Mosquito Protocol: Israel’s Systematic Use of Palestinians as Human Shields

Israel has repeatedly claimed without evidence that Hamas endangers civilians by hiding behind human shields. It turns out, however, that Israel has systematically used Palestinians as human shields in violation of both international and Israeli law. A new investigation by the Associated Press joins reports by +972 Magazine, Haaretz and the Red Cross in documenting how Palestinians have been used as human shields to inspect buildings, tunnels and other sites in Gaza and the West Bank. The investigation includes testimony and evidence from both Israeli soldiers and Palestinian civilians, collected in part by the anti-occupation Israeli veterans’ group Breaking the Silence. In what is being called the “mosquito procedure,” Israeli soldiers are “ordered by senior officers to grab Palestinians next to them and to use them as human shields,” explains Breaking the Silence’s executive director, Nadav Weiman. “Dehumanization of Palestinians in Israel [has] become something so common that it also leads to these kind[s] of practices inside the IDF.”