Tel Aviv, Israel (AP) – The only times the Palestinian man was not bound or blindfolded, he said, when he was used by Israeli soldiers as their human shield.
Ayman Abu Hamadan was dressed in army fatigue with a camera set on his forehead, was forced in houses in the Gaza Strip to make sure they were free of bombs and shooters, he said. When one unit finished with him, he was passed on to the next.
“They defeated me and told me:” You have no other option; do this or we kill you, “the 36-year-old told The Associated Press, who described the 2 1/2 weeks that he was held last summer by the Israeli army in the north of Gaza.
Orders often came from the top, and sometimes almost every peloton used a Palestinian to erase locations, said an Israeli officer, who spoke due to anonymity for fear of retaliation.
Several Palestinians and soldiers told the AP that systematically force Israeli troops to act as human shields in Gaza and send them to buildings and tunnels to check for explosives or militants. The dangerous practice has become omnipresent for 19 months of war, they said.
In response to these allegations, the army of Israel says that it strictly prohibits the use of citizens as shields – a practice that Hamas has long accused of it in Gaza. Israeli officials blame the militants for the bourgeois death toll in his offensive that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.
In a statement to the AP, the army said that otherwise it is forbids citizens to participate in operations, and “all such orders are routinely emphasized on the forces.”
The army said it is investigating and claims that Palestinians were involved in missions, but would not provide details. It did not answer questions about the reach of the practice or orders of commanders.
The AP spoke with seven Palestinians described as shields in Gaza and the occupied West Bank and with two members of the army of Israel who said they are concerned with practice, which is forbidden by international law. Law groups ring the alarm and say that the standard procedure is becoming increasingly in the war.
“These are not isolated reports; they point to systemic failure and a horrible moral collapse,” said Nadav Weiman, executive director of breaking silence – a whistleblower group of former Israeli soldiers who have gathered testimonies about practice from the army. “Israel rightly condemns Hamas for the use of citizens as human shields, but our own soldiers describe the same.”
Abu Hamadan said he was held in August after he was divorced from his family, and soldiers told him that he would help with a 'special mission'. He was forced to look for houses for 17 days and inspect each hole in the ground for tunnels, he said.
Soldiers stood behind him and, as soon as it was clear, the buildings came in to damage or destroy them, he said. He spent every night in a dark room, only to wake up and do it again.
The use of human shields 'imprisoned as fire'
Law groups say that Israel Palestinians have been as shields in Gaza and the West Bank for decades. The Supreme Court forbade practice in 2005. But the groups continued to document violations.
Yet experts say that this war is the first time in decades that the practice – and the debate around it – has been so widespread.
The two Israeli soldiers who spoke with the AP – and a third party who made witness to breaking silence – said that commanders were aware of the use of human shields and tolerated, with some orders to do this. Some said it was called the “mosquito protocol” and that Palestinians were also called “wasps” and other dehuman terms.
The soldiers – who said they no longer serve in Gaza – said the practice accelerated operations, save ammunition and battleed fight dogs due to injuries or death.
The soldiers said that they first became aware of the human shields used shortly after the war broke out on October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, and that it was widespread in the mid -2024. Recommend to “bring a mosquito” often they came via the radio. Soldiers acted by commanders, according to the officer who spoke with the AP.
He said that towards the end of his nine months in Gaza, every infantry unit used a Palestinian to erase houses before he entered.
“As soon as this idea was initiated, it caught it as a fire in a field,” said the 26-year-old. “People saw how effective and easy it was.”
He described a planning meeting from 2024 where a brigad commander presented the division commander a slide lecture with the lecture “get a mosquito” and a suggestion that they can “just catch one of the street.”
The officer wrote two incident reports to the Brigad Commander in which the use of human shields was described, reports that would have escalated to the Division Chief, he said. The army said it had no comment when he was asked if it received them.
One report documented the accidental murder of a Palestinian, he said – troops did not know that another unit used him as a shield and shot him as he came across a house. The officer ordered the Palestinians to be dressed in army clothing to prevent incorrect identification.
He said he was aware of at least one other Palestinian who died while he was used as a shield – he fainted in a tunnel.
Troops pushed back in vain, says a sergeant
Soldiers convince to operate lawfully when they see their enemy using questionable practices, said Michael Schmitt, a distinguished professor of international law at the American military academy in West Point. Israeli officials and other observers say that Hamas uses citizens as shields while it is included in communities and hides hunters in hospitals and schools.
“It is really a tough lift to look at your own soldiers and say that you have to satisfy,” said Schmitt.
One soldier told the AP that his unity tried to refuse to use human shields in mid -2024, but was told that they had no choice, with a high -ranking officer who said they should not worry about international humanitarian law.
The sergeant speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals soi that the troops used a 16-year-old and a 30-year-old for a few days.
The boy shook constant, he said, and both repeated “Rafah, Rafah” – Gaza's southernmost city, where more than 1 million Palestinians had fled to fight elsewhere in the war at that time.
It seemed that they begged to be free, the sergeant said.
“I have children,” a man says he begged
Masoud Abu Saeed said that in March 2024 he was used for two weeks as a shield in the southern city of Khan Younis.
“This is extremely dangerous,” he told a soldier. “I have children and want to reunite.”
The 36-year-old said he was forced in houses, buildings and a hospital to dig up suspected tunnels and clear areas. He said he was wearing a vest in the first responder for simple identification, with a telephone, hammer and chain cutters.
During an operation he bumped into his brother, used as a shield by another unit, he said.
They hugged herself. “I thought Israel's army had executed him,” he said.
Palestinians also report that they are being used as shields on the West Bank.
Hazar Estity said that soldiers took her Jenin Refugee Camp home in November, forcing her to film in various apartments and to free them before troops entered.
She said she argued to return to her 21 -month -old son, but soldiers did not listen.
“I was most afraid they would kill me,” she said. “And that I wouldn't see my son anymore.”
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Magdy reported from Cairo.
