By Haydar Oruç
In the news article published in Haaretz Newspaper on August 13, 2024, it was claimed that the Israeli army used civilians as human shields in Gaza. (haaretz.com)
According to news, Israeli soldiers, claiming that their own lives are more valuable, first send Palestinian civilians dressed in Israeli military uniforms into tunnels or buildings they believe to be booby-trapped, and then enter them themselves.
According to a report by Haaretz, based on the testimonies of soldiers who served in the region, the IDF arrested thousands of Gazan civilians without any justification after the decisive operation launched against Gaza and chose this method to prevent the death of its soldiers in case of an ambush by taking them into the alleged Hamas tunnels before the raids on the suspected sites.
It is alleged that the IDF has been using this method for months and that all commanders, including Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, were aware of these actions that violate international laws of war.
One wonders what those who claim at every opportunity that the Israeli army is the most moral army in the world will say after the revelation that the military uses civilians as human shields. This is because the law of war and humanitarian law prohibit the harming of civilians even while at war, and the morality of the Israeli army, which does not abide by these rules, is questionable.
In fact, immediately after October 7, Defense Minister Gallant’s speech to the troops, in which he said that all rules and restrictions had been lifted, led the troops to disregard the prohibition against using civilians as human shields.
Defense Minister Gallant is therefore directly responsible for these crimes committed by the IDF.
As it will be recalled, both Prime Minister Netanyahu and army spokesmen have claimed that Hamas was responsible for civilian deaths in Gaza because they were using civilians as human shields. Netanyahu even touched on this issue in his recent speech to the US Congress, where he said that the IDF was not killing civilians, but that Hamas was responsible for the deaths of civilians because they were being used as human shields.
Hamas has consistently denied these allegations, but Israel’s propaganda apparatus has persisted in spreading these lies.
However, Haaretz has uncovered the truth about who is actually using civilians as human shields in Gaza, just as Haaretz has revealed the truth about the IDF’s implementation of the Hanibal protocol, which stipulated on October 7 that its own citizens and soldiers would be killed if necessary to prevent them from falling into Hamas hands.
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, which is investigating Israel’s prime minister and defense minister for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza, should take this report by Haaretz into consideration and include this issue in the arrest request sent to the court and ensure that an arrest warrant is issued immediately.
It would also be appropriate to use this news as evidence in the ongoing genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
