Zionist Myth #1: Hamas Uses Human Shields
The Israeli government and its supporters frequently claim that Hamas uses civilians as human shields. Like many other such allegations by Israel, this is a case of projection.
This post is the first in a series I’m going to do debunking various myths/false claims propagated by Israel and its supporters. Many other people have already put a lot of work into debunking Israel’s lies, so I’m not planning to reinvent the wheel here. My purpose is to summarize the main points of, and provide links to, a variety of great resources that lay out all the relevant facts.
A war crime according to the 1949 Geneva Convention, the use of human shields involves the use of civilians by combatants to dissuade the enemy from attacking them. Both the use of human shields and unsubstantiated allegations of the enemy using them have a long history. Fascist Italy accused Ethiopian anti-colonial resistance forces of using human shields by occupying hospitals. British forces occupying Palestine in the 1930s used Palestinians as human shields. The Nazis used Polish civilians as human shields during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Other historical examples of nations using civilians as human shields include fascist Japan during World War II and France during Algeria’s war for independence.
In recent decades, Israel has claimed that the armed wing of Hamas, the governing party in Gaza, uses human shields. As the excellent Decolonize Palestine website maintains in a piece debunking the “Hamas uses human shields” trope, this claim serves two purposes: 1) to demonize Palestinian fighters as “uncivilized” and “barbaric” people who would deliberately put women and children in harm’s way in order to protect themselves (which negatively impacts the overall impression of Palestinians) and 2) to serve as an after-the-fact justification for a huge civilian death toll (“We were really trying to target Hamas, but gosh darn it, Hamas fighters hide out in hospitals, schools, refugee camps, or—heaven forbid—the homes where they and their families live.”). The reality, however, is that neither journalists nor human rights organizations have found any evidence that Palestinian resistance fighters have used human shields.
Relatedly, Israel recently claimed, as justification for their brutal attack on al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, that Hamas fighters had a “command center” in tunnels underneath it. That claim has also been conclusively debunked. The irony is that, in fact, it is Israel that makes extensive use of human shields. Some sources of detailed information regarding the lack of evidence that Palestinian armed fighters have used human shields and the considerable evidence of Israeli use of human shields are listed below:
The ‘Hamas human shield’ justification for Israeli war crimes by Vanessa Beeley is the most detailed article regarding both of these points that I’ve found, but there are many other great resources, including:
Myth: Palestinians use human shields https://decolonizepalestine.com/myth/palestinians-use-human-shields/
Was Israel’s Attack on al-Shifa Hospital Justified?
Israeli army still using Palestinians as human shields, says B'Tselem
Israeli High Court bans use of human shields (Note that this article shows the Israeli government itself admitting that it uses Palestinian civilians as human shields.)
Israeli forces kill Palestinian teen days after using girl as human shield in Jenin