🤥 Hamas uses civilians as human shields.

This unsubstantiated claim by Israel, that Hamas uses civilians as human shields, has never been verified by any independent investigation. This claim consistently serves as cover, a deflection tactic, and an unbridled excuse used by Israel to indiscriminately and disproportionately target and kill Palestinian civilians.

Amnesty International (AI) has conducted several investigations into Israeli claims that Hamas uses civilians “to shield military objectives from attacks.” In investigations following Israeli military attacks on Gaza in 2009 and 2014, AI found no evidence to back this claim, which Israel uses to indiscriminately and disproportionately target Palestinian civilians and civilian infrastructure.

There are hundreds of documented cases of Palestinians being used as human shields by the Israeli army. In fact, using Palestinians as human shields was so common that when the Israeli high court outlawed the practice in 2005, the Israeli army appealed to the court to have its decision reversed.

Israeli human rights group B’Tselem continues to document the Israeli army’s use of Palestinian civilians as human shields despite Israel’s high court’s ruling making this practice illegal in 2005. These incidents include Israeli armed forces using Palestinian civilians to check houses for booby traps or handle suspicious objects, in addition to tying Palestinians to Israeli military vehicles to deter Palestinians from throwing stones at these vehicles.

Rule 1 of the Principle of Distinction between Civilians and Combatants states: “The parties to the conflict must always distinguish between civilians and combatants. Attacks are only permissible against combatants and must not target civilians.”

“Civilians must be protected. They cannot legally be targets of violence, or disproportionately harmed by it. And those obligations apply to all parties involved in the fighting, even if the other side has violated them. ‘Human shields’ are still protected civilians.” New York Times, Oct 19, 2023)