NOTE to Blog Readers: My wife (love of my life) and I have returned from our 36th Wedding Anniversary vacation (6/4 through 6/7/26). I spent the day yesterday going through neglected email accounts and whittling down old files on my laptop to increase PC memory.
Hamas Jew-Hating Terrorists Use Their Own People for Human Shields
An Intro by John R. Houk, Blog Editor
Intro © June 9, 2026
As I was whittling down files I came across a PDF file I saved circa April 2025 from the Henry Jackson Society (HJS). This “Society” is named from now deceased Henry (Scoop) Jackson was a Washington State Senator (Democrat) from 1953 – 1983. Jackson was a traditional Dem consistent with the timeframe he served in Domestic Policy though probably would have abhorred today’s Dem-Marxist-Globalist-Gender Bender Party. On Foreign Policy Jackson had become a firebrand anti-Communist. What I find amusing about the Henry Jackson Society is that their headquarters is in London as in the UK and not in Washington State USA.
The PDF file I had saved is entitled, “HAMAS’S HUMAN SHIELD STRATEGY IN GAZA”. It’s authors are ANDREW FOX and SALO AIZENBERG. The PDF contains 87 pages.
So, yup. I am a pro-Israel Christian Zionist that Jew-Haters love to vilify. A few weeks ago I came across a Telegram comment upset that I gave a thumbs-down emoji to a Joe Kent Antisemitic opinion about Israel. The gist of my response was Hamas and their Gaza-Muslim supporters are bloodthirsty Jew-Hating murderers that use Gaza citizens as Human Shields (men, women & children) when the IDF begins reprisals for Hamas terrorist attacks. The particular PDF reference is to the Hamas October 7, 2023 murder, rape and kidnapping of Jewish men, women and children. The pro-Antisemitic commenter essentially said, “Prove it.” My immediate response that belief in Jew-Hating propaganda was not worth my time to share proof when Jew-Hatred WILL NOT believe what was presented. Then I ran into my saved PDF document from HJS documenting the Hamas Human Shield practice.
The HJS summary page includes a link to the PDF is you wish to read the entire document:
“4th May 2025
Andrew Fox and Salo Aizenberg
Since 7 October 2023, the UN has issued 367 reports that are filed under the subject of “Gaza Strip”. A search of these reports reveals that the UN has rarely acknowledged and never asserted the use by Hamas of “human shields”. The phenomenon of “human shields” has only been mentioned four times, in each case in only a single sentence, as either an “allegation”, an Israeli “claim” or an unverified “report” that this practice occurred. The UN has never dedicated a single paragraph, let alone an entire report, to analysing how Hamas has fought the war in Gaza.
In contrast, the UN has issued at least ten reports critical of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, from accusations of “indiscriminate attacks” to illegal “attacks on hospitals”. A November 2024 investigative report by the UN accused Israel of committing genocide, but the document makes no mention of Hamas’s fighting tactics in Gaza, let alone provides an analysis. The NGOs (non-governmental organisations) Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch each released reports in December 2024 accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. Over hundreds of pages of text, the reader would struggle to realise that Hamas even exists in Gaza. Neither report provides any discussion or analysis of Hamas’s human shield strategy.
This report by the Henry Jackson Society represents the “missing chapter” in all the UN and NGO reports. It provides a comprehensive analysis of Hamas’s systematic use of human shield tactics during the 7 October Israel–Hamas war and the broader Gaza conflict. Drawing on extensive evidence from international media, military assessments, legal frameworks and firsthand accounts, the report outlines how Hamas has embedded its military operations within civilian infrastructure, weaponising Gaza’s population and urban landscape to achieve both tactical and strategic objectives.
I am not cross posing the entire 87 page document. These are the sections I will be cross posting:
o Key Findings
o Introduction
o Overview of Hamas’s Human Shield Strategy
If those sections push you to seek more information, then read the ENTIRE REPORT.
JRH 6/9/26
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Hamas’s Human Shield Strategy in Gaza [EXCERPT]
Andrew Fox and Salo Aizenberg
PDF 87-Pages
April 2025
Jewish Dwelling After Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas Murder Spree
…
Key Findings
o
Hamas has deliberately and systematically exploited Gaza’s civilian infrastructure to shield its military assets from attack by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), violating the prohibition of the use of civilian shields under the Law of Armed Conflict. Hamas has employed ten distinct human shield strategies that knowingly place the civilian population at high risk of harm throughout the 7 October Israel–Hamas war.
o Hamas’s senior leadership has openly admitted to using human shields since gaining control of Gaza nearly 20 years ago, and similarly during the 7 October war. Hamas leaders have also boasted about their willingness to sacrifice civilian lives in what they consider an acceptable cost in their war against Israel.
o Leading international political and military leaders have verified and documented Hamas’s use of human shields both in past conflicts and in the current war. US leadership has been particularly vocal in criticising Hamas for its use of human shields, citing the strategy as being a major reason why many civilians have been harmed in the 7 October war. The EU has specifically condemned Hamas’s use of human shields after 7 October.
o Historical evidence, extensive third-party reporting, Hamas propaganda videos and IDF-sourced evidence confirm Hamas’s illegal exploitation of civilian locations for military purposes. Despite significant independent, non-IDF evidence of Hamas’s human shield strategy, large segments of the mainstream media and numerous NGOs and observers consistently downplay, ignore or express scepticism regarding Hamas’s use of this strategy.
o The IDF has provided thousands of high-quality videos and photographs of its activities in Gaza that prove without doubt that Hamas has militarised large portions of the civilian infrastructure of the Gaza Strip. However, even when Hamas’s human shield tactics are plainly evident, they are often presented by the media as unsubstantiated claims, and not as a leading cause of civilian casualties in Gaza.
o The UN and many NGOs accusing Israel of war crimes and genocide deliberately disregard Hamas’s human shield strategy. This glaring omission erases Hamas as an active party in the conflict, instead placing full blame for civilian casualties on Israel. All of the evidence documented in this report is absent from UN and NGO reports that discuss the war in Gaza.
o A proper evaluation of the 7 October war must assess the full range of tactics used by Hamas to engage in combat against incoming IDF forces. After the attack on 7 October, Hamas was aware that Israel was going to invade Gaza to recover hostages and attack Hamas assets. The human shield strategy was intended to impede the IDF’s efforts and to generate worldwide condemnation of Israel when civilians were inevitably killed on the urban battlefield. This report documents Hamas’s human shield strategy, providing a tool for the researchers, media and NGOs that continue to cover the 7 October Israel–Hamas war.
This report reveals that Hamas’s human shield strategy not only violates international law but also exacerbates civilian suffering and complicates the resolution of the Gaza conflict. It underscores the necessity of confronting these tactics with evidence-based reporting, rigorous legal scrutiny and a commitment to safeguarding civilian lives. By exposing these realities, this report aims to contribute to a more balanced and informed global discourse on the conflict.
Introduction
Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023 in a barbaric assault that killed 1200 Israelis, including over 800 civilians, with an additional 251 taken hostage. Even as Israel was still collecting bodies from devastated communities in southern Israel, and well before the IDF’s ground entry into Gaza, NGOs and academics were already levelling charges of genocide against Israel. For example, on 15 October 2023, a group of nearly 900 academics made a statement warning of genocide in Gaza. 2 Claims of genocide were formally charged against Israel by South Africa in an application filed at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in December 2023. 3 While the case at the ICJ will take years to litigate, many observers falsely asserted that the ICJ considered genocide in Gaza to be “plausible”. 4 In September 2024, a UN Special Committee issued a report that concluded that “policies and practices of Israel during the reporting period are consistent with the characteristics of genocide,” 5 followed up in December 2024 by reports from the NGOs Amnesty International (Amnesty) 6 and Human Rights Watch (HRW) 7 claiming Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.
What is immediately apparent in all scholarly articles, NGO publications, court filings and UN reports charging Israel with genocide is the effective removal of Hamas as a relevant party to the conflict in Gaza. Hamas’s actions on 7 October are typically acknowledged and condemned, but regarded as little more than one dreadful day of criminal acts by Hamas in the context of a broader conflict that is primarily Israel’s fault. But beginning on 8 October, Hamas has been treated as a non-actor in Gaza – it is as if the IDF is not engaging in combat with a potent military force in Gaza that prepared the battlefield for an IDF entry over a 17- year period, but is attacking defenceless civilians for the sole purpose of killing them. By the end of January 2025, the IDF had suffered 405 soldiers killed in action and more than 2500 had been wounded. This demonstrates that there is clearly aggressive force-on-force combat challenging the IDF in Gaza. 8 The removal of Hamas as an actor in the conflict necessarily means that there is no mention of Hamas’s human shield strategy, whereby the militant group has intentionally embedded its core military infrastructure within large areas of civilian Gaza.
This report demonstrates that Hamas’s use of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure for its military operations and combat tactics is indisputable. There is widespread acknowledgement that Hamas has built a vast tunnel network beneath densely populated urban areas of Gaza, estimated to be around 500 kilometres long. Extensive documentation of this tunnel network existed well before 7 October, including numerous investigative video reports from Al Jazeera. 9
Hamas leaders have openly acknowledged that the tunnel network is intended to provide protection solely for their combatants, leaving the civilian population to fend for themselves above ground. 10 However, Hamas’s strategy of using human shields is far more extensive and complex than just the tunnels, as this report outlines. The Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) defines the criminal act of human shields as “Utilizing the presence of a civilian or other protected person to render certain points, areas or military forces immune from military operations.” 11 Hamas’s use of human shields increases the likelihood, and often ensures, that any military action by the IDF against Hamas will result in civilian casualties.
This tactic is designed to force Israel into the dilemma of either attacking Hamas targets with the knowledge that civilians will often be killed, incurring significant international criticism and calls for Israel to halt its military actions, or allowing Hamas to achieve permanent immunity for fear of harming civilians.
In several previous rounds of conflict between Hamas and Israel, such as in 2009 and 2014, the human shield tactic was effective: Israel greatly limited its operations in Gaza due to the high expected collateral damage that would result from a full assault against Hamas and its infrastructure. However, after the scale of the Hamas attack on 7 October, the ongoing hostage situation and Hamas’s threats to attack again, 12 Israel assessed that the military necessity of action against Hamas had escalated to a level that removed previous restraints on attacks against the group.
There is no dispute that the use of human shields by Hamas does not absolve Israel from complying with the LOAC, such as the principles of distinction and proportionality. However, Hamas’s tactics must be properly acknowledged and assessed when evaluating Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
This paper demonstrates that Hamas’s use of human shields is not merely an operational tactic but a deliberate and strategic policy, explicitly aimed at restricting IDF military responses and causing intentional civilian casualties. From its inception in 2006, the Hamas leadership has openly endorsed and developed this strategy, embedding its military infrastructure within civilian areas and suppressing local dissent. Hamas intentionally places civilians at risk, exploiting their deaths to delegitimise Israel internationally and leverage global media coverage and diplomatic pressure as political weapons. This approach has been publicly acknowledged and praised by Hamas leaders, reflecting their willingness – even determination – to sacrifice civilian lives to advance their broader strategic and ideological goals.
A stark example of the refusal to examine Hamas’s human shield strategy is the admission by a UN official regarding a June 2024 report released by the organisation titled “Children and Armed Conflict”. 13 When the UN official was asked by a reporter why the issue of Hamas’s use of human shields was overlooked, with only one vague comment about “reports” that Hamas engaged in such practices, the official replied that “word count” constraints limited the discussion of the topic. 14 Instead of being central to the discussion of civilian harm in Gaza, the UN treated the issue of human shields as a non-factor.
This report can therefore be characterised as the “missing chapter” from all the so-called “genocide” reports noted previously – the chapter that exposes how Hamas rigged every element of the civilian infrastructure of Gaza, reverse engineering the rules of war, to create a dense, 360-degree urban battlefield unprecedented in military history. This missing chapter documents how Hamas’s human shield strategy directly led to a substantial number of civilian casualties. It demonstrates how Israel’s attacks on Hamas targets, such as tunnels and shafts, booby-trapped buildings, Hamas combatants fighting from within residential homes and rockets stored and fired from humanitarian zones, resulted in unavoidable collateral damage.
The UN and NGOs deliberately omit this chapter because an honest assessment of this critical aspect of the conflict would undermine their entire argument that Israel is deliberately targeting civilians, instead proving that civilian harm in Gaza is largely due to how Hamas is fighting the war, not Israel.
Overview of Hamas’s Human Shield Strategy
Origin of Hamas’s human shield strategy
Hamas’s human shield strategy dates back to 2006, soon after Hamas took control of the Palestinian Legislative Council. After a rocket was fired at Israel from the residential home of Popular Resistance Committee member Mohammed Baroud, local Hamas leader Nizar Rayan called on residents to crowd the rooftop of the building with the expectation that Israel would not strike the location of the rocket fire, given the presence of many civilians. The strategy worked and the IDF called off the strike, despite an advance warning it gave to Baroud of an impending airstrike. Al Jazeera reported the incident, openly admitting to Hamas’s human shield strategy in the title of its article: “Palestinians form human shield: Hundreds of Palestinians form a human shield against Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza strip”. 15 The article noted that “Israel routinely orders residents out of their homes ahead of airstrikes on suspected weapons-storage facilities, saying it wants to avoid casualties.” The article quotes Nizar Rayan, a local Hamas leader who joined the protest: “We came here to protect this fighter, to protect his house and to prove that we are capable of defeating this Zionist policy.” 16 In this manner, asymmetric combatants aim to exploit the Law of Armed Conflict to prevent attacks from conventional opponents.
This human shield action was lauded by Ismail Haniyeh, who at the time was the Palestinian Prime Minister and would later go on to lead Hamas. He said:
We are so proud of this national stand. It’s the first step toward protecting our homes, the homes of our children… This strategy was decided by our people. [It] was decided by our leaders, who were here from all the factions… and so long as this strategy is in the interest of our people we support this strategy. 17
The human shield strategy evolved, eventually encompassing all aspects of the civilian infrastructure of Gaza. Palestinian humanitarian activist Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, who grew up in Gaza over this time period, explained how this military strategy expanded, and that local dissent was brutally suppressed:
Partly due to the urban nature of Gaza, and partly by embedding its activities and assets among the civilian population, Hamas’s infrastructure grew increasingly intertwined with civilian infrastructure and populations. This despite numerous occasions in which people in Gaza would object to rocket launches firing near their homes, tunnels being dug underneath their properties, or hidden stockpiles being placed close to their businesses and houses. Hamas mostly used the stick approach to silence opposition to its militant encroachment upon civilian areas and neighborhoods. 18
Hamas leaders admit to using human shields
Hamas leaders have encouraged and lauded the human shield strategy over the 17 years of Hamas rule in Gaza leading up to 7 October. There are many documented examples. In 2008, soon after Hamas took control of Gaza, Hamas official Fathi Hammad delivered a speech on Al-Aqsa TV:
[The enemies of Allah] do not know that the Palestinian people has developed its [methods] of death and death-seeking. For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry, at which women excel, and so do all the people living on this land. The elderly excel at this, and so do the mujahideen 19 and the children. This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly, and the mujahideen, in order to challenge the Zionist bombing machine. It is as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: “We desire death like you desire life.” 20
During the 2014 Gaza war, Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri, speaking on Al-Aqsa TV, specifically encouraged the use of human shields. After being asked to comment on how civilians went up to the rooftops of buildings that the IDF had warned it would strike, Zuhri said:
This attests to the character of our noble, Jihad-fighting people, who defend their rights and their homes with their bare chests and their blood. The policy of people confronting the Israeli warplanes with their bare chests in order to protect their homes has proven effective against the occupation. Also, this policy reflects the character of our brave, courageous people. We in Hamas call upon our people to adopt this policy, in order to protect the Palestinian homes. 21
Now deceased Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar admitted to hiding military bases in civilian areas in a statement he made on Al Jazeera Live in June 2021:
Regarding the [Hamas] military and security bases that are located among civilian residents [in the Gaza Strip], this was a serious problem in the previous stages, and we and the resistance factions made efforts to carry out an operation of gradual movement and transfer of a large number of these bases from among the civilian residents, and we succeeded in carrying out a large portion of it. But there is still a portion that needs to be transferred, and Allah willing this operation will continue. 22
Another former Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, confirmed the group’s readiness to sacrifice the lives of civilians to advance Hamas’s war aims in comments made on Lebanon’s Mayadeen TV on 26 October 2023:
I have said this before, and I say it time again. The blood of the women, children, and elderly… I am not saying that this blood is calling for your [help]. We are the ones who need this blood, so it awakens within us the revolutionary spirit, so it awakens within us resolve, so it awakens within us the spirit of challenge, and [pushes us] to move forward. 23
The open willingness to sacrifice civilian lives in Gaza has been repeated by other Hamas leaders during the current war. According to a June 2024 report in The Wall Street Journal, Sinwar cited civilian casualties as “necessary sacrifices”. 24
The day after 7 October, senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Russia Today TV: “The Israelis are known to love life. We, on the other hand, sacrifice ourselves. We consider our dead to be martyrs. The thing any Palestinian desires the most is to be martyred for the sake of Allah, defending his land.” 25
In an interview with Russia Today TV, another senior Hamas official, Mousa Abu Marzouk, was asked: “Many people are asking: Since you have built 500 kilometers of tunnels, why haven’t you built bomb shelters, where civilians can hide during bombardment?” 26 Marzouk replied: “We have built the tunnels because we have no other way of protecting ourselves from being targeted and killed. These tunnels are meant to protect us from the airplanes. We are fighting from inside the tunnels.” Marzouk effectively admitted that Hamas had no intention of protecting Gazan civilians, who were thus human shields for Hamas’s fighters.
As the war continues in Gaza, Palestinian Authority officials have been critical of Hamas’s actions in Gaza, calling out its use of human shields. A statement issued by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah Party on 11 January 2025, said that Hamas’s decision to launch the 7 October attack on Israel led to “catastrophic” conditions in Gaza and accused Hamas of using Gazan civilians “as human shields instead of protecting them and their homes”.
The statement added that, “Hamas is now attempting to stir security chaos in the West Bank, thereby continuing its policy that brought disaster upon the Palestinian people.” 27
Hamas leadership continued to laud its human shield strategy even as the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas was announced in January 2025. Senior Hamas leader and key negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya glorified how civilians in Gaza “served as an ‘Impenetrable Shield’ for the Resistance”. He vowed to continue attacking Israel and considered the Hamas attack on 7 October and the overall war as a victory for Hamas. 28
Khalil Al-Hayya Glorifies Human Shields
Worldwide leaders acknowledge and decry Hamas’s human shield strategy
Hamas’s human shield strategy is well documented and recognised by US and foreign political leaders, as well as by military and intelligence agencies. The NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, an international military organisation accredited by NATO and based in Riga, Latvia, was established by seven European NATO members in 2014. In 2019 it published a detailed report titled “Hamas’s use of human shields in Gaza”. 29 This report states that Hamas has been using human shields in conflicts with Israel since 2007, based on the organisation’s awareness of Israel’s desire to minimise collateral damage and its understanding that using human shields makes Hamas less vulnerable to IDF attacks. 30 The report also notes that Hamas recognises the sensitivity of public opinion regarding civilian harm, as the media often emphasizes narratives focused on the suffering of innocent civilians. 31 Additionally, the report outlines four common forms of Hamas’s human shield tactics: (1) firing rockets and other projectiles from heavily populated areas, (2) positioning military infrastructure within or near civilian areas, (3) using human shields to protect the homes of Hamas militants, and (4) engaging the IDF from or near residential and commercial areas, including employing civilians for intelligence gathering. 32
Officials worldwide have widely confirmed the use of human shields by Hamas in the past and in the current war. In April 2018, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the situation in the Gaza Strip that “strongly condemns the persistent tactic of Hamas of using civilians for the purpose of shielding terrorist activities.” 33 On 12 November 2023, the 27 European Union nations jointly issued a statement about the 7 October war: “The EU condemns the use of hospitals and civilians as human shields by Hamas.” 34
Former US President Biden criticised Hamas’s strategy in a statement he made on 10 October 2023: “Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination. Its stated purpose is the annihilation of the State of Israel and the murder of Jewish people. They use Palestinian civilians as human shields. Hamas offers nothing but terror and bloodshed with no regard to who pays the price.” 35 A few days later, Biden reiterated the same point: “Innocent Palestinian families, and the vast majority have nothing to do with Hamas, they’re being used as human shields.” 36 Following the signing of the ceasefire agreement in mid-January 2025, Biden restated this point to MSNBC journalist Lawrence O’Donnell: “...it’s true, Sinwar and those guys were hiding beneath the hospital, the thing about … Hamas is they had all their facilities underneath – schools, hospitals, churches … and to get to them you had to take people out.” 37
In a November 2023 press briefing, former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Hamas “could stop using civilians as human shields and stop using civilian infrastructure to stage and launch terrorist attacks.” He added that “everyone around the world who cares about protecting innocent civilians, innocent lives, should be calling on Hamas – indeed, demanding of Hamas – that it immediately stop its murderous acts of terror and deplorable use of innocent men, women, and children as human shields.” 38 On 16 January 2025, during an interview on CNN with Christiane Amanpour to discuss the end of his term under the Biden Administration, Blinken was asked about Israel’s conduct in the war. Blinken said: “Uniquely, you have an enemy that intentionally embeds itself within the civilian population, in and under apartments, in and under schools, mosques, hospitals…” 39
Former US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin also detailed Hamas’s human shield strategy in a press conference on 18 December 2023:
Above and beyond that, we see that Hamas routinely uses civilians as shields. Beyond that, they place their headquarters and their logistical sites near protected sites, hospitals, mosques, churches, you name it. And so that adds to the complexity and as you’ve heard Jake Sullivan say it provides an additional burden for the forces that are prosecuting this fight. 40
US officials regularly cite Hamas’s human shield strategy as a key cause of civilian deaths in Gaza. For example, in October 2024, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller responded to a question regarding the death of a 19-year-old Gazan:
The thing that that question leaves out, as often happens, and I understand why, is the burden that Hamas bears. And not just the burden that Hamas bears by hiding behind humans and using humans as civilian shields… Hamas needs to stop hiding behind human shields.” 41
On 13 October 2023, former US National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby acknowledged Israel’s calls to move Gazan civilians out of harm’s way and Hamas’s efforts to undermine the evacuations by using civilians as human shields. Kirby explained:
But it’s pretty clear that what they’re [the IDF] trying to do is to the maximum extent possible avoid civilian casualties and also separate Hamas from the human shields. I mean, Hamas actually gave a counterorder telling Palestinians in Gaza to stay at home. Why? Because having human shields, they think, protects them. 42
Indeed, Hamas leadership called for Gazans to defy IDF evacuation orders as they knew that emptying northern Gaza of civilians would make it easier for Israel to separate Hamas fighters from civilians. Eyad Al-Bozom, a Hamas spokesperson, said: “We tell the people of northern Gaza and from Gaza City, stay put in your homes, and your places.” 43
Recently appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio also specifically cited Hamas’s human shield strategy in his confirmation hearing. When discussing Israel’s action in Gaza, he said the IDF has to fight “against an enemy that does not wear a uniform, against an enemy that hides in tunnels, against an enemy that hides behind women and children, and puts them at the forefront and uses them as human shields, that’s who Hamas is.” 44
British officials have also decried Hamas’s human shield strategy. Former British Defence Secretary Sir Grant Shapps said:
The problem we have with Hamas is not just that they butchered and killed and raped those Israelis. It’s that they also use their own Palestinian population – who are no friends of Hamas – as human shields, and they hide themselves amongst them. And so we understand and appreciate that it’s a very difficult position for Israel to be in. 45
In a UN Security Council debate on 24 October 2023, Tom Tugendhat, then-UK Security Minister said: “We know that Hamas are using innocent Palestinian civilians as human shields; they have embedded themselves in civilian communities.” 46 During the same meeting, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock echoed the same point: “Hamas is playing with human suffering, using women and children in Gaza as human shields, hiding its weapons under supermarkets, apartment blocks, even hospitals – with obvious intent.” 47 Baerbock made similar remarks on 13 October 2023: “Hamas is now barricading itself behind more innocent people and is using them as a shield in Gaza…Their tunnels, their weapons depots and command centers are deliberately located in residential buildings, supermarkets and universities.” 48
In an interview on 16 October 2023, Italy’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani said that the Palestinian people “...are victims of Hamas, which uses them as human shields: Israel told them to get out, the terrorists impose them to stay.” 49
On 23 October 2023, addressing Parliament, French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne said:
“Hamas, acting as it did, has deliberately exposed, in a criminal and cynical manner, the entire population of Gaza, they use the population as a human shield.” 50
A joint statement issued by the Prime Ministers of Australia, Canada and New Zealand in December 2023, stated: “Hamas must release all hostages, stop using Palestinian civilians as human shields, and lay down its arms.” 51 UN Secretary-General António Guterres has been highly critical of Israel’s conduct in the war, but he also acknowledged that “there are violations by Hamas when they have human shields”. 52
Hamas’s strategy is well known to former US leaders familiar with the Israel–Palestine conflict.
Former US President Clinton cited Hamas’s human shield strategy while speaking at an event in October 2024: “Hamas makes sure that they’re shielded by civilians, they’ll force you to kill civilians, if you want to defend yourself.” 53
President Obama, who held office during Hamas’s rule in Gaza, noted in a statement he issued on the current war that: “Hamas’ military operations are deeply embedded within Gaza – and its leadership seems to intentionally hide among civilians, thereby endangering the very people they claim to represent.” 54
There is clearly a unified international consensus and opposition to Hamas’s human shield strategy. However, this has been broadly absent from much of the media and international NGO criticism of Israel’s conduct of the war. Even Palestinians themselves have condemned the tactic.
Palestinian criticism of Hamas’s use of human shields
While Gazan civilians are typically unwilling to expose Hamas’s human shield strategy for fear of reprisals, 55 it has been discussed by some Gazans who have left the territory and are in a safe position to speak about the subject. For example, former Gazan resident and author Jehad al-Saftawi explained that since its violent takeover in 2007, “Hamas has continued to normalize violence and militarization in every aspect of public and private life in Gaza.” 56 An unexpected example of criticism of Hamas was seen in a 5 November 2023 live broadcast from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza. An Al-Jazeera reporter interviewed an elderly man about recent evacuations. The man was critical of Israeli attacks but added: “As for the resistance – they come and hide among the people. Why are they hiding among the people? They can go to hell and hide there…” 57 The reporter deliberately cut away in the middle of the interview, likely aware that Hamas wants to suppress these types of comments by regular Gazans.
A BBC report from July 2024 titled “Hamas faces growing public dissent as Gaza war erodes support” investigated ordinary Gazan attitudes towards Hamas. 58 A local Gazan doctor told the BBC right outside a hospital: “I am an academic doctor, I had a good life, but we have a filthy [Hamas] leadership. They got used to our bloodshed, may God curse them! They are scum!” The report says that some Gazans “have publicly criticised Hamas for hiding the hostages in apartments near a busy marketplace, or for firing rockets from civilian areas.”
Another interviewee, who concealed his identity, said: “They did not build any safe shelters for people, they did not reserve enough food, fuel and medical supplies. If my family and I survive this war, I will leave Gaza, the first chance I get.”
A New York Times investigative piece from June 2024 regarding the attitude of ordinary Gazans towards Hamas revealed anger at the callous disregard the organisation had for civilians in Gaza, specifically how Hamas was protected in “underground tunnels” while Gazans were “above ground with no protection”. 59 One Gazan interviewed said that Hamas “threw the Palestinian people into the bottom of the well.” 60
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