Palestinian women share how Israeli forces used them as human shields in Gaza and the West Bank
Throughout the Gaza genocide, testimonies have documented the Israeli army’s use of Palestinian women as human shields. These are not isolated acts by rogue soldiers but a systematic practice known to Israeli commanders and acknowledged by soldiers.

 

BY MAJD JAWAD 

 

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in Arabic on Raseef22, and has been translated into English for republication with permission. The original article can be found here.

“They forced me to carry a drone into seven houses to film them, making sure they were empty of people or military equipment. My infant cried for hours while waiting for me. I begged them to let me breastfeed her, but they refused, continuing to use me as a human shield,” said Hazar Al-Sititi, 33, from Jenin refugee camp.

During the Israeli army’s ten-day siege of Jenin refugee camp in August 2024, soldiers forced Al-Sititi to leave her six-month-old baby behind and carry out their orders.

“They forced me to walk ahead of an infantry unit of about 30 soldiers, keeping a distance of ten meters between us. Then they ordered me to enter the houses, force the residents out, and film inside before the soldiers stormed in to arrest the young men they were after,” Al-Sititi recalled.

This was not a random act by a rogue soldier. It reflects a systematic military practice, carried out with the knowledge of Israeli commanders, as admitted by soldiers in a previous Haaretz investigation. “In the army, they know this is not a one-off event by some young, foolish company commander acting on his own,” one soldier told investigators.

Since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza, testimonies have emerged documenting the Israeli army’s use of Palestinian women’s bodies as human shields, following specific established procedures designed to protect Israeli soldiers from danger during ground operations and incursions into Palestinian areas. 

Choosing between my daughter and my life

“That day, around 70 Israeli soldiers invaded the camp and besieged it. They arrested several young men before reaching my house. They blew up the door and shouted at my little daughter. Then they forced me to choose: either they take my daughter away from me, or I be used as a human shield,” said Iman al-Amer, 41, from Jenin camp.

The soldiers ordered Iman to enter multiple houses, force residents outside, and warn them that refusal would result in being shot.

This practice is part of what is known as the “Mosquito Protocol,” an undeclaredmilitary procedure whereby detainees, deliberately held in the field rather than in Israeli prisons, are forced to carry out quick tasks at civilian or military sites before soldiers enter them.

Why women?

Israel’s use of Palestinian bodies as human shields has affected Palestinians of all ages and genders. Over decades of occupying Palestinian lands, Israel has targeted not only men but also children, the elderly, and women, both during major military operations and in everyday incursions. 

Dr. Lina Meari, from the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences and the Institute for Women’s Studies, explained, “Colonial powers’ view of gender issues is rigid and fixed, rooted in the belief that women are inherently weak and can be exploited as tools, through harassment or rape, or by using them to pressure resistant fighters into surrendering or carrying out military operations.” 

She added, “Within this framework, the use of a woman’s body as a human shield can also be understood as a tactic to pressure resistant fighters not to use weapons against Israeli soldiers during military operations, given her ‘sensitive’ status.”

As the book Human Shields: A History of People in the Line of Fire notes, the global attention on women and their rights paradoxically coincides with their exploitation as human shields. What was once socially “marginalized”, women and children, has become a strategic target.

During this current genocide, testimonies emerged of several Palestinian boys and girls who were used as human shields by the Israeli army. Among them is the story of nine-year-old Malak Shahab, from Nur Shams camp in Tulkarem, who was taken from her home along with her family and was held to serve as a human shield.

According to Malak’s account, “The soldiers pushed me to every door of my aunt’s house, while they stood behind me, ready to open fire. When no one answered and in my deep despair at being forced to obey, I knocked on the door with my head.” 

Forcible displacement as a strategy

“They have used me as a human shield three times since my childhood. Each time, I carried out military tasks under threat, and each time, they demanded that I leave the camp afterward. Even if they used me a thousand times, I would still remain in my neighborhood,” Hazar Al-Sititi said.

This act may indicate that these protocols go beyond being mere temporary military tactics, turning the Palestinian body and the individual into a target in itself. “Women have been used as human shields in Jabalia camp as part of a broader plan to empty the area of its residents,” said Meari.

She added, “The colonizers turn to women in moments when they cannot suppress resistance or protect themselves. Attacks in a place like Jabalia camp were unexpected, so the Israeli army used every available means, including human shields, to protect themselves.”

As part of its policy of forcibly displacing civilians since the first day of the genocide, the Israeli army, according to an investigation by the Hebrew site The Warmest Place in Hell, used an elderly couple as human shields to force them out of their home, after the couple said they could not walk to Khan Younis and had nowhere to go under the army’s evacuation orders.

Another investigation by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor identified the elderly couple as Maziyouna Abu Hussein and Muhammad Abu Hussein. They were forced to enter homes to verify they were free of danger, and after completing the task, Israeli soldiers executed them with gunfire.

The ‘Mosquito’ Protocol in Gaza

After his arrest in the Gaza Strip following October 7, 2023, Muhannad Wasfi was used as a human shield by the Israeli soldiers. “After 45 days in Israeli prisons, they transferred me to the southern part of the Strip to carry out a military mission, searching for tunnels inside houses. I searched through emptied homes, lifting carpets and moving furniture in search of an opening or a hole, but found nothing,” Wasfi said.

He continued: “For the first time, I felt death was imminent. I had heard many stories of Palestinians being killed by soldiers even after completing the tasks forced on them. Each time I entered a room, I recited the shahada, as if it were my final breath.”

Muhannad’s testimony aligns with what is known as the “Wasp Protocol”, under which Palestinian prisoners and detainees are taken from Israeli prisons to active combat zones and used as human shields. Testimonies, including his, indicate that during tunnel-search operations, detainees were often forced to wear Israeli military uniforms, possibly to clear tunnel entrances of explosives if one was detected and detonated by fighters.

“They dressed me in their uniform and placed a hat, a camera, and an audio device on my head. They blindfolded me, bound my hands, and ordered me to search the sites. They also interrogated and tortured me. One time, they stripped me naked, put me in a room, turned on the air conditioner, and played loud music in Hebrew until I partially lost my hearing,” Wasfi said.

Nurse Hassan al-Ghoul from Gaza testified, “They forced me to wear a full military uniform, but without a weapon, and gave me a cutting tool and a flashlight. They told me we would storm Nasser Hospital and that I would enter first. They said there would be an opening they would point out to me, and above my head would be a drone they controlled, they told me, ‘so if you do anything, we can see and monitor you.’”

He continued: “They told me I would go to the hospital, and if I found any civilians, I should tell them to leave because the army was going to storm it. They ordered me to open any closed door and cut any gas cylinder that had a wire attached. I interrupted the soldier, saying, ‘Any gas cylinder with a wire could explode while I’m near it.’ He replied, ‘Let it explode; that’s why we sent you.’ I carried out the task under threat, at gunpoint.”

A violation of Israeli law as well?

Perhaps these military protocols define the methods of using Palestinians as human shields in a recent historical context, but they do not capture the long history of this practice in the region, which dates back to before the establishment of the State of Israel.  

In his study When Palestinians Became Human Shields: Counterinsurgency, Racialization, and the Great Revolt (1936–1939), writer Charles Anderson documented the first recorded case of a human shield in Palestine during the Arab Revolt of 1936: Suleiman Touqan, the mayor of Nablus, who held significant social standing among the local population. The British army placed him on the roof of a military building to protect its forces from attacks by Palestinian fighters. Anderson emphasizes that this was part of a broader strategy to target Palestinian fighters and deter anticipated attacks on key routes in the area

This Israeli violation of Palestinian bodies became particularly evident during the March 2002 invasion of West Bank cities in the Second Intifada. Known as the “Neighbor Procedure,” it involved sweeping through homes before army entry to search for wanted individuals or fighters.

Following the Second Intifada, on October 6, 2005, the Israeli Supreme Court issued a ruling banning the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields in military operations. Despite this, the army has continued the practice to this day, in clear violation of norms and international law. 

International law prohibits the exploitation or use of individuals protected under the Fourth Geneva Convention, under Articles 28 and 49, as human shields to fortify military positions against enemy attacks or to prevent retaliatory strikes during an assault.

International humanitarian law grants women special protection during times of conflict, recognizing that women in particular are exposed to specific forms of violence. Accordingly, they require additional safeguards, both because they are mothers and because they are more vulnerable to sexual violence.

https://mondoweiss.net/2025/10/palestinian-women-share-how-israeli-forces-used-them-as-human-shields-in-gaza-and-the-west-bank/

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.