REPORT: Hamas and Human Shields
Since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas after the October 7th Massacres, Hamas has consistently used tactics that put unarmed civilians at risk of death or injury. Hamas has a long history of using the people of Gaza as human shields to protect their terrorist leaders from Israeli strikes, and even operates its command center under the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
How has Hamas used civilians to protect its leaders?
Since Hamas took power in the Gaza Strip in 2007 after a bloody war with Fatah, the terrorist organization has utilized human shield tactics such as putting entrances to terror tunnels in residential buildings, hiding rockets to fire indiscriminately at Israeli civilians in schools, hospitals, and mosques, and even publicly calling on its own civilians to climb onto the roofs of Hamas officials’ homes to ward off Israeli strikes.
As the current war expands in the Gaza Strip, Hamas has not strayed away from its traditional tactics. In one instance, it launched a barrage of rockets from a diplomatic building, which was just across the street from a UN-run school for Gaza children. The IDF has revealed an increasing and troubling use of UN facilities for its war against Israel– although the UN has condemned Hamas’s use of the tactic since the 2012 war, the terror group has continued using UN schools, offices, and hospitals to stash and launch rockets at Israeli civilians.
The Gazan people are victims of this war, but not from Israeli aggression. Hamas repeatedly puts the people of Gaza in the line of fire to protect its own terrorists, and the intricate tunnel network under Gaza reflects that. While the terrorists get to hide in bunkers from bombardment, the Gazans are indefensibly shuttled above command centers to deter Israeli airstrikes and to create mass casualty events. Ultimately, Hamas has weaponized the innocent people of Gaza and turned them into expendable pawns to advance terrorism.
Has Hamas broken international law by using human shields?
International humanitarian law is unequivocally against the use of human shields, and Hamas’s actions even invalidate protective status that is normally given to civilian locations in war. The 4th Hague Convention, one of the tenets of Treaty Law on the laws of armed conflict, clearly states that protected status should be granted to cultural, religious, medical, and other civilian sites, but it also clearly states that such protection is only given “provided they are not being used at the time for military purposes.” Moreover, the Geneva Conventions also state similar directives: civilian, cultural, and medical facilities are protected as long as they are not used “to commit, outside their humanitarian duties, acts harmful to the enemy.” Although certainly not the fault of Gazan civilians, many of their crucial humanitarian sites are now weaponized by Hamas as military targets. Putting rockets in hospitals, mosques, and schools only creates unnecessary hurt for the people of Gaza, but this is due to the actions of Hamas.
Sources and further reading:
“Exposed: Hamas’s hospital hideouts– a grave abuse of Gaza’s medical lifelines,” The Jerusalem Post, 8 November 2023, https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-772168.
“Hamas’ use of human shields in Gaza,” NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, 6 June 2019, https://stratcomcoe.org/cuploads/pfiles/hamas_human_shields.pdf.
Pamela Falk, “Israel says these photos show how Hamas places weapons in and near U.N. facilities in Gaza, including schools,” CBS News, 8 November 2023, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-photos-hamas-gaza-weapons-un-facilities-including-schools/.
Pamela Falk, “Israel says these photos show how Hamas places weapons in and near U.N. facilities in Gaza, including schools”
“Palestinian Lives Matter, Except to Hamas,” The Wall Street Journal, 16 October 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-hamas-gaza-civilians-united-nations-1222797b.
Convention (IV) respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land and its annex: Regulations concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land. Sec. 2, Chap. 1, Art. 21, 27. The Hague, 18 October 1907.
Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Part II. Geneva, 12 August 1949, pp. 174-178.
