Anti-Israel Terrorists' ("Palestinian" or Hezbollah) Routine Use of its Own Population as Human Shields Since 1982

Submitted by Laura (United States), May 15, 2021 at 20:55

Anti-Israel Terrorists' ("Palestinian" or Hezbollah) Routine Use of its Own Population as Human Shields Since 1982

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United States Policy Toward Lebanon-relief and Rehabilitation ...

United States. Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs - 1983

THE PLO THREAT

Israel has found in Lebanon enough PLO weapons to equip a massive army and to supply untold numbers of terrorist cadres...

Arafat boasts of PLO terrorists serving in El Salvador, Angola and ...

In two ways however, the PLO was different from conventional armies. First, the PLO consciously attacked only civilians and, secondly, the PLO used civilians as human shields to protect itself. Anyone who has been to the small country of Israel knows that there are many military targets to be easily found. ..

Yet, the PLO could only find those "military" targets disguised as kibbutz nurseries, school buses, marketplaces or passenger airplanes.

And the second factor that differentiates the PLO terrorist army from conventional armies is its hiding in the midst of civilian centers.

Israeli troops uncovered PLO arsenals, emplacements and bases in schools, mosques, and apartment basements. According to Newsweek, June 14, Israeli soldiers in one engagement, were attacked by PLO fighters disguised as hospital patients.
https://books.google.com/books?id=SvudKjsiDxAC&pg=PA131

Current World Leaders - Page 676 - 1982
PLO Subversion of Lebanon
The terrorists sought and found new bases in Lebanon. ...

The Deliberate Use of Civilians as Shields Since the beginning of its operations against Israel, the PLO has cynically used heavily populated areas — such as refugee camps or inhabited areas in Beirut and other towns in Lebanom — as bases of operation.

Aware of Israeli reluctance to harm civilians, it has thus often used the latter as human shields.

And indeed, Israel acted with restraint. It elected not to attack targets in the midst of the refugee camps or the towns, but on their peripheries, in order to innocent human lives and ... However, Israel has no choice but to act in self-defense as long as acts of terrorism continue against its people ...
https://books.google.com/books?id=LWNmAAAAMAAJ&dq=human+shields

The Media's War Against Israel: The Full Exposé No One Dared Publish - Stephen Karetzky, Peter E. Goldman - Steimatzky/Shapolsky, 1986 - Arab-Israeli conflict - 423 pages - p.266

By training their cameras on the stark rubble and bloody civilian casualties, the television reporters transformed the reality of Israel's most ... and the agony and casualties such attacks cause, and by rarely explaining how the PLO used civilians as shields, the knights of the Electronic Cyclops failed to give viewers a balanced picture of the fighting...
responsibility for the carnage, or about the PLO's right to use the Lebanese capital's civilianpopulation as hostages to his political maneuverings.
https://books.google.com/books?id=9rZKAAAAYAAJ&q=human+shields+civilian+population+plo
https://books.google.com/books?id=9rZKAAAAYAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=As+hostages+

World Refugee Survey - Page 112 - 1994
... these organizations had "encamped themselves within civilian population centers in southern Lebanon, using the civilians as human shields and enabling them to launch Katyusha rockets and other weapons against Israeli soldiers and civilians with impunity. Faced with this deliberate provocation and escalation, Israel was forced to respond."
https://books.google.com/books?id=auxHAAAAYAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=Encamped

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Palestinians Use Children as Cannon Fodder
USA Today (December 8, 2000)
Tulkarm, West Bank - In a rare letter of protest sent in early December to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, a Palestinian women's group demanded that the Palestinian Authority stop using children as cannon fodder.

"Our children are being sent into the streets to face heavily armed Israeli soldiers," said the letter from the Tulkarm Women's Union - a local branch of the Palestinian Women's Union, a trade-union group that promotes the status of women in the Palestinian Authority.

"The Palestinian Authority must put an end to this phenomenon. We urge you to issue instructions to your police force to stop sending innocent children to their death."

The letter adds weight to complaints from parents who are beginning to speak out despite what they say has been months of intimidation by armed gunmen loyal to Arafat.

'We don't want to send our sons to the front line, but they are being taken by the Palestinian Authority," says Aisheh, 43, a mother of six in the West Bank city of Tulkarm. She says she decided to speak out after her 17-year-old son was hit in the head by a rubber bullet. He suffered a concussion.

Like other protesting parents, Aisheh declines to allow her full name to be published for fear of reprisals. A nurse from Gaza who spoke out on Palestinian TV against sending children to the flash points was condemned in the Palestinian media as a traitor. Other individuals who refuse to allow their names to be published say they have been threatened by armed Fatah officials for discouraging their children from participating in the clashes.

Israel has faced international criticism for the deaths of at least 38 youths under the age of 17 in the first two months of conflict in which nearly 300 people have died. Nearly 1,000 children have been injured. The Palestinians consider anyone under the age of 17 a child. But children just entering their teens-and some even younger-have been injured in the region's worst violence in nearly a decade.

Bassam Abu Sharif, a special adviser to Arafat, has accused Israeli troops of "cold-blooded killing." He denies Israeli accusations that the Palestinian Authority has placed children at the front of demonstrations to act as human shields for armed gunmen.

"We don't send children-nobody can send children-and we don't hide behind children," Abu Sharif says.

But Aisheh says the militia of Arafat's Fatah movement and the Palestinian security forces provide transportation and encouragement to children eager to answer the call to combat Israel's continued presence on Arab land. "When school finishes, Palestinian Authority security cars go around collecting children from the streets and sending them to the killing fields," she says. "This is very serious because they are children and they are unarmed."

Israeli army chiefs point out that not all the children killed in the recent clashes have been innocent bystanders. They say their snipers have orders to shoot anyone shooting or throwing Molotov cocktails at them, but some of the attackers have been as young as 12.

Palestinian Authority TV broadcasts constant images of children carrying weapons and staging mock attacks on Israelis. Over the summer, children as young as 12 were trained in the use of Kalshnikov rifles and other weapons at special camps by Fatah officials.

"As the number of those killed rises, the Palestinian media extol and exalt not only those killed, but also their willingness to die as martyrs for Allah, emphasizing that dying a martyr's death was the realization of their hopes," says Itamar Marcus, director of the Palestinian Media Watch monitoring group.

Palestinian Authority TV and newspapers also have come under fire, accused of encouraging children to throw stones and Molotov cocktails at armed Israeli troops.

Aisheh's husband, Abdelghani, says intimidation has kept parents from speaking out. "No one here dares to say publicly that he is against sending his own children to the front line," he says. "Some parents who have tried to protest have been condemned as fifth columnists (traitors) and threatened."

Thumbs Up to Matthew Kalman | CAMERA

December 8, 2000

THUMBS UP to USA Today Jerusalem correspondent Matthew Kalman for his trenchant coverage of otherwise unreported stories concerning the Arab-Israeli conflict. On Dec. 8, 2000, for example, in an article entitled "Let our kids alone, Arafat told," he reported that a group of Palestinian women, the Tulkarm Women's Union, sent a letter to Yasser Arafat demanding that the Palestinian Authority stop using children in the clashes against Israel.
https://www.camera.org/article/thumbs-up-to-matthew-kalman/

Arafat's Strategy of Hate
By Robert Isler Tuesday, Mar. 20, 2001
... However, their protests were muffled when USA Today reported on December 8 that Palestinian women from Tulkarm were outraged that their children were being picked up after school and brought into battle zones, and had written a protest letter to Arafat demanding that the Palestinian Authority "stop using our children as cannon fodder."
http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,103236,00.html

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Israel To U.N.
"Keep Palestinians From Using
Kids As Shields"
By Herb Keinon, The Jerusalem Post
November 8, 2000

United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner Mary Robinson is to begin a week-long visit to the area today, with Foreign Ministry officials saying they will present a strong case to her about the Palestinian's "cynical" use of children as human shields in the recent riots.

Foreign Ministry legal adviser Alan Baker said the use of children in the violence constitutes no less than a "war crime," and cites various international conventions to back up his position. Various international treaties, Baker says, set the age of 15 as minimum age for a child to participate in hostilities, whether directly - through combat - or through other means.

According to Baker, the Palestinians are well aware of the IDF's firing procedures: tear gas and water hoses against rock throwers, rubber bullets against firebomb throwers, and live fire against gunmen.

Prime Minister Ehud Barak explained that the Palestinians are placing the stonethrowers in the front lines, followed by the fire-bomb hurlers and then the snipers. In some cases, he said, some of the Palestinian youths killed during the clashes have actually been shot from behind.

The use of children as combatants was spelled out last week in a letter Israeli Ambassador to the UN Yehuda Lancry wrote to the executive director of UNICEF, asking the children's rights advocate to pressure the Palestinians to keep their children out of areas of potential conflict.

"Chairman Yasser Arafat, who is ruthlessly encouraging the involvement of children in the violence, calls them 'the Generals of the rocks.' He would have the world believe that Israel, with its guns and helicopters, is waging a war against 10-year-olds with small stones," Lancry wrote. "In truth, however, the children... are used as human shields for the gunmen, bomb throwers, and lynch mobs whose faces have been totally obscured and invisible to the media."

The message seems to be getting through, at least at a declarative level.

Yesterday, PA Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said, "There has been an overwhelming agreement among Palestinian factions to carry out a public-awareness campaign to prevent those children under 16 years old from taking part in these demonstrations." According to Abed Rabbo, the children are not knowingly being used as cannon fodder, but rather take part in the protests as a genuine expression of pain and grievance.

The problem, Baker says, is that children at that age are incapable of making the kind of logical decisions regarding whether to place themselves in life-threatening situations, and are in need of parental guidance and authority to protect them.

Regarding Robinson's visit, Mordechai Yedid, deputy director-general of the Foreign Ministry's UN and International Organizations division, said Israel will receive her as the head of the UN's Commission on Human Rights, but not as part of a human rights inquiry commission the body set up last month after adopting a one-sided resolution condemning Israel for "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity" in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israel, said Yedid, has informed Robinson that it will not cooperate with the body, or in any way assist it in implementing the resolution.

During her two-day visit, Robinson will meet with Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, and Supreme Court President Aharon Barak. A meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Barak is still in the works.

She is scheduled to go to the Palestinian Authority on Friday, where she is slated to meet Arafat and will surely be flooded with numerous allegations of Israeli human rights violations.

Robinson is a former president of Ireland and is seen as a possible candidate in the race to succeed Kofi Annan when his term as UN secretary-general expires in two years.
http://www.geocities.ws/arabracismandislamicjihad/HumanShieldsTactics.html

Jerusalem Letter /
No. 441 - 3 Heshvan 5761 / 1 November 2000

THE USE OF PALESTINIAN CHILDREN
IN THE AL-AQSA INTIFADA

Justus Reid Weiner

Executive Summary / Creating Martyrs for the Media / "Improved" Palestinian Tactics / Incitement by Arafat and his Palestinian Authority / Negating the Raison D'etre of the Peace Process / The Parents' Motivations / Identifying Child Abuse and Possessing the Courage to Speak Out / Israeli Restraint: The IDF Rules of Engagement / International Law: Efforts to Protect Children from the Dangers of Armed Conflict / Conclusion and Outlook.
https://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp441.htm

Doctors: Palestinian intifada abusing children

BY Tom Tugend
DECEMBER 10, 2000 10:00 AM

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 10 (JTA) — A group of U.S. pediatricians has condemned the use of children in battles in the Middle East, Asia and Africa as a particularly virulent form of child abuse.

The impetus for their protest came from the use of Palestinian children in the front lines against Israeli troops in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

More than 200 pediatricians formed DOCS — Doctors Opposed to Child Sacrifice — to combat the abuse of children at the hands of parents, clergy and governments.

"Day in and day out, Palestinian families feed their children healthy breakfasts and see them off into battles on the streets of the Palestinian-controlled areas to clash with Israelis soldiers at the edges of their communities," said Dr. Pejman Salimpour, clinical chief of pediatrics at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

"These children are being used as forced foot soldiers in a war directed by their elders," he added.

"They are often placed as human shields for gunmen, who shoot over their heads at Israeli positions. Dozens and dozens of young children have been killed, their innocence and souls snuffed out, all as a result of parents and community members who abuse them by encouraging and allowing their involvement in the violence."

Dr. Neal Kaufman of Cedars-Sinai said: "We're talking mainly about children 8 to 11 years old. As pediatricians, who are devoting their lives to the health and well-being of children, we are morally bound to raise our voices against this vicious form of child abuse. To remain silent would be worse than standing aside while parents sold their children into slavery or prostitution."

Dr. Ofelia Marin, a pediatric gastroenterologist in private practice, said that her concern "cuts across religious and national lines. As a Catholic, a physician and a human being, I feel strongly that children should be protected, not used. Sending children into battle is the worst form of child abuse."

DOCS is focusing on the proliferation of child "martyrs" among Palestinians, but Salimpour said countries such as Sierra Leone, Angola, Uganda, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Cambodia and Afghanistan are guilty of similar practices.

At the same time, DOCS' founding statement urges all governments "to exercise maximum restraint when confronting non-peaceful demonstrations that include children."

The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a "child" as anyone under 15 years of age.

Amnesty International estimates that more than 300,000 soldiers who are younger than 16 are currently fighting in conflicts in more than 30 countries.
https://www.jta.org/2000/12/10/lifestyle/doctors-palestinian-intifada-abusing-children
http://www.zipple.com/newsandpolitics/usnews/20001211_palestinian_children.shtml

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PLO Uses Churches as "Human Shield" Propaganda

Emanuel A. Winston, a Middle East analyst & commentator
October 27, 2001

It was not surprising to hear Jennifer Ludden of NPR (National Public Radio) or read Hugh Dellios in the CHICAGO TRIBUNE play the "Christian" card. By that I mean that they played today's story from Yassir Arafat's propagandist point of view. That includes Arafat's push for international intervention to save his regime.

Arafat, whose Palestinians have completely reversed the population dominance of Arab Christians who were the majority in the city of Bethlehem into an Arab Muslim majority. It appears that their tactics are being further enabled and guided by the U.S. State Department to get its pool of U.S. journalists, TV anchors and radio commentators to push the idea that Israel is attacking Christian holy places. This is a direct extension of State Department policy to protect a virtually non-existent coalition of Arab nations as America commits to fighting Global Terrorism.

The heavily armed Palestinian gunmen are, as usual, shooting at Israelis from sensitive holy sites, including churches, in order to provoke an aggressive Israeli response so the Arab Muslims may claim international attention. The slugs of journalism are, as usual, going along with the propaganda line of Arafat.

Dellios, quotes a [Greek] Orthodox Christian who says: "We feel the Israelis do not sense the difference between a holy place and a vacant lot." Dellios does not mention the construction by Muslims of a toilet in the space adjoining the Church of the Holy Sepulcher as their comment on Christianity and holy places. Nor does he note that the Palestinian shooters are using these holy places as their virtual "human shield".

I have just finished the U.S. State Department's Chicago journal alias the CHICAGO TRIBUNE and am turning to the equally anti-Israel NEW YORK TIMES. Well, well! Front page column, describing how Israel has blockaded eight Palestinian towns. Do they mention why? Do they say that the Israelis are in "hot pursuit" of the assassins who killed an Israeli Knesset and Cabinet member - just like America is in hot pursuit of Osama bin Laden?

It is no surprise that a delegation of Congressman asked the Bush Adminstration why the double standard when we Americans have targeted Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda Terror organization.

The death of a 16 year old boy caught the attention of Pope Paul. You remember, this Pope hugged the arch killer Yassir Arafat. Later he cut a deal with Arafat wherein IF the Holy See recognized Arafat's various specious claims on Jerusalem, Arafat would provide the Church with safe passage for all its shrines on the Mount of Olives when it passed into his hands.

As we continue into the body copy of the NYT we see mourners leaving the Church of the Nativity with a prominent photo of a man carrying a coffin with a large cross in its lid. In the background we see gun-toting Arabs. Hey, NEW YORK TIMES, how come you didn't blank out their automatic rifles?

So, the NEW YORK TIMES, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, NPR and, presumably, all the other news outlets connected by their umbilical cords to the U.S. State Department's propaganda machine will be pushing the same line: "Jews attacking Christian holy places". Interesting what political thugs can do when they rise to high places in the State Department or Presidential Administration.

Just yesterday (Sunday, October 21st) I watched Wolf Blitzer in Late Edition on CNN brush aside the statement of a famous guest, Arnaud de Bourgrave who, in the course of the interview, he mentioned that Iran had put out the story that, it wasn't the Muslims who hit the World Trade Center and Pentagon but, it was those sneaky Israelis through the Mossad. This is now being preached in all the mosques of Islam as true and is accepted by Muslims.

Strangely, our aberrant journalists, so anxious to spin this as some sort of Jew vs. Christian conflict, have so carefully avoided the constant Muslim harassment of Christians wherever Muslims were dominant. Journalistic slugs do leave behind a slimy trail which is hard to erase.

So, at the moment, our politically dovish General cum Secretary of State, Colin Powell is pushing, shoving and threatening Israel to stand down their daily defensive war against terror. Somehow, the daily drive-by shootings, car bombs, mortar and sniper attacks have become Ho-Hum for the Media. Only when one Palestinian teenager is killed is the Media interested. They have conveniently forgotten that 658 Israelis have been murdered by Palestinian terrorists since the signing of Oslo September 13, 1993.

Clearly, should the State of Israel take a fall, the cutting-edge journalists who have spun the news against Israel should be personally held responsible for assisting in making the State vulnerable. I would assume that the Nuremberg Tribunal judgement would apply to those who colluded in the State's demise.

There is a massive public relations campaign carried forward through Colin Powell to appease the Muslim world by using threats against Israel that America is not at war with Islam or Muslims. By accommodating anti-Jewish, pro-Arab sentiment against Israel for having lost six wars, our American State Department hopes that the terrorist nations will pretend to join a paper-thin coalition. Bush and Powell shame this great nation by accommodating terrorist nations and selling out a loyal ally.

The Arab nations expect the Bush/Powell Administration to do to Israel what they could not accomplish in six wars.

I do not think our loyal Christian friends will be so easily tricked by Arafat's charges that the Jewish State has suddenly turned on her Christian citizens. Mr. Powell...Mr. Bush...Have you no shame?
http://web.archive.org/web/20011110074722/http://www.gamla.org.il/english/article/2001/oct/win3.htm

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When Attacking Israelis - Palestinians Use Children as "Human Shields"
2001
http://web.archive.org/web/20010305223114/http://www.israelpr.com/plochild.html

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Palestinians Again Use Children for Terror Against Israel

11-year-old Abdullah Quraan (center) smiling with his friends hours after being used as a "human bomb" by Palestinian terrorists. Photo: AP
By Israel News Agency Staff

Jerusalem----March 18......An attempt by Palestinian terrorists to smuggle a bomb through an Israeli security checkpoint with the help of a 11-year-old boy drew widespread attention on both sides of the conflict Tuesday.

But the similarity stopped there.

Israeli authorities said that the boy, sixth-grader Abdullah Quraan, was carrying explosives and that his handlers intended to blow him up near the checkpoint; the boy, and others, disputed this, claiming the bag he was carrying - swiftly blown up by army sappers - contained auto parts.

Beyond the factual dispute lay a psychological chasm: For Israelis, the case was the latest indication that their enemy is ruthless, even barbaric.

Palestinians said the involvement of children in the conflict - two 17-year-olds carried out a twin suicide bombing Sunday - is a result of Israel's occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. And they see Israelis' moralizing as deluded or hypocritical. When Israelis hear the word "occupation" they know that Palestinians are referring beyond Nablus, Rahmallah and Jenin and are speaking about Tel Aviv, Haifa and Afula. All official Palestinian maps and the map patch that Arafat wears on his left coat shoulder illustrates a map of Palestine which covers all of the State of Israel.

Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi pointed out that hundreds of Palestinian children and teenagers have died in the fighting and that countless others have seen their parents impoverished, humiliated or even killed during the conflict.

"The question of whether Quraan's handlers really intended to blow him up without his knowledge makes absolutely no difference," Israeli commentator Amit Cohen wrote in the daily Ma'ariv. "The man who packed the bomb in a schoolbag must have taken into account the possibility that the child carrying the bomb was liable to get hurt."

Back in school Tuesday, Quraan said he had done nothing wrong. "These people [the Israeli army] are liars, I don't believe them, and if it was a bomb, they would not have let me go so easily," he said at his school.

He said he routinely carries people's belongings across the Hawara checkpoint near his home in the impoverished Balata refugee camp.

The practice is common at the checkpoints across the West Bank, where Palestinians sometimes wait long periods to cross and children are less likely to raise suspicion.

Quraan said he met two men at the checkpoint on Monday. He said he and a friend raced to their vehicle ahead of a crowd of other children to get the business.

"They gave us a small travel bag, a plastic bag, and a bottle of water," Quraan said. The men told him to deliver the goods - described as clothes and auto parts - to a woman on the other side of the checkpoint. He said the men agreed to pay him the equivalent of about $4 to carry the items on a cart.

Alert soldiers confiscated the bags at the checkpoint and cleared the area, Quraan said. A bomb squad came in and blew up the bags. The boy said he was interrogated for several hours and released.

Army spokeswoman Maj. Sharon Feingold said the troops had thwarted a major terror attack and that the boy's life was saved only because a booby-trapped cell phone inside a bag didn't explode. She accused the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a terrorist group affiliated with Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, of exploiting the boy.

The Israeli human rights group B'tselem, normally highly critical of Israel, called the use of a child to transport explosives a "war crime."

A local leader of Al Aqsa, Hashem Abu Hamdan, denied any connection and suggested the story had been made up by Israel, an opinion expressed by many Palestinians Tuesday.

Abdallah Quran, the 11-year-old Palestinian boy said Tuesday he does not believe the IDF version that the bag he was carrying contained explosives.

"They are lying," he said. "I never saw a bomb. If the bag really contained a bomb, why did they release me?"

Quran's older brother, Muhammad, claimed that Israel staged the incident in an attempt to win the sympathy of international public opinion.
"We have been told many journalists were at the checkpoint before the alleged incident," he said. "This shows that the whole thing was fabricated by Israel in order to defame the Palestinians. They used my brother as a tool in their propaganda machine."

A teacher at Quran's school said the majority of the camp residents is convinced that Israel made up the story.

"If the boy really had an explosive belt, why did they release him so easily?" he asked. "The Israelis are trying to justify their daily crimes against our people and the killing of children."
Ja'far al-Masri, a taxi driver from Nablus who claims he was at the checkpoint when the boy was caught, said he finds it hard to believe that a Palestinian group would exploit a small boy to transfer a bomb.

"I was there and I can't believe that they found explosives in the boy's bag," he added. "I think the Israelis planted the bomb there. The Palestinian groups are much more responsible and they would never do such a thing. Besides, they know that had the bomb exploded at the checkpoint, hundreds of Palestinians would have been killed or injured."

The IDF categorically denied the Palestinian accusations and said the terrorists had made cynical use of the child by placing the bomb in his bag. The IDF has no reason to detain children.

Security officials said it is obvious the terrorists don't want to admit they are recruiting Palestinian children.

Quran said two men asked him to deliver the bag to a woman waiting on the other side of the IDF checkpoint at the village of Huwara, south of Nablus.

Quran, who along with many children his age earn a living as porters at IDF checkpoints, said he was unaware that he was carrying a bomb. "Two men in their thirties paid me five shekels (one dollar), and asked me to deliver the bag to a woman who was waiting in a Subaru on the other side of the checkpoint," he said.

"I was with a friend of mine from the village of Kufr Qalil, who uses a cart to transport big bags," he added. "I was carrying three bags. When we arrived at the checkpoint, a female soldier started searching the bags. Suddenly, before she touched the third bag, soldiers came and took me to the side. I didn't know what was happening."
Quran, a sixth-grader at the UNRWA school in the Balata refugee camp, said he did not see any wires hanging out of the bag or anything else arousing suspicion.

"The soldiers gave me some sweets and asked me to calm down," he recalled. "Some of them shouted at me, demanding to know who had given me the bag. I told them that two men asked me to deliver the bag to a woman and that I didn't know anything else."
While the soldiers were still checking the suspicious bag, the two men tried unsuccessfully to detonate it remotely with a mobile phone.

Security sources said the two belonged to Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, and that the bomb was intended for a suicide attack inside Israel.

But Quran, who was back in school on Tuesday, told journalists that the men who gave him the travel bag told him it contained clothes and auto parts. "I didn't do anything wrong. This is what I do for a living and to help my family."

Many Balata residents said they believe the story was fabricated by Israel in order to defame the Palestinians and drive a wedge between the people and the armed groups.

However, a Palestinian journalist from Nablus who works with the foreign media said he does not rule out the possibility that the Israeli version is true.

"Some people are asking themselves many questions, and are talking about the possibility that Fatah had indeed used the boy," he said. "There have been cases in which Fatah used women and children to transfer bombs."

The Aksa Martyrs Brigades denied responsibility, saying its members do not use children to carry out attacks against Israel.

"There is no shortage of adult fighters," said a local leader of the group. "The aim of the Israeli army is to defame the Martyrs Brigades. We do not use children, because this is inhuman and contravenes our traditions and morals. They are lying." ...
http://web.archive.org/web/20040602211025/http://www.israelnewsagency.com/palestinianterrorismchildren120314.html

Palestinians Push their Children to the Forefront of Clashes

"Peaceful Demonstrations" do not include people shooting guns, throwing Molotov cocktails, attacking and stabbing Israeli soldiers and civilians and throwing rocks!

Palestinians use children like this as "Human Shields" and then call this child a "hero" if he gets hurt!

Where are the parents of these children?

Are they only interested in the $300 they receive if their child is injured or the $2,000 they receive from the PLO if their child dies?

Behind these children are Palestinian "peaceful demonstrators" using live gunfire at Israeli soldiers and civilians!

Israeli soldiers using full restraint against attacking "peaceful demonstrators" and paying a high price with their blood!

IF - Israeli soldiers should attempt to defend themselves - they are then called "aggressors"!
http://web.archive.org/web/20010425114405/http://www.israelnewsagency.com/plochild.html

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Palestinian Children Die as Human Shields for Adult Terrorist Leaders
July 31, 2002
by Mary Mostert

Salah Shehadeh, commander of the Izzadine al-Qassam. The Hamas military wing has been responsible for hundreds of attacks against Israelis. He was also planning a "mega-terror" attack inside Israel, "perhaps the biggest Israel has ever seen, a truck with a ton of explosives that was intended to shock the people of Israel and cause hundreds, hundreds of dead," Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said.

At least eight previous attempts to put Shehadeh out of commission had been called off after the Israelis learned that civilians were with him. In fact, six days before a "plane was in the air" with the bomb when Israel discovered that one of Shehadeh's seven daughters was with him, and the strike was called off, Ben-Eliezer told the Jerusalem Post.

In spite of those efforts, the bomb killed not only Shehadeh, but his 14-year-old daughter, his wife, a bodyguard and 11 other people, seven of them children in adjoining buildings.

Before the bodies could be buried, Nasser al-Kidwa Palestinian Envoy to the United Nations had written a letter to the president of the UN Security Council stating: "The Israeli assault represents the first blatant war crime committed by the Israeli occupying forces since the entry into force this month of the ICC. ..."This action definitely falls within the jurisdiction of the court
and, as such, measures to bring the perpetrators to justice should be taken."

If the Israeli action that killed a terrorist planning a major assault on Israeli civilians is a war-crime, what, pray tell, was the Palestinian action by Iz A-Din Al-Masri, a member of Hamas, on August 9, 2001 when he carried a bomb into the Sbarro-Pizzeria in the center of Jerusalem and detonated it, killing 15 people, including seven children, and injuring 130 other civilians? What was the action of Shadi Tubasi, another member of Hamas, when he walked into the Matza restaurant in Haifa, detonated his explosive belt, killing 15 people and injuring 40?

Obviously, it must also be a war crime. So, why are the war crimes of the Palestinians ignored by the Arab world? Why is it they think killing Israeli children leads a Palestinian to heaven, whereas accidentally killing Arab children leads to the International Criminal Court?

Perhaps even more pertinent is the fact that Shehadeh, who certainly knew the Israelis were out to get him, kept himself surrounded by children - his own children at that. Any man considered worthy to be called a man, knowing that his life was in danger, would make sure his wife and children were out of danger...
We see a pattern here among the Palestinians. Children are mere cannon fodder, useful mostly as human shields to protect terrorist leaders.

Should the Israelis have allowed Shehadeh to continue his plan to detonate his one ton bomb in downtown Jerusalem, causing hundreds of deaths, including children, rather than take a risk of hurting some of Shehadeh's child shields?..
http://web.archive.org/web/20030311183210/http://www.conservativetruth.org/article.php?id=366

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Essays on Law and War at the Fault Lines - Page 550

Michael N. Schmitt · 2011
In April 2002, Israeli troops entered the Jenin refugee camp from which the terrorists were operating. During the fighting, the terrorists used human shields
extensively. Because of the risk to civilians, the IDF mounted ground operations, rather than aerial attacks.
https://books.google.com/books?id=SgGQr9DQXI0C&pg=PA550

A Passover Massacre, a Terror War, and the Lies They Told
Mar 23, 2021 — As a result of the Park Hotel massacre and Bloody March, Israel's government decided to draft 20,000 IDF reservists, including my cousin Ofer, and launch operation Defensive Shield, a large-scale IDF counterterrorism operation in the West Bank. It took place between March 29 and May 10, 2002 and marked the beginning of the end of that period of unfathomable horror.

The Jenin Refugee Camp was the site of Defensive Shield's most notorious battles. The IDF encountered heavy resistance from Palestinian terrorists. The camp was densely populated, which forced the IDF to make a moral, meaningful and eventually costly choice: engage in door-to-door combat instead of bombarding large swaths of the camp. The reason was to avert a high number of civilian casualties. The decision was not only that of Israel's high command but also reflected the values of how the IDF soldiers operated on the ground.

The result was devastating. The ferocious exchange of fire resulted in the death of 23 IDF reservists, 13 of whom died in one bloody day. Little did the IDF soldiers know that an integral part of the Palestinian terrorists' battle plan involved women and children. They used them not only as human shields — a practice sadly seen often — but also deployed them as combatants on the front lines, as well as logistical and intelligence support. In that battle, Palestinians weaponized Israel's values and the IDF's ethical code against its soldiers
https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/334537/the-lies-they-told/

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lgf: Palestinian Human Shield Watch
Palestinian Human Shield Watch

Charles Johnson
Fri Sep 8, 2006 at 2:21 pm PDT • Views: 350

A Palestinian militant points his rifle towards Israeli troops as other gunmen and civilians look on during an Israeli army raid in the village of Qabatiya, near the West Bank town of Jenin, Thursday, Sept. 7, 2006. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)

UPDATE at 9/8/06 5:29:50 pm:

Notice: some of the same people appear in this image from August 8, 2006:

A Palestinian militant fires toward Israeli troops during an arrest raid in the West Bank village of Qabatiyeh near Jenin, Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2006. Four Palestinians were wounded when the army arrested an Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades militant, Palestinians sources said. The army said two Islamic Jihad militants were arrested during the operation. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)

UPDATE at 9/8/06 6:50:01 pm:

And the August 8 photo was the subject of this "clarification" by the Associated Press:

RETRANSMITTING ORIGINAL FULL FRAME FOR CONTEXT TO SHOW THAT PEOPLE IN BACKGROUND ARE NOT DIRECTLY IN THE LINE OF FIRE — A Palestinian militant fires toward Israeli troops during an arrest raid in the West Bank village of Qabatiyeh near Jenin, Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2006. Four Palestinians were wounded when the army arrested an Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades militant, Palestinians sources said. The army said two Islamic Jihad militants were arrested during the operation. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)

Yet Mohammed Ballas and the Associated Press and the guy in the khaki pants have foisted another one of these photos on the world.
http://web.archive.org/web/20110813203335/http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22479

Palestinians Bar Attacks with Human Shields
THE MEDIA LINE STAFF
11/19/2006
https://themedialine.org/news/palestinians-bar-attacks-with-human-shields/

Human Rights Watch: Stop Human Shields in Gaza
TML STAFF
11/22/2006
https://themedialine.org/mideast-daily-news/human-rights-watch-stop-human-shields-in-gaza/

Beit Hanoun: Women act as human shields

Gaza Strip town under siege for five days now as part of Operation Autumn Clouds. All access roads blocked. Men leaving city accompanied by women who act as their 'human shields.' Residents report severe humanitarian crisis. UNRWA: IDF not allowing food and water into Gaza Strip. IDF denies reports

Ali Waked, Gaza|Published: 11.05.06 , 22:53
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3324081,00.html

GAZA STRIP: Palestinians use women as human shields

Friday, November 3, 2006
BY YAKUB RALWAH OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip - Palestinian gunmen holed up in a mosque escaped today as Israeli forces fired at a group of women who streamed to the scene to serve as human shields, killing one and wounding 10, Palestinian officials and witnesses said.

The dead woman was one of several hundred who had heeded a call by Hamas militants to ring the mosque in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. Their presence allowed the gunmen inside to escape, some reportedly wearing robes supplied by the women, ending their 19-hour standoff with soldiers parked outside in tanks and armored personnel carriers.

Troops seized Beit Hanoun on Wednesday in their fiercest bid in months to halt Palestinian rocket fire on nearby Israeli communities. More than 20 Palestinians, most gunmen, have been killed since the offensive began, including a 22-year-old man killed today.

The mosque became the focus of the fighting in the town after dozens of gunmen sought refuge from troops there Thursday. Most were thought to belong to the military wing of the ruling Hamas party.

Armored vehicles quickly surrounded the building, and the two sides began exchanging fire that lasted throughout the night, the military and Palestinian security officials said.
http://web.archive.org/web/20061106030344/http://www.pjstar.com/stories/110306/pm__BBE5F07L.012.shtml

Women aid escape of gunmen in Gaza

Richard Boudreaux and Rushdi abu Alouf The Baltimore Sun
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip --

November 4, 2006
... the militants devised an escape plan, said Abu Ubaida, a Hamas spokesman: The Hamas radio station appealed to women in the town of 37,000 to converge on the mosque to protect the fighters, who numbered 73...
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2006-11-04-0611040306-story.html

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Fathi Hamad (Hamas): Women and children serve as human shields - Videos - A look at the Palestinian media
2008-2009
Fathi Hamad (Hamas): Women and children serve as human shields. Fathi Hamad, Member of Parliament for Hamas "Death among the Palestinian people has become an industry in which women excel, and all who excel in it excel ... https://www.palwatch.org.il/main.aspx?fi=642&fld_id=642&doc_id=8197

Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress
United States. Congress
U.S. Government Printing Office, 2008
March 5 2008
... and launch sites amongst the Palestinian civilian population, utilizing them as human shields ; Whereas intentionally targeting civilian populations and the use of human shields violates international humanitarian and human rights law ;
https://books.google.com/books?id=Mq30VL7yquYC&pg=PA3207

Ignorance of international law is no excuse. Nor is taking laws out of context.

May 24, 2008 at 10:16
[...]
The Geneva Convention, and other international laws regulating conduct during warfare, makes clear distinctions of what is, or is not a "war crime." Using human shields is a war crime. Conducting warfare from population centers is a war crime. Engaging in perfidy, such as having armed militants dressed as civilians, having armed militants dressed in the uniforms of their opponents, using fake surrenders as a pretext to attack, is a war crime. Deliberately firing upon civilians, or deliberately directing fire towards civilian centers in an effort to produce civilian casualties, is a war crime.

If one were to add up all of these actions committed by Hezbollah and Hamas since 2006 alone, the number of clearly defined war crimes that they committed against Israel would exceed 100,000 separate instances.
http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/129811

Hamas' use of civilians as a "human shield"
Jan 2, 2009 - Hamas and other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip as "human shields." The terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip have built an extensive military infrastructure that includes a large stock of. Rockets.. https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/Data/pdf/PDF_08_204_1.pdf

Testimony of residents of the Gaza Strip regarding their use as a "human shield".
Jan 28, 2009 http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/Data/pdf/PDF_09_043_1.pdf

Eye-witnesses: Hamas used human shields in Gaza war | PMW Analysis

Sep 16, 2009 — However, PMW reported in May that Hamas stole 46 ambulances donated for use in the war and used them as "military vehicles"..
https://palwatch.org/page/1382

Palestine - Page 311 - Jonathan Bloomfield - 2010
Hamas and Hezbollah go after Israeli citizens and use their own people as human shields. These groups are supported by the government ...
https://books.google.com/books?id=fhd2TSX8XV0C&pg=PA311

Israeli NGO: Hamas 'Used Civilians as Human Shields' in Gaza
March - 2010
https://www.haaretz.com/1.5042118

Goldstone report showed 'systematic pro-Palestinian bias', says Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.

Haaretz Service Jonny Singer
15.03.2010 | 15:10

Hamas used Palestinian civilians as human shields during last year's Gaza war, according to a study published Monday by the Israeli non-governmental orgainzation the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.
https://www.haaretz.com/1.5042118

Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States - Page 311
... launch Sites amongst the Palestinian civilian population, utilizing them as human shields; Whereas intentionally targeting civilian populations and the use of human shields violates international humanitarian and human rights law: Whereas intentionally targeting civilians population and use of human shields.
United States. Congress. House - 2010
https://books.google.com/books?id=bxbnyfRkw9YC&q=palestinian+use+human+shields

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Hamas has released a video: Rocket fire from a civilian surface.
The terrorist organization shot itself in the foot? Photographs of the military arm show a rocket launch from early morning, inside an area of ​​civilian population

Elior Levy Posted 17:14, 29/10/2012 https://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4298566,00.html

IDF: Terrorists using human shields - Ynetnews

Dec 3, 2012 — Gaza terrorists firing rockets from densely populated areas, civilians hurt in Israeli strikes as result of Palestinian tactics
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4201948,00.html

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Hamas - Human Shield - NEWS1 https://www.news1.co.il/uploadFiles/842037379741669.ppt

Cast Lead - Minerva Center for the Rule of Law in Extreme Situations

Jan 27, 2015 - Death of an ambulance driver in the home hospital area. Hanun. 25.07.2014.... 08.07.2014. Hamas spokesman called on the citizens of the Gaza Strip to serve as a "human shield" on terrorist operatives. http://minervaextremelaw.haifa.ac.il/images/Protective-Edge-Chronology-March-2015-1.pdf

Thane Rosenbaum: Hamas's Civilian Death Strategy - WSJ

Jul 21, 2014 — ... then deploy sacrificial children as human shields... are transporting themselves throughout Gaza in ambulances
https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/thane-rosenbaum-civilian-casualties-in-gaza-1405970362

Hamas Uses Hospitals and Ambulances for Military Purposes - Aish.com
Jul 29, 2014
https://www.aish.com/gaza-war-blog/Hamas-Uses-Hospitals-and-Ambulances-for-Military-Purposes.html

Hamas uses human shields 'for a reason' - YouTube
CNN July 21, 2014
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6bcP6SaYZpk

Fighting terrorists who move around in ambulances - The Jerusalem Post

Jul 20, 2014 — ... and using it as human shields, to seek immunity from the army. ... reported spotting Hamas gunmen boarding ambulances in Gaza
https://m.jpost.com/operation-protective-edge/analysis-fighting-terrorists-who-move-around-in-ambulances-363498/amp

UN report outlines how Hamas used kids as human shields - New York Post

May 2, 2015 — The headlines in most places were entirely predictable: "UN Says Israel Killed 44 Palestinians in Schools During Gaza War."
https://nypost.com/2015/05/02/un-report-outlines-how-hamas-used-kids-as-human-shields/amp/

United Nations › auto-insert-182027

Hamas fires deadly rockets targeting Israeli civilians, using Palestinians as human shields – Letter from Israel
Aug 27, 2014

Over the past 50 days, more than 4,000 rockets have been shot at Israel from the Gaza Strip. Thousands of these rockets were launched from densely populated areas. Hamas is committing a double war crime — first by using Palestinian civilians as human shields and second by intentionally targeting innocent Israeli civilians.

Deadly rockets were fired daily from launch pads located in hospitals, mosques and schools in Gaza only to explode in homes, synagogues and kindergartens in Israel. While Israel has been using missile defence to protect its civilians, Hamas has been using civilians to protect its missiles.

Hamas deliberately embeds its military operations in residential areas with the clear intention of using its own people, including women and children, as protection. One does not have to look any further than Hamas' own combat manual on urban warfare to see how the terror organization has institutionalized its disregard for human life. Its combat strategy guidelines explicitly instruct terrorists to use civilians as human shields. This is not a new tactic — it has been the modus operandi of Hamas each and every time it has waged hostilities against Israel.

Evidence of this criminal strategy is mounting and the examples are too numerous to count. Hamas has routinely fired from schools, playgrounds and hotels, as described below:

On 8 July, a rocket was fired from within the El' Azhar Islamic College

On 14 July, an M-75 rocket was launched from a children's playground located in the neighbourhood of Shuj a'iya

On 1 August, a rocket was fired from within the Al-Shati refugee camp, near the Al Mashtal hotel, where many journalists were staying

And, as if exploiting civilian infrastructure was not horrific enough, Hamas repeatedly called on the civilian population of Gaza to disregard Israeli warnings and threatened them not to evacuate the areas from which Hamas launched its attacks. Such statements were made on 10 July by the Palestinian Ministry of the Interior and on 15 July by the Head of the Hamas refugee department. Hamas also used its official media channels to actively encourage Palestinian civilians to act as human shields, turning Israel Defense Forces (IDF) warnings of impending strikes into opportunities for sacrificing their own civilians.
https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-182027/

United States. Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs. Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa - 2014

Denouncing the Use of Civilians as Human Shields by Hamas and Other Terrorist Organizations in Violation of International Humanitarian Law; and Condemning the Murder of Israeli and Palestinian Children in Israel and the Ongoing and Escalating Violence in that Country: Markup Before the Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, Second Session on H. Con. Res. 107 and H. Res. 665, July 25, 2014

United States. Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs. Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa.
U.S. Government Printing Office, 2014 - Crimes against humanity (International law) - 24 pages
https://books.google.com/books?id=rVG3xwEACAAJ&dq=palestinian+use+human+shields
https://books.google.com/books?id=rVG3xwEACAAJ&dq=international+law
https://books.google.com/books?id=ariPAzGVot4C&pg=PA9

Operation Protective Edge: Videos of Hamas Human Shield Use
[2014]
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/videos-of-hamas-human-shield-use

Military uses of medical facilities and ambulances by Hamas and other terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip ...

Jul 23, 2014 - IDF Testimonies The ambulance driver's committees are supported by intelligence information held by Israel. A statement by Hamas operatives during Operation Cast Lead shows that ambulances were used.
https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/he/20683

News - In the country nrg - ... "Hamas uses human shields and blame - First Source

May 15, 2015 - "Hamas uses human shields and the blame falls on Israel." The phenomenon of human shielding creates a trap. If the military refrains from attacking, the organization's objectives remain protected. In case the army ... https://www.makorrishon.co.il/nrg/online/1/ART2/694/820.html

Avital Leibovich: Reflections on Gaza From an Israeli Mother - WSJ

Jul 14, 2014 — Hamas uses innocent Palestinians as human shields to die for propaganda purposes
https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/avital-leibovich-reflections-on-gaza-from-an-israeli-mother-1405364460

Hamas Admits to Using Civilians as Human Shields

by Omri Ceren | 09.15.14 12:11 pm

... Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad was specifically quoted declaring that "Gaza, from Beit Hanoun in the north to Rafah in the south, is one uninterrupted urban chain." The claim is false. A short study by Alan Dershowitz titled "The empty spaces in Gaza," published last month by the Gatestone Institute, noted that "there are dense parts of Gaza, especially Gaza City, Beit Hanoun and Khan Younis, but there are far less dense areas in Gaza between these cities." Dershowitz pointed to population density maps to emphasize that Hamas had embraced a "strategy of using human shields to maximize civilian casualties," ...
http://www.thetower.org/1067oc-hamas-admits-to-using-civilians-as-human-shields/
Letter: Hamas has occupied Gaza

LSJ | 8:47 pm EDT August 4, 2014
[...]
The real occupier is Hamas. Funds given to Palestinians are being used by Hamas, not to improve the Palestinians' lives, but to amass ammunition, rockets, underground tunnels and commit heinous crimes.

Hamas is using United Nation schools, ambulances, mosques and homes to launch rockets. When you use children as human shields, the result is tragic. Sadly, Hamas wants the human loss, especially of children, to paint a negative picture of Israel in the media. The world must not be silent or blind and loudly condemn these heinous crimes.
https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/opinion/readers/2014/08/04/letter-hamas-has-occupied-gaza/13603493/

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IDF accuses Palestinians of using ambulance as shield for rock throwing

Dec 10, 2017 — The Israel Defense Forces accused Palestinian protesters of using an ambulance as a human shield during a violent demonstration in
https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-accuses-palestinians-of-using-ambulance-as-shield-for-rock-throwing/amp/

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"Gaza children serve as a human shield for Hamas" - Actualic
Jun 10, 2017 - Israel is reacting sharply to the discovery that in recent days the same terrorist tunnel belonging to the military arm of Hamas, under a school belonging to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees - UNRWA. https://actualic.co.il/%25D7%25A0%25D7%2597%25D7%25A9%25D7%25A4%25D7%2594-%25D7%2594%25D7%2590%25D7%259E%25D7%25AA-%25D7 % 2599% 25D7% 259C% 25D7% 2593% 25D7% 2599-% 25D7% 25A2% 25D7% 2596% 25D7% 2594-% 25D7% 259E% 25D7% 25A9% 25D7% 259E% 25D7% 25A9% 25D7% 2599% 25D7 % 259D-% 25D7% 259E% 25D7% 2592% 25D7% 259F-% 25D7% 2590% 25D7% 25A0% 25D7% 2595% 25D7% 25A9% 25D7% 2599-% 25D7% 259C /

H.R.3542 - Hamas Human Shields Prevention Act115th Congress (2017-2018)
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/3542/text
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/3542/all-info

Prosecution in The Hague: "Hamas uses children as human shields"
Apr 24, 2018 - It is Hamas leaders who send their children to serve as human shields and as a result to be killed in battle. They are therefore the ones who have to stand up in the International Court of Justice in The Hague and give in.. https://www.israelhayom.co.il/interactive/amp/article/551269

This is how Hamas uses children - Yedioth Ahronoth
Apr 23, 2018 - This is how Hamas uses children. With a Barcelona football shirt, slingshots and heavy tires - this is how the children who serve as human shields and are sent to the first line were photographed last Friday
https://m.yediot.co.il/Articles/5238011

Hamas military intensification - INSS
2018
The logic of Hamas' power building is similar to that which guides Hezbollah's power building. In Lebanon, which argues for the existence of a military infrastructure in population concentrations; Use of civilians, including children. And boys, as a "human shield" for terrorist operatives; https://www.inss.org.il/he/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/01/GazaCrisis_HEB_5-43-51.pdf

Israel minimizes casualties, but Hamas uses human shields

May 18, 2018 · The U.N. Human Rights Council convened a special meeting in Geneva Friday to
https://www.israelhayom.com/2018/05/18/israel-minimizes-casualties-but-hamas-uses-human-shields-envoy-says/

In first, European Parliament condemns Hamas for terror, use of human shields.
Apr 19, 2018
https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-first-european-parliament-condemns-hamas-for-terror-use-of-human-shields/

The inhumanity of Hamas' human shields.
Illustration on Hamas' use of human shields by Alexander Hunter/The Washington ... By Joe Wilson - - Thursday, May 31, 2018.
https://amp.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/may/31/the-inhumanity-of-hamas-human-shields/

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Hamas enlists female participation in border riots - watch - The Jerusalem Post

Feb 18, 2019 — New footage released over the weekend shows Hamas using its women as human shields.
https://m.jpost.com/middle-east/hamas-enlists-female-participation-in-border-riots-watch-580973/amp

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Soldiers' Testimony Report - My Truth
'Human Shields
The use of children and the civilian population by terrorist organizations
Soldiers' Testimony Report

November-2018
... For example, in April 2018, Hamas in Gaza decided to adopt a new tactic. Huge demonstrations on the border fence with Israel aimed at creating the impression among the international community that this is a "non-violent protest." However, already at the first demonstration, it became clear that the many civilians the participants in the demonstrations are nothing but human defenders who allow Hamas terrorists to approach the fence, hit IDF soldiers and try to infiltrate Israeli territory.
These events, along with the wave of popular terror that preceded them and were characterized by many attacks carried out by boys and women, led us to the understanding that exposing the evidence regarding the high scale of values ​​on which IDF soldiers operate is essential, but no less important to present another side - methods Fighting by terrorist organizations based on the same understanding that the IDF is wary of harming innocent people, repeatedly placing IDF fighters in front of a civilian population including children and women, both for offensive combat purposes and as human defenders.
This document combines more than 30 testimonies of soldiers and reservists who served in the IDF and other security services of the State of Israel. The testimonies in this booklet make a sound true, important and valuable of soldiers who have encountered in their military service a blatant violation of human rights on the part of the Palestinian terrorist organizations towards the Palestinians themselves, with an emphasis on the use of human shields and exploitation of a civilian population for combat purposes.
This collection of testimonies was published on the understanding that although this is a blatant violation of international law, in the Palestinian case, the issue is almost completely ignored by the international community and human rights organizations.
The events documented in this booklet represent a broad phenomenon of the use of civilian space and humanitarian for terrorist purposes. Evidence includes cases in which ambulances were used to transport weapons and transport terrorists, launching rockets from kindergartens, firing from schools and mosques, planning attacks on prominent civilian spaces and Israeli communities, using children and women as human shields, violations of humanitarian ceasefires and much more. Describing first-hand the cynical use that Hamas and the Palestinian Authority make of the Palestinian civilian population. https://mytruth.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/eduyot_heb_pages.pdf

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Hamas Views Application of Sovereignty as a Potential Opportunity

By Yaakov Lappin July 9, 2020

...the possibility of a simultaneous escalation in both the West Bank and Gaza remains real. Hamas has assembled a well-armed terror army in Gaza, equipped with tens of thousands of rockets, anti-tank guided missile launchers, mortar launchers, and other weapons. A network of tunnels runs under the Gaza Strip for the movement of Hamas terrorists, and residential buildings double as military command centers and rocket launch sites. Hamas continues to prioritize its force buildup program over the wellbeing of the Gazan people.

Hamas copied its warfare doctrine, which is based on the principle of operating from within the civilian population and thereby exploiting that population as human shields, from Hezbollah, adapting it to Gazan conditions. The two organizations cooperate on a number of levels.
https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/israel-hamas-sovereignty/

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Watch: Bennett joins CNN interviewer: "We will not be bound by terror" - ICE
May 13, 2021 - ... First to CNN Since the election, the former defense minister was asked about the Israeli bombings in Gaza and replied: "Hamas itself kills the children of the Gaza Strip when it uses them as a human shield".. https://www.ice.co.il/media/news/article/820076

Ganz appeals to Gaza residents: "Hamas is sacrificing you because of their personal needs"

Defense Minister Bnei Gantz addressed a message translated into Arabic to Gaza residents: "Because of Hamas, you will not celebrate Eid al-Fitr. Hamas started the campaign because of political motives - and not because of the freedom of the Temple Mount."

He added that "Hamas leaders are responsible for the fact that instead of preparing for the holiday you are buried in houses. Unfortunately, they operate from civilian space and therefore the damage will be great and powerful. They sacrifice you because of their personal needs. If Israel sleeps in protected areas - Gaza will burn. There is no other equation."
Anna Bersky 12/05/2021 | 19:49 https://www.maariv.co.il/breaking-news/Article-840184

Terry Glavin: By using human shields, Hamas doubles down on its war crimes

There is no equivalence between Israel's defensive targeting of Hamas launch sites in Gaza and the rockets targeting Israeli civilians

Author of the article:
Terry Glavin
Publishing date:
May 12, 2021
... This is very much the case in contrasting and evaluating the Israel Defense Forces' targeted bombing of Hamas operatives and infrastructure in Gaza against the war crimes committed with each and every one of the roughly 1,500 rockets Hamas and Islamic Jihad have launched in indiscriminate attacks on Israeli civilians since last weekend...
The problem is that no amount of Israeli "restraint" would have saved the life of Soumya Santhosh, a 31-year-old housemaid from Kerala, India, who was killed when one of the indiscriminately-fired Hamas rockets landed on a house in Ashkelon on Tuesday evening. At the moment of her death, Santhosh was talking with her husband back in India, in a video call..

Trudeau was referring to what is widely described as the spark that ignited the conflagration, an affair the Israeli government has unhelpfully called a mere real-estate dispute in the Sheikh Jarrah district of East Jerusalem. .. Hamas seized on the confrontation as a propaganda opportunity — the police action was a vile Jewish desecration of one of Islam's holiest sites — and everything took off from there...

All those rockets are Haniyeh's way of establishing Hamas as the champion of Al Aqsa and the defender of Jerusalem as the capital of a future Islamic state and a holy cause of the world's Muslims. Israel considers Jerusalem the eternal capital of the Jewish people and the Israeli state. But this is where it becomes impossible to draw moral equivalences, and why appeals to "both sides" fall flat on their face.

There is no equivalence between the IDF's defensive targeting of the Hamas and its Qassam Brigades launch sites in Gaza and the Qassam rockets targeting Israeli civilians, but the more important thing to keep your eye on is the way Hamas embeds itself among Gaza's civilians, effectively using the people it claims to represent as human shields.

It's on this point that countries like Canada might make some use of themselves, at least in clarifying the incoherence that so routinely bubbles out of the public affairs departments of the liberal democracies' foreign ministries. In a 52-page analysis and legislative proposal set to be released this week, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and the Canadian Coalition Against Terror are proposing a Canadian law to respond to NATO's appeals to give statutory force and effect to international prohibitions against using civilians as human shields.
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/terry-glavin-by-using-human-shields-hamas-doubles-down-on-its-war-crimes

Magellan fighters attacked a Hamas anti-tank launcher located in a residential building

Fragmentation of anti-tank launchers continues: Magellan fighters attacked an anti-tank launcher of the Hamas terrorist organization located in a high-rise residential building in the southern Gaza Strip. The IDF notes that the terrorist organization Hamas is deliberately placing its military assets in the heart of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.

Date: 13/05/2021 | Updated: 13/05/2021 https://m.news1.co.il/Archive/001-D-440521-00.html?AfterBan=1

Watch: The IDF attacked a tunnel inside a school in Gaza - Shabbat Square

2 Sivan 5781 - 13.05.21 - Among the targets, a Hamas terrorist tunnel was attacked, which is part of the Hamas terrorist organization's tunnel project and is located under a school and near other civilian buildings.
https://www.kikar.co.il/amp/391872

____________________________

* HEZBOLLAH *

DEBKAfile Exclusive: Hizballah sub-contracts Palestinian launch squads, uses Christian villages as human shields

July 19, 2006, 5:48 PM (GMT+02:00)

DEBKAfile's military sources report that Palestinian Jihad Islami, Ahmed Jibril's PFLP-General Command and Palestinian crime gangs based in S. Lebanon's Burj Shimali east of Tyre are leading the rocket offensive against Nahariya and coastal Galilee. Early Wednesday, an Israeli air raid struck a village house in this sector east of Tyre, causing 10 deaths, according to Lebanese officials...
http://web.archive.org/web/20060719180552/http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=2926

Canadian Soldier Says UN Position Used As Cover By Hezbollah

July 26, 2006 11:40 p.m. EST
Ryan R. Jones - All Headline News Correspondent

Beirut, Lebanon (AHN) - A Canadian UN peacekeeper killed in an Israeli air strike Tuesday complained just days before that tragic incident that his position was being used as cover by Hezbollah terrorists attacking Israel.

In an interview on CBC Radio in Toronto, Major General Lewis MacKenzie (ret.) said he had been privy to e-mails received from the soldier over the past week.

MacKenzie, who happened to know the deceased personally, said in one such correspondence the soldier "described the fact that he was taking within...three meters of his position 'for tactical necessity - not being targeted.'"

The general explained that is veiled military speech "telling us [that] Hezbollah fighters were all over his position and the IDF were targeting them."

He said using UN personnel as human shields is "a favorite trick by people who don't have representation in the UN," knowing they will suffer no direct consequences for the violation.
http://web.archive.org/web/20060822035411/http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7004343191

Even the UN are used as human shields
July 27, 2006
As the world is outraged by the death of four Unifil members at the hands of Israeli artillery fire, I was keeping quiet until more news would creep out, which it inevitably would.

Israel does not attack people for no reason, and it also does not attack a target by mistake for hours on end. These facts are a given, and so it follows the attack at or near the Unifil post must have been deliberate, and it must have been justified. The death of the Unifil members was perhaps not intentional, but it was not something Israel was bound to avoid if the price was a carte blanche shelling from Hezbullah. And this was exactly the issue.

On October 7th, 2000, Hezbullah crossed the border of Israel and kidnapped three Israeli soldiers. The UN witnessed the entire event and VIDEOTAPED it. There are strong indications that elements of the UN forces present were involved in the terrorist operation.
At first, the UN flatly denied it had videotapes of the kidnapping. When denial was no longer possible,

On July 6, 2001, the U.N. finally admitted that they possessed the tape as of 18 hours after the incident occurred.

Some believe the denial was intentional. They believe that UNIFIL workers in the area had prior knowledge of the kidnapping plot, but did nothing to prevent it. Hizbullah crossed through a U.N. patrolled area to get to the Israeli soldiers.

http://web.archive.org/web/20071118115055/http://www.israpundit.com/2006/?p=2002

UNITED NATIONS INTERIM FORCE IN LEBANON (UNIFIL)
Naqoura, 20 July 2006
PRESS RELEASE
... Hezbollah firing was also reported from the immediate vicinity of the UN positions in Naqoura and Maroun Al Ras areas at the time of the incidents.
http://web.archive.org/web/20061203030252/http://www.un.org/depts/dpko/missions/unifil/pr04.pdf

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On the target: Hezbollah's "human defenders" in Lebanon Israel Hayom.
Jan 6, 2019 - Hezbollah in Lebanon // Photo: Reuters. An open secret is that Hezbollah stores weapons in civilian buildings in southern Lebanon, thus creating a human shield against activity.
https://www.israelhayom.co.il/interactive/amp/article/622059

US Congress Urges UN to Crack Down on Lebanon's Hizbullah - The Media Line

Nov 25, 2019 — ... the letter continues, "has positioned its massive arsenal [of missiles] in civilian areas, turning much of Lebanon's population into human shields..
https://themedialine.org/mideast-daily-news/us-congress-urges-un-to-crack-down-on-lebanons-hizbullah/

Hezbollah - Using Lebanese Citizens as a "Human Shields"
https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/Data/pdf/PDF_human_shields_1.pdf

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