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,[1] as human shields.[2]
Israel has said that Hamas's actions have caused Israel to kill civilians as collateral damage.[3] 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.[4]
Neve Gordon, professor of international law and human rights and co-author of the 2020 book Human Shields: A History of People in the Line of Fire, has stated that Israeli military and government claims of Hamas using Palestinian civilians as human shields "should be understood as a pre-emptive legal defence against accusations that Israel is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza."[5] He also accuses state actors such as Israel of using human shielding allegations to hypocritically justify their own war crimes against civilians, adding: "This justification, however, functions only in one direction. When state actors kill civilians, it’s become standard to describe them as human shields. But when non-state actors attack military targets in urban settings, the civilians they kill are still recognised as civilians."
Janina Dill, a laws of war professor at University of Oxford, stated, "Even if Hamas uses civilians as human shields, those civilians are entitled to full protection under international law unless they directly participate in the fighting".[6] Scholars in international law have cautioned that accusing Hamas of using human shields requires proving intent to shield a military target with civilians.[7]
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.[8] 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. Human Rights Watch (HRW) also stated they found no evidence that Hamas used human shields during the 2009 conflict.[9]
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".[10] [11] 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.'"[12] 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.[13] According to the New York Times, some Gazans showed opposition to their usage as human shields by Hamas and some have refused the entry of militants to some shelters.[14]
In many rounds of Israel-Gaza conflict, many sources have presented evidence that Hamas uses human shields. Many sources have also presented evidence that Hamas has been falsely accused of using human shields.
During the 2008–2009 Gaza War, Israel destroyed numerous civilian targets, including schools, mosques, UNRWA buildings, bridges, government administration buildings, courthouses, police stations, fire stations, agricultural facilities, bird farms etc. Israel claimed it attacked these areas because Hamas fighters allegedly returned fire on Israeli troops from there. However, George Bisharat disputes Israel's claims. Bisharat points out that the war started with an Israeli surprise attack on civilian targets, such as an attack on a graduation ceremony for a local police college, and thus there was no Hamas return fire at the time Israel attacked. Israel also destroyed Gaza's industrial sector in the final days of the war, after Hamas resistance had already ended and Israeli troops had withdrawn.
In a post-war analysis of the conflict, Amnesty International stated that: "Contrary to repeated allegations by Israeli officials of the use of "human shields", Amnesty International found no evidence that Hamas or other Palestinian fighters directed the movement of civilians to shield military objectives... [nor] that Hamas or other armed groups forced residents to stay in or around buildings used by fighters, nor that fighters prevented residents from leaving buildings or areas which had been commandeered by militants."[8] Amnesty also found that Hamas "launched rockets and located military equipment and positions near civilian homes" – though not necessarily when civilians were present – "endangering the lives of the inhabitants by exposing them to the risk of Israeli attacks".[15]
During the war, Amnesty International pointed to several cases of destruction of houses, schools and mosques, which Israel said were housing ammunition. Yet Amnesty found no example of "secondary conflagration", which would be expected if weapons were present.[16]
See also: Operation Cast Lead. Numerous reports during the 2014 Gaza War stated that Hamas used human shields. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay accused Hamas militants of violating international humanitarian law by "locating rockets within schools and hospitals, or even launching these rockets from densely populated areas".[17] A UN inquiry found “weapons had been placed inside an UNRWA school in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip and that it was highly likely that an unidentified Palestinian armed group could have used the school premises to launch attacks.”[18] [19] The European Union condemned Hamas, and in particular condemned "calls on the civilian population of Gaza to provide themselves as human shields".[20] [21] In an August 2014 interview, Hamas political leader Khaled Mashal said to a CNN interviewer that the group did not use its people as human shields.[22] In a September 2014 interview, a Hamas official acknowledged to Associated Press that the group fired at Israel from civilian areas.[23] He ascribed the practice to "mistakes", but said the group had little option due to the crowded landscape of the Strip, with its dearth of open zones. He denied accusations that rockets were launched "from schools or hospitals when in fact they were fired 200 or 300 meters (yards) away".
In interviews with Gazan refugees, reporters for The Independent and The Guardian concluded it was a "myth" that Hamas forced civilians to stay in areas under attack against their will; many refugees told them they refused to heed the IDF's warnings because even areas Israel had declared safe for refugees had been shelled by its forces.[24] [25] The BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen also said he "saw no evidence of Hamas using Palestinians as human shields".[26] An Amnesty International document (dated 25 July 2014) asserts that they do "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".[27] Amnesty International's assessment was that international humanitarian law was clear in that "even if officials or fighters from Hamas or Palestinian armed groups associated with other factions did in fact direct civilians to remain in a specific location in order to shield military objectives from attacks, all of Israel's obligations to protect these civilians would still apply". The human rights group, however, still found that Palestinian factions, as in previous conflicts, launched attacks from civilian areas.
Hamas Arabic-speaking spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called up Gaza civilians on Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV 8 July 2014 to stay put in areas under fire by Israel, prompting accusations from Israel and others – the European Union, for example – that Hamas was calling on people to volunteer as "in effect human shields". For Amnesty International, however, Hamas' call may have been "motivated by a desire to avoid further panic" among civilians, considering both the lack of shelters in Gaza and the fact that some civilians who heeded the IDF's warnings had been casualties of Israeli attacks.[28] Abu Zuhri was also quoted as saying, in a 13 July interview, that "Hamas despise those defeatist Palestinians that criticize the high number of civilian casualties. The resistance praises our people... we lead our people to death…I mean, to war."
During the war, Israel also damaged hospitals,[29] alleging they were concealing "hidden missiles".[30] A team of Finnish journalists from Helsingin Sanomat working at the Gaza Al-Shifa hospital reported seeing rockets fired from near the Al-Shifa hospital.[31] [32] However, two Norwegian doctors who have been working at the hospital for decades have denied there was militant presence nearby, saying the last armed man they saw by the building was an Israeli doctor at the time of the First Intifada.[33] In 2014, The Guardian journalists came across "armed men" inside one hospital, and sightings of "senior Hamas leaders" have been reported inside another.[34] The Washington Post described Al-Shifa hospital as a "de facto headquarters for Hamas leaders, who can be seen in the hallways and offices".[35] French-Palestinian journalist Radjaa Abu Dagg reported being interrogated by an armed Hamas member inside Al-Shifa Hospital and ordered to leave Gaza.[36] [37] [38]
In 2015, The Washington Post said that an Amnesty International report condemned Palestinian militias for storing munitions in, and launching rockets from civilian structures and reported that the launching of attacks and storing of rockets "very near locations where hundreds of displaced civilians were taking shelter."[39] [40] The report stated "the available evidence indicates that Palestinian armed groups fired rockets and mortars from residential areas during the July/August 2014 conflict, and that on at least some occasions, projectiles were launched in close proximity to civilian buildings…significant areas within the 365km2 of territory are not residential, and conducting hostilities or launching munitions from these areas presents a lower risk of endangering Palestinian civilians…Palestinian armed groups stored rockets and other munitions in civilian buildings and facilities, including UN schools, during the conflict… storing munitions in civilian buildings or launching attacks from the vicinity of civilian buildings, violate the obligation to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians from the effects of attacks. But they do not necessarily amount to the specific violation of using "human shields" under international humanitarian law, which entails "using the presence (or movements) of civilians or other protected persons to render certain points or areas (or military forces) immune from military operations."[41] According to Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International, "evidence suggesting that a rocket launched by a Palestinian armed group may have caused 13 civilian deaths inside Gaza underscores how indiscriminate these weapons can be and the dreadful consequences of using them". He also stated that "the devastating impact of Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians during the conflict is undeniable, but violations by one side in a conflict can never justify violations by their opponents."
In 2019, a paper by the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence said that Hamas "has been using human shields in conflicts with Israel since 2007".[42] [43]
See main article: 2018-2019 Gaza border protests.
See main article: Killing of Rouzan al-Najjar.
Rouzan al-Najjar was a Palestinian nurse/paramedic who lived in Khuzaa, a village near the Gaza Strip's border with Israel.[44] Her family lived in an apartment within eyeshot of Israeli soldiers stationed over the border. Their area had a 4m (13feet) concrete wall installed to shield local residents from Israeli fire.[45]
She was killed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) while volunteering as a medic during the 2018 Gaza border protests. She was fatally hit by a bullet shot by an Israeli soldier as she tried to help evacuate the wounded near Israel's border fence with Gaza.[46] [47] The IDF first denied that she was targeted, while not ruling out that she may have been hit by indirect fire.[48] Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said that al-Najjar was shot intentionally.[49]
After her death, the IDF released footage in which she purportedly admitted to participating in the protests as a human shield at the request of Hamas.[50] The video was later found to be a clip from an interview with a Lebanese television station that had been edited by the IDF to take al-Najjar's comments out of context. In the unedited video, she didn't mention Hamas and called herself a "rescuing human shield to protect and save the wounded at the front lines", with everything following "human shield" trimmed out of the Israeli clip. The IDF was widely criticized for attempting posthumous character assassination by tampering with the video.[51] [52]
During the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, Israel stated that Hamas has strategically placed portions of its military tunnel system and command network beneath civilian infrastructure, including Gaza's al-Shifa Hospital. Israel released what it said were videos of interrogations of two alleged members of Hamas' armed wing in which the people on camera supported the assertion that Hamas militants are using hospitals as a means of protection from IDF strikes. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Physicians for Human Rights Israel have denounced such taped alleged confessions, stating that they were likely extracted under torture, violate international law and basic human rights, and should be considered inadmissible as credible evidence.[53] [54] They also called on the Israeli government to cease publishing taped "confessions".
The Israeli army accused Hamas of sending over one hundred women and children to a compound it was targeting to act as human shields. It said two of its soldiers were killed while withdrawing from the compound.[55]
On 8 November, the IDF and Shin Bet footage from what it said was an intercepted phone call and the interrogations of terrorists who participated in the October 7 massacre. The Times of Israel reported that "an apparent Hamas operative" said to another man in Gaza that he "can leave with any ambulance" he wants.[56]
Israel accused Hamas of "double war crimes" in using civilian locations to launch attacks. An IDF spokesman told CBS News that "a systemic abuse by Hamas of sites and locations that are supposed to enjoy special protection under the Geneva Convention and humanitarian law". The IDF shared with CBS photos it said showed Hamas members launching rockets from near UN facilities.[57] [58]
On 18 November CNN aired footage taken by the IDF showing what appears to be a person armed with an RPG launcher entering the premises of Al-Quds Hospital.[59]
On 19 November the IDF released footage of an underground tunnel under al-Shifa.[60] The tunnel, which is 160 meter long and 10 meter deep, passes directly under the Qatari building of the hospital; it has air-conditioned rooms, bathrooms, a kitchenette, electricity connections and communication infrastructure, and is protected by a blast door.[61] The IDF also released CCTV footage that appears to show two of the hostages being led in the hospital's corridors, as well as Hamas and stolen IDF vehicles in its courtyard.[62] [63]
According to Israel, Ahmad Kahlot, who they reported to be the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, while being interrogated by the Shin Bet said that Hamas had taken control of the hospital as a military operations center and that he himself was Hamas member. Israel said that during the interrogation he said that many hospital staff members served in the al-Qassam brigades.[64] [65] According to the Israeli military, he said that Hamas used the hospital for holding an IDF soldier hostage and employed ambulances to transport the bodies of Israeli hostage and that Hamas had separate offices, ambulances, and equipment with distinct colors and signs.
On 1 January 2024, the Jerusalem Post released selected footage of the IDF's Unit 504 interrogations of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants. The investigation alleged various tactics Hamas employed to exploit Gazan civilians.[66] Zohadi Ali Zahadi Shahin, an alleged Hamas member, said Hamas prevented civilians from fleeing towards Rafah crossing and instead relocated them to Al-Shifa Hospital where they were kept while Hamas terrorists hid in tunnels underneath. Shahin also said Hamas terrorists would forcibly take over civilian homes, plant explosives, and intimidate residents, with one militant threatening Shahin directly. Another alleged operative, Muhammad Darwish Amara from Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said Hamas planted a bomb in his home where his children were staying to coerce him into participating in terrorist activities.
These interrogations and use of selected video footage of alleged confessions by alleged Hamas militants have been widely criticized by human rights organizations as they likely involve the use of torture, do not give due process to detainees, and are selectively edited for release.