Israel-Palestine Mega Fact Check!

The IDF has used Palestinian civilians as human shields on approximately 1,200 occasions in the period 2000-2005, according to IDF officials. This includes the use of their well-known “neighbor procedure”, where they force a Palestinian civilian to carry out certain tasks they feel are too dangerous for an IDF soldier to do (there are examples at Breaking the

Silence › Testimonies ).

In May 2002, the IDF said it would stop using human shields after petition to the High Court of Justice by seven Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups. But the practice continued.

In 2005, the Israeli Supreme Court banned the IDF from using human shield procedures, a decision the IDF later appealed.

After the ban, the IDF continued to use Palestinians as human shields, but less often than before.

Since October 7^th 2023, the IDF still uses Palestinians as human shields, as evidenced in this compilation of seven examples, including this one.

IDF soldiers have themselves said that the IDF takes Palestinian civilians, puts them in IDF uniforms, and makes them walk through tunnels or buildings to “sweep” them i.e. to check if there are any bombs, traps, or ambushes. (Source: roughly 3 minutes into this interview)

The IDF also uses Palestinian children as human shields. Since 2000, Defence for Children International has recorded at least 31 cases in which Palestinian children were used by the IDF as human shields. Here is one example of a boy tied to the hood of a military Jeep:

The bottom line is that the IDF has an extensive, documented history of using Palestinian civilians as human shields and still does to this day.