A new Haaretz investigation has found that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) routinely exploit Palestinian people, including children and the elderly, as human shields, a practice that breaches international law and has long been denounced by human rights organizations. The investigation indicates that the practice is carried out with the knowledge of top military leaders, including the chief of staff.

Haaretz divulged that this approach has been used several times in different operations, with soldiers employing Palestinian people to defend themselves from resistance members. This strategy, called "human shielding," requires people to accompany military units or remain in harm's path in order to dissuade firing, essentially putting them in grave danger.

The investigation's results back up multiple claims from Palestinian eyewitnesses and human rights organizations, which have long documented the IOF's use of similar techniques. These accounts detail occasions in which Palestinians, including children and the elderly, were forced to stand near military vehicles or enter buildings or tunnels ahead of soldiers during operations in Gaza.

Despite global condemnation, the Haaretz investigation found that the technique is nonetheless a recurrent and vital element of the IOF's operating routines despite the blatant breach of international law.

Palestinian authorities and advocacy organizations have documented scores of examples in which "Israel's" military utilized Palestinians as human shields, and they consistently demanded rapid international involvement and responsibility for the Israeli military's acts.

UN special rapporteur slams Israeli use of Palestinian as human shield

Back in June, Mondoweiss published the harrowing account of Palestinians who were used as human shields by Israeli forces in Khan Younis.

The ordeal happened in the early hours of January 22, when the Israeli forces launched a sudden aggression on western Khan Younis, home to five shelters for displaced Palestinians.

In the same month, the United Nations Special Rapporteur in occupied Palestine, Francesca Albanese, expressed concerns regarding the Israeli abuse of Palestinians as human shields following the circulation of a video showing Israeli occupation soldiers tying a Palestinian civilian to the front of a military jeep in Jenin. 

In a post on X, Albanese slammed the impunity by which the Israeli occupation operates against the charters of international law, saying "It is flabbergasting how a state born 76 years ago has managed to turn international law literally on its head."

She further stated how "Israel's" actions may risk "the end of multilateralism, which for some influential member states no longer serves any relevant purpose."

#HumanShielding in action.
It is flabbergasting how a state born 76 years ago has managed to turn international law literally on its head.

This risks being the end of multilateralism, which for some influential member states no longer serves any relevant purpose.… https://t.co/swwjiuJYmG

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) June 22, 2024

In May, a report by the Defense for Children International (DCI) was able to prove three different instances during which Israeli occupation forces used Palestinian children as human shields in the West Bank. 

The Israeli publication Haaretz also found that the IOF uses Palestinian civilians, cuffed with cameras attached to them, to inspect tunnels that are possibly booby-trapped using the excuse that their lives are "more important" than those of Palestinians. 

Even IOF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and the head of the Southern Command Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman is among the senior officials aware of this atrocious technique.

One Israeli soldier said that two Palestinians were sent, one was 20 and the other was 16 and he was told, “Use them, they’re Gazans, use them as human shields.”

When Israeli soldiers protested this process and brought up the term international law, they were told that they should not take an interest in the laws of war but in the values of the Israeli military.