW) also stated they found no evidence that Hamas used human shields during the 2009 conflict.[105]
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".[106][107] 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.'"[108] 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.[109]
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. They also 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.[110]
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.[111]
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”.[112]
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.[113]
The Second Intifada, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was a major uprising by Palestinians against Israel and its occupation from 2000. The period of heightened violence in the Palestinian territories and Israel continued until the Sharm el-Sheikh Summit of 2005, which ended hostilities.
A human shield is a non-combatant who either volunteers or is forced to shield a legitimate military target in order to deter the enemy from attacking it.
The 2004 Israeli operation in the northern Gaza Strip took place when the Israel Defense Forces launched Operation "Days of Penitence", otherwise known as Operation "Days of Repentance" in the northern Gaza Strip. The operation lasted between 29 September and 16 October 2004. About 130 Palestinians, and 1 Israeli were killed.
International human rights organizations, along with the United Nations, and the United States Department of State, have reported human rights violations committed by the State of Israel, particularly against minority groups. These reports include violations of the rights of Palestinians, both inside and outside Israel as well as other groups in Israel.
The 2006 Gaza–Israel conflict, known in Israel as Operation Summer Rains, was a series of battles between Palestinian militants and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during summer 2006, prompted by the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by Palestinian militants on 25 June 2006. Large-scale conventional warfare occurred in the Gaza Strip, starting on 28 June 2006, which was the first major ground operation in the Gaza Strip since Israel's unilateral disengagement plan was implemented between August and September 2005.
In 2008 the Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Hot Winter, also called Operation Warm Winter, in the Gaza Strip, starting on February 29, 2008 in response to Qassam rockets fired from the Strip by Hamas onto Israeli civilians. At least 112 Palestinians, along with three Israelis, were killed, and more than 150 Palestinians and seven Israelis were injured.
The Gaza War, also known as the First Gaza War, Operation Cast Lead, or the Gaza Massacre, and referred to as the Battle of al-Furqan by Hamas, was a three-week armed conflict between Gaza Strip Palestinian paramilitary groups and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that began on 27 December 2008 and ended on 18 January 2009 with a unilateral ceasefire. The conflict resulted in 1,166–1,417 Palestinian and 13 Israeli deaths. Over 46,000 homes were destroyed in Gaza, making more than 100,000 people homeless.
Roof knocking or "knock on the roof" is a term used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to describe its practice of dropping non-explosive or low-yield devices on the roofs of targeted civilian homes in the occupied Palestinian territories as a prior warning of imminent bombing attacks to give the inhabitants time to flee the attack. The practice was employed by the IDF during the 2008–2009 Gaza War, the 2012 Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip, and the 2014 Gaza War to target the homes of police officers or Hamas political or military leaders.
The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC), also known as Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center in honor of Meir Amit, is an Israel-based research group. ITIC has close ties to the Israel Defense Forces. Its reports on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and Israeli-Lebanese conflict have received media attention.
Accusations of violations regarding international humanitarian law, which governs the actions by belligerents during an armed conflict, have been directed at both Israel and Hamas for their actions during the 2008–2009 Gaza War. The accusations covered violating laws governing distinction and proportionality by Israel, the indiscriminate firing of rockets at civilian locations and extrajudicial violence within the Gaza Strip by Hamas. As of September 2009, some 360 complaints had been filed by individuals and NGOs at the prosecutor's office in the Hague calling for investigations into alleged crimes committed by Israel during the Gaza War.
Children and children's rights have long been a focal point of the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict, dating as early as the 1929 Hebron massacre and the 1948 Deir Yassin massacre, both of which claimed the lives of children, precipitating a long conflict that has often led to the displacement, injury, and death of youths. Youth exposure to hostilities increased notably during the First and Second Intifada, where harsh responses from Israeli forces towards Palestinian adolescents and children protesting the Israeli occupation led to the arrest and detention of many Palestinian youth, in addition to other human rights abuses.
B'Tselem is a Jerusalem-based non-profit organization whose stated goals are to document human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, combat any denial of the existence of such violations, and help to create a human rights culture in Israel. It is currently headed by Yuli Novak, who took over in June 2023 from Hagai El-Ad, who had served as its director-general since May 2014. B'Tselem also maintains a presence in Washington, D.C., where it is known as B'Tselem USA. The organization has provoked sharp reactions within Israel, ranging from harsh criticism to strong praise.
The 2014 Gaza War, also known as Operation Protective Edge, and Battle of the Withered Grain, was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory that has been governed by Hamas since 2007. Following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank by Hamas-affiliated Palestinian militants, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) initiated Operation Brother's Keeper, in which it killed 10 Palestinians, injured 130 and imprisoned more than 600. Hamas reportedly did not retaliate but resumed rocket attacks on Israel more than two weeks later, following the killing of one of its militants by an Israeli airstrike on 29 June. This escalation triggered a seven-week-long conflict between the two sides, one of the deadliest outbreaks of open conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in decades. The war resulted in over two thousand deaths, the vast majority of which were Gazan Palestinians. This includes a total of six Israeli civilians who were killed as a result of the conflict.
The Battle of Shuja'iyya occurred between the Israel Defense Forces and the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades on 20 July 2014 during 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict in the Shuja'iyya neighborhood of Gaza City, in the Gaza Strip. Shuja'iyya, with 92,000 people in 6 sq-kilometres, is one of the most densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip. According to the IDF, it had become a "terrorist fortress", that between 8 and 20 July had fired over 140 rockets into Israel after the outbreak of hostilities. Casualty figures are not known with precision, partly because bodies were recovered long after the fighting, and people had also died of injuries afterwards. The UN Protection Cluster states that between the 19-20th, 55 civilians, including 19 children and 14 women, were killed as a result of the IDF's actions. At the time, estimates varied from 66 to about 120 Palestinians killed, with a third of them women and children, and at least 288 wounded. The UN figures of Palestinian casualties are preliminary and subject to revision. 16 Israeli soldiers were killed.
Mass civilian casualties of Israeli bombing, shelling and rocket attacks on the Gaza Strip have occurred in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, in which Israeli bombing attacks on the Gaza Strip cause numerous civilian fatalities. The reason for such operations is purportedly to carry out targeted assassinations of militants from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other groups seen to be a threat to Israel, whose Shin Bet data banks monitor thousands of Palestinians for targeting. Israel regards such cases as either unfortunate errors, the consequence of civilians being allegedly used to shield militants, or as acceptable collateral damage.
Israeli war crimes are violations of international criminal law, including war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide, which Israeli security forces have committed or been accused of committing since the founding of Israel in 1948. These have included murder, intentional targeting of civilians, killing prisoners of war and surrendered combatants, indiscriminate attacks, collective punishment, starvation, persecution, the use of human shields, sexual violence and rape, torture, pillage, forced transfer, breach of medical neutrality, enforced disappearance, targeting journalists, attacking civilian and protected objects, wanton destruction, incitement to genocide, and genocide.
Since the start of the Gaza war on 7 October 2023, the UN Human Rights Council has identified "clear evidence" of war crimes by both Hamas and the Israel Defense Forces. A UN Commission to the Israel–Palestine conflict stated that there is "clear evidence that war crimes may have been committed in the latest explosion of violence in Israel and Gaza, and all those who have violated international law and targeted civilians must be held accountable." On 27 October, a spokesperson for the OHCHR called for an independent court to review potential war crimes committed by both sides.
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.
The 2023 Gaza war led to an intensive interrogation program by Israeli intelligence agencies, particularly Israel's domestic security agency, Shin Bet and IDF's Unit 504, targeting captured "Hamas militants". Following the sudden attack on 7 October, which killed more than 1,100 Israelis, alleged militants were captured in Israel. Israel has claimed that the interrogation of the suspects revealed significant insights into the group's strategies, ideologies, and operational methods that played a crucial role in Israel's military response and in shaping the global understanding of the conflict.
↑ Gordon 2008, p.207, "Soldiers have ordered Palestinians to enter buildings to check if they are booby-trapped. They have instructed residents to remove suspicious objects from roads used by the military. They have made civilians stand inside houses where soldiers have set up military positions, so that Palestinians will not fire at the soldiers. And they have forced Palestinians to walk in front of soldiers to shield them from gunfire, while the soldiers hold guns behind their backs and sometimes fire over their shoulders. Although this practice was outlawed by the High Court of Justice in 2005, there have been documented incidents in which soldiers have continued using Palestinians as human shields."
1 2 Amnesty International Report "Operation Cast Lead": 22 Days of Death and Destruction pp. 48–50, "Document". 2 July 2009. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
↑ "Israel/Gaza conflict: Questions and Answers". Amnesty International. 25 July 2014. Retrieved 11 February 2024. Amnesty International...does 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.
↑ Human Rights Watch, Jenin: IDF Military Operations, Archived 24 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine "VII. Human Shielding and the Use of Civilians for Military Purposes", May 2002.
1 2 B'Tselem, Archived 4 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine "Israeli Soldiers use civilians as Human Shields in Beit Hanun", B'Tselem, 20 July 2006.
↑ [permanent dead link] UN Doc. Chronological Review of Events 6 November 2002, "A military court in Israel sentenced two junior officers to 28 days imprisonment because they had used Palestinian civilians as 'human shields', Israel Radio reported. A platoon sergeant who had made a navigation error and ended up in a Palestinian village with his soldiers had forced a villager to drive them to a safe place, the radio said. During the sergeant's investigation, a similar incident had come to light in the same battalion, during which a squad commander had made a Palestinian drive him and his soldiers to safety."
↑ "Shielded from scrutiny: IDF violations in Jenin and Nablus"(PDF). p.25. "The officer, Eitan, said to me: 'Come with us'...the officer looked left and right and then grabbed me by the collar and put me in front of him as we exited and went towards the neighbour's house. There was no firing at the time, but Eitan crouched down just below me and began firing to the left while the other soldiers moved towards the neighbour's house...He said that during this period he or another detainee would be placed in front of soldiers during house-to-house searches. On three separate occasions he stated that a soldier placed his gun near or on his body and in one case, he was made to stand in front of a soldier when he opened fire.
1 2 "Israeli soldiers testify about violence against Palestinian children". Le Monde (in French). 21 August 2012. Archived from the original on 21 August 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014. One of the soldiers testifies that a procedure, though banned, [is still] used when the army comes to arrest a Palestinian suspect: soldiers send a neighbor, charged with asking the residents of the besieged house to come out. 'I think that happened in Tulkarem. We made everyone come out, without finding the person we were looking for. So we sent the neighbors in, and afterward a child. He had to take a tour inside the house, open all the doors and windows, lit all the lights.' The commander of the unit said the procedure was illegal. 'He declared he would rather that a neighbor be killed... if that made it possible to avoid one of his men from being shot while entering the house', said the soldier. The population has no choice but to cooperate. 'When you knock on the door at night, with your gun shining under their face, your flashlight on their eyes, and you see he is not armed..., he won't tell you he doesn't want to cooperate.'
↑ Harel, Amos (3 August 2004). "Analysis / Stoking an appetite for revenge". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 28 November 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2011. The photographs from recent operations show that the armed Palestinians use the many civilians in the area, including children, as a 'human shield'. Since this is done routinely, harming children (some, it is possible, by Palestinian fire) becomes almost impossible to prevent.
↑ "Hamas rocket attacks 'war crimes'". 6 August 2009. Hamas did not use human shields and did not fire rockets from residential areas," he said. "Hamas does not target civilians.
Baconi, Tareq (2018). Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN9781503605817.
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. ISBN978-1-61470-176-7.
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