Thread by @sarahleah1

(1) You'll see a lot of these hoary claims of "human shields" in Gaza to justify Israel's deliberate and indiscriminate bombardment of civilians. They used the same line in the 2006 Lebanon war and multiple wars in Gaza. Don't fall for it.

https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/status/1392274638042972163

In 2006, Israel repeated this lie to justify killing 900 Lebanese civilians, basically treating all of South Lebanon as "shielded" by Hezbollah and so fair game:

hrw.org/news/2007/09/0…

(3) "Human shielding" is a specific crime: it refers to purposefully using civilians to render military forces immune from attack. Taking over a family's home and not permitting the family to leave to deter the enemy from attacking is a simple example of using "human shields."

(4) Urban warfare, however, is not the crime "shielding". In an area as densely populated as Gaza, combatants and civilians are mixed. They shouldn't be, but it's not always avoidable.

(5) Israel is not relieved from its obligation to take into account the risk to civilians simply because it considers the defending party responsible for having located legitimate military targets within or near populated areas.

(6) That is, the presence of a Hamas commander or military facility in a populated area in Gaza does not justify attacking the area without regard to the threatened civilian population. Giving them "warnings" to leave doesn't give them license to attack either.

(7) So, even after warnings given, Israel must still take all feasible precautions to avoid harming civilian life & property. This includes canceling an attack when apparent that the target is civilian or that the civilian loss would be disproportionate to expected military gain.

(8) For a real example of "human shielding" see this case of @IDF forces using a Palestinian boy as a human shield when they attacked a Palestinian home:

hrw.org/news/2010/11/2…

@IDF (9) Israel's #1 defense for hundreds of Gazans it killed in 2008/09 war was "human shielding". But in investigation after investigation, @HRW found no evidence, not in deaths caused by white phosphorous; not in attacks on civilians waving white flags:
hrw.org/report/2009/08…

@IDF @hrw (10) It offered up the same "human shielding" claim to treat all of Gaza as "terrorist" and indiscriminately bombard the territory in 2014:

hrw.org/news/2014/07/1…

@IDF @hrw (11) As @hrw said back then:

“Israel would never accept an argument that any Israeli home of an Israel Defense Force member would be a valid military target.”

But Israel tells us it's ok to demolish a 13 story building with dozens of families claiming Hamas members present.

@IDF @hrw (12) Israel has military bases, weapons, facilities all over civilian areas in the country, as @HRW documented during Lebanon war. Soldiers are everywhere in uniform. By Israel's faulty logic in Gaza, all of these areas are legitimate targets of attack.

hrw.org/reports/2007/i…