The AP spoke to seven Palestinians and several current and former Israeli soldiers. They described a pattern of forcing civilians to carry out dangerous tasks for the military.
One of them, Ayman Abu Hamadan, said he spent 17 days in Gaza last summer acting as a shield. Israeli forces dressed him in army gear and fitted a camera to his forehead. He was ordered to enter homes and inspect them for explosives and gunmen. When one unit finished using him, it passed him to the next.
“They beat me and said, ‘Do this or we’ll kill you,’” Abu Hamadan said. He remained bound and blindfolded except during missions. Every night, soldiers tied him up in a dark room, he added.
In another case, Masoud Abu Saeed, a father of several children, was forced to dig for suspected tunnels in houses, buildings, and even a hospital in Khan Younis. He said he wore a rescue vest and carried a phone, hammer, and chain cutters.
“This is extremely dangerous,” he told the soldiers. “I have children and want to reunite with them.”
One day, he bumped into his brother—used as a shield by another unit.
“I thought the army had executed him,” he said.
In the occupied West Bank, a woman from Jenin refugee camp, Hazar Estity, said Israeli soldiers invaded her home and forced her to search apartments and film them before they entered. She pleaded to return to her 21-month-old son. The soldiers ignored her.
“I was terrified they would kill me and I would never see my son again,” she said.
Israeli soldiers confirmed the practice. A sergeant said his unit initially tried to refuse orders in mid-2024. But a senior officer told them not to worry about international law. The sergeant said they used a 16-year-old and a 30-year-old as shields. The teenager shook constantly and repeated “Rafah, Rafah,” likely begging to go home.
One Israeli officer said the orders to use civilians as shields often came from top commanders. By late 2024, nearly every infantry unit had adopted the method, he added. In one meeting, a brigade commander even presented a slide reading “Get a mosquito,” referring to the use of a Palestinian civilian.
The officer said he filed reports about the practice, including one incident where a Palestinian man was shot by mistake while being used as a shield by another unit. The Israeli army did not respond to questions about the incident or confirm whether it received the reports.
Despite these testimonies, the Israeli military told AP that using civilians as human shields is 'strictly prohibited'. It accused Hamas of the practice and claimed that it is investigating several cases without providing details.
The Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence, which collects testimonies from former soldiers, condemned the reports. Director Nadav Weiman said, “These are not isolated accounts. They show a systemic failure and horrifying moral collapse.”
The group said the Israeli army has used this method for decades, despite a Supreme Court ruling in 2005 that banned it.
Legal experts say the practice violates international humanitarian law. Yet, enforcement remains difficult. Professor Michael Schmitt of West Point justified the crime claiming that "this war has normalized the use of civilians in combat zones."
