The Henry Jackson Society — Andrew Fox and Salo Aizenberg — 2025
Executive Summary
Since 7 October 2023, the UN has issued 367 reports that are filed under the subject of Gaza Strip. 1 A search of these reports reveals that the UN has rarely acknowledged and never asserted the use by Hamas of human shields. The phenomenon of human shields has only been mentioned four times, in each case in only a single sentence, as either an allegation, an Israeli claim or an unverified report that this practice occurred. The UN has never dedicated a single paragraph, let alone an entire report, to analysing how Hamas has fought the war in Gaza.
In contrast, the UN has issued at least ten reports critical of Israel's conduct in Gaza, from accusations of indiscriminate attacks to illegal attacks on hospitals. A November 2024 investigative report by the UN accused Israel of committing genocide, but the document makes no mention of Hamas's fighting tactics in Gaza, let alone provides an analysis. The NGOs (non-governmental organisations) Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch each released reports in December 2024 accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. Over hundreds of pages of text, the reader would struggle to realise that Hamas even exists in Gaza. Neither report provides any discussion or analysis of Hamas's human shield strategy.
This report by the Henry Jackson Society represents the missing chapter in all the UN and NGO reports. It provides a comprehensive analysis of Hamas's systematic use of human shield tactics during the 7 October Israel-Hamas war and the broader Gaza conflict. Drawing on extensive evidence from international media, military assessments, legal frameworks and firsthand accounts, the report outlines how Hamas has embedded its military operations within civilian infrastructure, weaponising Gaza's population and urban landscape to achieve both tactical and strategic objectives
Key Findings
Hamas has deliberately and systematically exploited Gaza's civilian infrastructure to shield its military assets from attack by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), violating the prohibition of the use of civilian shields under the Law of Armed Conflict. Hamas has employed ten distinct human shield strategies that knowingly place the civilian population at high risk of harm throughout the 7 October IsraelHamas war. l
Hamas's senior leadership has openly admitted to using human shields since gaining control of Gaza nearly 20 years ago, and similarly during the 7 October war. Hamas leaders have also boasted about their willingness to sacrifice civilian lives in what they consider an acceptable cost in their war against Israel.
Leading international political and military leaders have verified and documented Hamas's use of human shields both in past conflicts and in the current war. US leadership has been particularly vocal in criticising Hamas for its use of human shields, citing the strategy as being a major reason why many civilians have been harmed in the 7 October war. The EU has specifically condemned Hamas's use of human shields after 7 October. l
Historical evidence, extensive third-party reporting, Hamas propaganda videos and IDF-sourced evidence confirm Hamas's illegal exploitation of civilian locations for military purposes. Despite significant independent, non-IDF evidence of Hamas's human shield strategy, large segments of the mainstream media and numerous NGOs and observers consistently downplay, ignore or express scepticism regarding Hamas's use of this strategy. l
The IDF has provided thousands of high-quality videos and photographs of its activities in Gaza that prove without doubt that Hamas has militarised large portions of the civilian infrastructure of the Gaza Strip. However, even when Hamas's human shield tactics are plainly evident, they are often presented by the media as unsubstantiated claims, and not as a leading cause of civilian casualties in Gaza. l
The UN and many NGOs accusing Israel of war crimes and genocide deliberately disregard Hamas's human shield strategy. This glaring omission erases Hamas as an active party in the conflict, instead placing full blame for civilian casualties on Israel. All of the evidence documented in this report is absent from UN and NGO reports that discuss the war in Gaza. l
A proper evaluation of the 7 October war must assess the full range of tactics used by Hamas to engage in combat against incoming IDF forces. After the attack on 7 October, Hamas was aware that Israel was going to invade Gaza to recover hostages and attack Hamas assets. The human shield strategy was intended to impede the IDFs efforts and to generate worldwide condemnation of Israel when civilians we're inevitably killed on the urban battlefield. This report documents Hamas's human shield strategy, providing a tool for the researchers, media and NGOs that continue to cover the 7 October IsraelHamas war.
This report reveals that Hamas's human shield strategy not only violates international law but also exacerbates civilian suffering and complicates the resolution of the Gaza conflict. It underscores the necessity of confronting these tactics with evidence-based reporting, rigorous legal scrutiny and a commitment to safeguarding civilian lives. By exposing these realities, this report aims to contribute to a more balanced and informed global discourse on the conflict.
Introduction
Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023 in a barbaric assault that killed 1,200 Israelis, including over 800 civilians, with an additional 251 taken hostage. Even as Israel was still collecting bodies from devastated communities in southern Israel, and well before the IDFs ground entry into Gaza, NGOs and academics we're already levelling charges of genocide against Israel. For example, on 15 October 2023, a group of nearly 900 academics made a statement warning of genocide in Gaza. 2 Claims of genocide we're formally charged against Israel by South Africa in an application filed at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in December 2023. 3 While the case at the ICJ will take years to litigate, many observers falsely asserted that the ICJ considered genocide in Gaza to be plausible. 4 In September 2024, a UN Special Committee issued a report that concluded that policies and practices of Israel during the reporting period are consistent with the characteristics of genocide, 5 followed up in December 2024 by reports from the NGOs Amnesty International (Amnesty) 6 and Human Rights Watch (HRW) 7 claiming Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.
What is immediately apparent in all scholarly articles, NGO publications, court filings and UN reports charging Israel with genocide is the effective removal of Hamas as a relevant party to the conflict in Gaza. Hamas's actions on 7 October are typically acknowledged and condemned, but regarded as little more than one dreadful day of criminal acts by Hamas in the context of a broader conflict that is primarily Israel's fault. But beginning on 8 October, Hamas has been treated as a non-actor in Gaza it is as if the IDF is not engaging in combat with a potent military force in Gaza that prepared the battlefield for an IDF entry over a 17- year period, but is attacking defenceless civilians for the sole purpose of killing them. By the end of January 2025, the IDF had suffered 405 soldiers killed in action and more than 2,500 had been wounded.
This demonstrates that there is clearly aggressive force-on-force combat challenging the IDF in Gaza. 8 The removal of Hamas as an actor in the conflict necessarily means that there is no mention of Hamas's human shield strategy, whereby the militant group has intentionally embedded its core military infrastructure within large areas of civilian Gaza. This report demonstrates that Hamas's use of Gaza's civilian infrastructure for its military operations and combat tactics is indisputable. There is widespread acknowledgement that Hamas has built a vast tunnel network beneath densely populated urban areas of Gaza, estimated to be around 500 kilometres long. Extensive documentation of this tunnel network existed well before 7 October, including numerous investigative video reports from Al Jazeera.
Ten Elements of Hamas's Human Shield Strategy
Hamas's human shield strategy encompasses ten categories of activities, each of which is identified and analysed in this report.
Tunnel network.Hamas's tunnel network is the centrepiece of the groups military doctrine and its primary strategy for using human shields. Hamas has constructed a vast, multilayered city beneath the surface, widely estimated to be 500 kilometres in length. The network was intentionally built underneath all areas of civilian Gaza, with an average of 1.4 kilometres of tunnels for each square kilometre of territory. These tunnels serve various purposes: protecting Hamas's command centres and leadership; providing longterm shelter for fighters; enabling tactical combat manoeuvres against the IDF; facilitating transportation across Gaza; allowing fighters to approach the Israeli border undetected; and safeguarding locations for weapons manufacturing, computer servers and other strategic assets.
Tunnel shafts.Although shafts are an integral part of the tunnel network, they are considered a separate human shield strategy because they serve as ground-level access points to the tunnels. Hamas has constructed thousands of these shafts inside residential homes (including in childrens bedrooms), schools, mosques and other civilian locations.
Booby-traps. Hamas has booby-trapped thousands of civilian buildings in Gaza, creating a deadly environment for IDF soldiers. These traps have proven highly effective and are among the leading causes of IDF casualties. Efforts to neutralise the booby-trap threat through airstrikes and ground-level attacks have significantly contributed to the widespread destruction in Gaza, likely resulting in civilian casualties.
Civilian structures used for combat and weapons storage. Hamas has exploited civilian buildings, including residential apartments, for both combat operations and weapons storage. The organisation has frequently engaged IDF soldiers from within Gazan homes, thereby putting the civilian population at risk. The group has stored a variety of weapons in civilian structures, such as homes, mosques, schools, UNRWA facilities and even beneath childrens beds, for either long-term storage or active combat purposes. Operatives dressed in civilian clothing entered these armed positions to fire at IDF targets and then exited, blending back into the civilian population.
Rockets stored and launched from civilian locations.The indiscriminate firing of rockets at Israel has been one of Hamas's main tactics for nearly two decades. This war crime is further compounded by Hamas's positioning of thousands of rocket launchers and rockets in civilian areas across Gaza, including inside schools and mosques. These locations are selected to evade detection and complicate Israel's efforts to prevent rocket attacks.
Hospitals used for military purposes. Hamas has consistently used hospitals as command centres, locations for hiding operatives, combat positions and sites for hostage-taking. Despite ongoing efforts by critics of Israel to downplay or dismiss this tactic, Hamas's use of hospitals as part of its fundamental human shield strategy has been thoroughly documented and substantiated.
Schools used for military purposes.Hamas has consistently used schools to shelter operatives and establish command centres. This practice increased in the latter half of the Gaza war as the IDF destroyed key tunnels, forcing Hamas to relocate its command centres. The exploitation of schools, one of the most cynical aspects of the human shield strategy, is we'll documented.
Humanitarian zones used for military purposes.Hamas has consistently used humanitarian zones to establish comma, launch rockets and store weapons. This misuse of humanitarian zones escalated as the conflict progressed as Hamas's infrastructure faced increasing destruction and civilians sought refuge in these areas. Notably, IDF forces killed Hamas military commander Mohamed Deif while he was attending a meeting in the Mawasi humanitarian zone.
Hamas's policy of dressing in civilian clothes. Hamas aims to confuse IDF operations by disguising its operatives as civilians and portraying all casualties in Gaza as non-combatants. The group frequently films itself engaging in combat while wearing civilian clothing. After the 2025 ceasefire, members of Hamas notably appeared in Gaza once again in full military uniform.
- Hamas's ruses of war and other human shield tactics. Hamas has employed various strategies that deliberately blur the distinction between civilians and combatants. These include booby-trapping toys, using children as combatants and lookouts, commandeering aid and preventing civilians from evacuating expected combat zones. The next sections document the use of Hamas's human shield strategy across th
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