The Israeli Military Police claims that it has recently begun investigating the Israeli army's use of Palestinian civilians as human shields during the war on the Gaza Strip, which puts their lives at grave risk, in flagrant violation of international law and treaties, and constitutes a war crime.

The Israeli military police, at the behest of the military prosecution, are investigating only six cases in which Palestinian civilians were used as human shields, despite the prevalence of this crime among Israeli forces during the war.

The investigation follows a report by the International Red Cross in January and international pressure on Israel, which has used Gazan civilians as human shields since almost the start of the war. The Israeli military describes these Gazan civilians as “shawish,” meaning “servants” and “slaves,” Haaretz reported Monday.

The Red Cross report documents indiscriminate killings of Gazan civilians led by senior Israeli officers.

The Red Cross handed over to the commander of the Southern Command of the Israeli army, Yaron Finkelman, testimonies given by residents of the Gaza Strip who were forced to form human shields, after threatening that they and their families would be targeted if they did not carry out the orders of the Israeli army in this regard, some of which were documented with photos and video clips.

The Red Cross confirmed in its report that at least nine such crimes, committed by Israeli forces between December 2023 and January 2025, are reliable and confirmed testimonies, while the newspaper quoted many Israeli soldiers confirming that they had witnessed crimes of using civilians as human shields, and that “the Nahal, Givati and Commando Brigades are responsible for most of the cases that were investigated and found to be reliable.”

The newspaper pointed out that all the crimes of using Gazans as human shields are similar, and include arresting civilians for a period ranging from days to weeks, and forcing them under threat to cooperate in carrying out operations, through physical and psychological abuse, then releasing them and returning them to the Gaza Strip, and some of them were re-arrested and others were injured during this operation.

Civilians were initially asked to set fire to residential buildings, apartments and warehouses, and sometimes they were sent inside burning buildings to make sure the fire had spread throughout them, "and if it had not spread, their mission was to set fire to the whole place," according to the newspaper.

The newspaper pointed out that the use of Gazan civilians as human shields increased after Israeli army dogs were killed or lost their operational capabilities, the transfer of combat engineering unit soldiers who are experts in dismantling mines from the Strip to Lebanon, the breakdown of engineering machinery, and a shortage of professional drivers.

“Civilians replaced all of these (soldiers) and were spontaneously assigned to plant explosives in civilian buildings and Hamas centers that the IDF sought to destroy,” the newspaper said. Sometimes they were asked to ensure that there were no Palestinian fighters or mines in the tunnels. “In other cases, according to the testimonies, they planted mines in order to blow up infrastructure in Gaza, without protective armor or basic experience in planting mines,” the newspaper said.

Israeli forces also sent Gazan civilians to clinics, hospitals and humanitarian areas to report to the forces on whether there were fighters there, while they were forced to wear medical uniforms and were admitted to health facilities.

According to the newspaper, in one case, Palestinian fighters shot a Palestinian who the Israeli army had turned into a human shield, after they believed he was a "collaborator" with the army. In other cases, Israeli forces sent Gazan civilians on filming missions before demolishing buildings, and sometimes used civilians as translators.

The Red Cross report said that while civilians who were used as human shields in homes seized by Israeli forces were handcuffed, blindfolded, beaten, humiliated, and denied food and water. In one case, Israeli soldiers shot a civilian because he refused their request to enter a place suspected of being booby-trapped and occupied by Palestinian gunmen.

The newspaper confirmed that the Israeli security apparatus was aware of this phenomenon, including the Chief of Staff of the Army, Herzi Halevi, the Commander of the Southern Command, and the Military Prosecution.

The newspaper quoted an Israeli soldier as saying, “In the Israeli army, they know that this was not a one-time event carried out by a young, stupid company commander who decided to do it himself. This was carried out with the knowledge of at least a brigade commander. Many soldiers demanded an explanation for this action, but the officers prevented any discussion about it. They said that our lives are much more important than their lives (the lives of the Palestinians), and in the end it is better for our soldiers to be alive and for the mine to explode on them,” meaning the Palestinians.

The newspaper confirmed that it was clear from the statements of Israeli soldiers who warned against using Gazan civilians as human shields that "the army's high command silenced them" and that they were considered to be obstructing "the course of the war and the preservation of the forces."

An Israeli soldier described how two Palestinians were turned into shields, saying, “One was in his 20s and the other was 16. We were told, ‘They were used as human shields.’ One officer said, ‘Don’t beat them too much because we need them to open a place that the soldiers need to get to.’”

The newspaper quoted an Israeli soldier as saying that the Palestinians used by the Israeli army as human shields "are civilians who are not suspected of anything, and they are not taken for interrogation, and it is not clear to us how they are selected. Sometimes they are used for long weeks and transferred from one unit to another. They sleep in a stairwell inside a building that has been taken over by military units, and are often guarded by a soldier. They eat if someone accidentally throws them something to eat. They serve the forces by carrying heavy loads."

“They are constantly subjected to violence, especially when they are new and have to be subdued,” the same soldier added. “But even the old ones among them are subjected to violence and humiliation, and it often becomes extreme. An officer passes by and hits them on the head with a helmet. Any soldier who hears something or is just angry can go up to them and beat them up, in the presence of the officers. Almost any military force has a ‘shawish’ in its custody.”