By Juan Cole
October 25, 2024
Source: Informed Comment
Image by Takver, Creative Commons 2.0
Earlier this month the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory issued a report demanding that Israel, in the words of Commission Chair Navi Pillar,
“Israel must immediately stop its unprecedented wanton destruction of healthcare facilities in Gaza. By targeting healthcare facilities, Israel is targeting the right to health itself with significant long-term detrimental effects on the civilian population. Children in particular have borne the brunt of these attacks, suffering both directly and indirectly from the collapse of the health system.”
The Commission did not say so, but Israeli justifications for attacking hospitals, that they are terrorism ‘command centers,’ have repeatedly been found to be unsubstantiated.
The authors say that the Israeli assault on medical facilities has led to a collapse of the health care system in Gaza. This collapse has left chronically ill patients such as diabetics and cancer victims without treatment and led to many deaths.
The report by the numbers for the first nine months of the Israeli war on Gaza:Israeli forces were responsible for the deaths of 500 medical personnel.
The Israelis attacked 113 ambulances and damaged at least 61.
Israel conducted 498 assaults on health-care establishments within the Gaza Strip.
These attacks resulted in the direct deaths of 747 individuals and injuries to 969 others.
They had a negative impact on 110 facilities.
As of mid-July, out of the 36 hospitals in Gaza, 20 were entirely out of service, and only 16 remained partially operational
These 16 were experiencing extreme congestion and had a total bed capacity of merely 1,490 (the capacity of one fair-sized hospital of New York; this is for 2.2 million persons suffering from Israeli attacks for a year now).
WHO documented that 78 percent of the Israeli assaults on medical facilities involved the use of military force.
35 percent involved the hindering of access.
9 percent included militarized search and detention activities. These attacks were extensive and systematic.
The authors of the report assert that the Israeli military conducted air raids on hospitals, inflicting significant damage on structures and their environs, and causing numerous casualties. They encircled and laid siege to hospital grounds, stormed hospitals and apprehended medical personnel and patients, restricted the delivery of goods and medical supplies, blocked the movement of civilians in and out, issued expulsion directives but hindered safe evacuations. Additionally, Israeli security forces repeatedly impeded the access of humanitarian organizations.The Israeli military killed 19 members of or volunteers for the Palestine Red Crescent Society and detained and attacked many more. Medical workers expressed their belief that they had been deliberately targeted by Israeli security forces.
Hundreds of healthcare workers, including three hospital directors and the head of an orthopedic department, as well as patients and journalists, were apprehended by Israeli security forces at Shifa’, Nasr, and Awdah hospitals during military operations. In at least two instances, senior medical staff reportedly died while in Israeli custody.
Israel was still holding 128 healthcare workers, including four Palestine Red Crescent Society staff members, as of last July.
Israeli officials approved the medical evacuation from Gaza through Rafah of only 5,857 of 13,872 patients who had applied for it.
Israeli officials approved only about half of requests to depart Gaza by cancer patients.
In July, Israel “delayed the evacuation of 150 children from the Gaza Strip in need of specialized medical treatment.”
It’s bad.
Juan Cole
Juan R. I. Cole is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. For three and a half decades, he has sought to put the relationship of the West and the Muslim world in historical context, and he has written widely about Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and South Asia. His books include Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires; The New Arabs: How the Millennial Generation is Changing the Middle East; Engaging the Muslim World; and Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East.
Image by Takver, Creative Commons 2.0
Earlier this month the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory issued a report demanding that Israel, in the words of Commission Chair Navi Pillar,
“Israel must immediately stop its unprecedented wanton destruction of healthcare facilities in Gaza. By targeting healthcare facilities, Israel is targeting the right to health itself with significant long-term detrimental effects on the civilian population. Children in particular have borne the brunt of these attacks, suffering both directly and indirectly from the collapse of the health system.”
The Commission did not say so, but Israeli justifications for attacking hospitals, that they are terrorism ‘command centers,’ have repeatedly been found to be unsubstantiated.
The authors say that the Israeli assault on medical facilities has led to a collapse of the health care system in Gaza. This collapse has left chronically ill patients such as diabetics and cancer victims without treatment and led to many deaths.
The report by the numbers for the first nine months of the Israeli war on Gaza:Israeli forces were responsible for the deaths of 500 medical personnel.
The Israelis attacked 113 ambulances and damaged at least 61.
Israel conducted 498 assaults on health-care establishments within the Gaza Strip.
These attacks resulted in the direct deaths of 747 individuals and injuries to 969 others.
They had a negative impact on 110 facilities.
As of mid-July, out of the 36 hospitals in Gaza, 20 were entirely out of service, and only 16 remained partially operational
These 16 were experiencing extreme congestion and had a total bed capacity of merely 1,490 (the capacity of one fair-sized hospital of New York; this is for 2.2 million persons suffering from Israeli attacks for a year now).
WHO documented that 78 percent of the Israeli assaults on medical facilities involved the use of military force.
35 percent involved the hindering of access.
9 percent included militarized search and detention activities. These attacks were extensive and systematic.
The authors of the report assert that the Israeli military conducted air raids on hospitals, inflicting significant damage on structures and their environs, and causing numerous casualties. They encircled and laid siege to hospital grounds, stormed hospitals and apprehended medical personnel and patients, restricted the delivery of goods and medical supplies, blocked the movement of civilians in and out, issued expulsion directives but hindered safe evacuations. Additionally, Israeli security forces repeatedly impeded the access of humanitarian organizations.The Israeli military killed 19 members of or volunteers for the Palestine Red Crescent Society and detained and attacked many more. Medical workers expressed their belief that they had been deliberately targeted by Israeli security forces.
Hundreds of healthcare workers, including three hospital directors and the head of an orthopedic department, as well as patients and journalists, were apprehended by Israeli security forces at Shifa’, Nasr, and Awdah hospitals during military operations. In at least two instances, senior medical staff reportedly died while in Israeli custody.
Israel was still holding 128 healthcare workers, including four Palestine Red Crescent Society staff members, as of last July.
Israeli officials approved the medical evacuation from Gaza through Rafah of only 5,857 of 13,872 patients who had applied for it.
Israeli officials approved only about half of requests to depart Gaza by cancer patients.
In July, Israel “delayed the evacuation of 150 children from the Gaza Strip in need of specialized medical treatment.”
It’s bad.
Juan Cole
Juan R. I. Cole is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. For three and a half decades, he has sought to put the relationship of the West and the Muslim world in historical context, and he has written widely about Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and South Asia. His books include Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires; The New Arabs: How the Millennial Generation is Changing the Middle East; Engaging the Muslim World; and Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East.
Israel Has Taken Human Shields To A Whole New Criminal Level
The use of Palestinian civilians as ‘human baits’ in Gaza demonstrates how racism informs Israel’s warfare practices.
The use of Palestinian civilians as ‘human baits’ in Gaza demonstrates how racism informs Israel’s warfare practices.
By Neve Gordon
October 24, 2024
Source: Aljazeera
A screenshot from footage obtained by Al Jazeera shows a Palestinian man dressed in Israeli military forced to walk around in the rubble of a building in Gaza [Screenshot/Al Jazeera]
The use of human shields in war is not a new phenomenon. Militaries have forced civilians to serve as human shields for centuries. Yet, despite this long and dubious history, Israel has managed to introduce a new form of shielding in Gaza, one that appears unprecedented in the history of warfare.
The practice was initially revealed by Al Jazeera but, subsequently, Haaretz published an entire expose about how Israeli troops have abducted Palestinian civilians, dressed them in military uniforms, attached cameras to their bodies, and sent them into underground tunnels as well as buildings in order to shield Israeli troops.
“[I]t’s hard to recognise them. They’re usually wearing Israeli army uniforms, many of them are in their 20s, and they’re always with Israeli soldiers of various ranks,” the Haaretz article notes. But if you look more closely, “you see that most of them are wearing sneakers, not army boots. And their hands are cuffed behind their backs and their faces are full of fear.”
In the past, Israeli troops have used robots and trained dogs with cameras on their collars as well as Palestinian civilians to serve as shields. However, Palestinians who were used as shields always wore civilian clothes and thus could be identified as civilians. By dressing Palestinian civilians in military garb and sending them into the tunnels, the Israeli military has, in effect, altered the very logic of human shielding.
Indeed, human shielding has historically been predicated on recognising that the person shielding a military target is a vulnerable civilian (or prisoner of war). This recognition is meant to deter the opposing warring party from attacking the target because the vulnerability of the human shield ostensibly invokes moral restraints on the use of lethal violence. It is precisely the recognition of vulnerability that is key to the purported effectiveness of human shielding and for deterrence to have a chance of working.
The use of human shields in war is not a new phenomenon. Militaries have forced civilians to serve as human shields for centuries. Yet, despite this long and dubious history, Israel has managed to introduce a new form of shielding in Gaza, one that appears unprecedented in the history of warfare.
The practice was initially revealed by Al Jazeera but, subsequently, Haaretz published an entire expose about how Israeli troops have abducted Palestinian civilians, dressed them in military uniforms, attached cameras to their bodies, and sent them into underground tunnels as well as buildings in order to shield Israeli troops.
“[I]t’s hard to recognise them. They’re usually wearing Israeli army uniforms, many of them are in their 20s, and they’re always with Israeli soldiers of various ranks,” the Haaretz article notes. But if you look more closely, “you see that most of them are wearing sneakers, not army boots. And their hands are cuffed behind their backs and their faces are full of fear.”
In the past, Israeli troops have used robots and trained dogs with cameras on their collars as well as Palestinian civilians to serve as shields. However, Palestinians who were used as shields always wore civilian clothes and thus could be identified as civilians. By dressing Palestinian civilians in military garb and sending them into the tunnels, the Israeli military has, in effect, altered the very logic of human shielding.
Indeed, human shielding has historically been predicated on recognising that the person shielding a military target is a vulnerable civilian (or prisoner of war). This recognition is meant to deter the opposing warring party from attacking the target because the vulnerability of the human shield ostensibly invokes moral restraints on the use of lethal violence. It is precisely the recognition of vulnerability that is key to the purported effectiveness of human shielding and for deterrence to have a chance of working.
By dressing Palestinian civilians in Israeli military uniforms and casting them as combatants the Israeli military purposefully conceals their vulnerability. It deploys them as shields not to deter Palestinian fighters from striking Israeli soldiers, but rather to draw their fire and thus reveal their location, allowing the Israeli troops to launch a counterattack and kill the fighters. The moment these human shields, masked as soldiers, are sent into the tunnels, they are transformed from vulnerable civilians into fodder.
The Israeli army’s treatment of Palestinian civilians as expendable might not come as a surprise given the racialised form of colonial governance to which they have been subjected for decades. The deep-seated racism explains the ease with which Israeli President Isaac Herzog publicly claimed that there are “no innocent civilians” in the Gaza Strip as well as the prevailing indifference among Israel’s Jewish public to the tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians who have been killed.
Indeed, Israelis were not shocked when their political leaders repeatedly called to “erase” Gaza, “flatten” it, and turn it “into Dresden”. They have either supported or have been apathetic towards the damage and destruction of 60 percent of all civilian structures and sites in Gaza.
Within this context, dressing Palestinian civilians in military garb and sending them into tunnels is likely to be perceived in the eyes of most Israeli soldiers – and large sections within the Israeli public – as not much more than a detail.
Nonetheless, this new form of human shielding does shed important light on how racism plays out in the battlefield. It reveals that the military has taken to heart and operationalised Defence Minister Yoav Gallant’s racist guidelines that “we are fighting human animals”, exposing how Israeli soldiers are relating to Palestinians as either bait or prey. Like hunters who use raw meat to lure animals they want to capture or kill, the Israeli troops use Palestinian civilians as if they were bare flesh whose function is to attract the hunter’s prey.
Racism also informs Israel’s disregard for international law. By randomly detaining Palestinian civilians – including youth and the elderly – and then dressing them in military garb before forcing them to walk in front of soldiers, the Israeli troops violate not only the legal provision against the use of human shields but also the provision that deals with perfidy and prohibits warring parties from making use of military “uniforms of adverse Parties while engaging in attacks or in order to shield, favour, protect or impede military operations”. Two war crimes in a single action.
The horrifying truth, however, is that no matter how much evidence emerges around Israel’s use of this new human shielding practice or indeed any other breach of international law, the likelihood that it will change actions on the ground is small.
Hopes that international law will protect and bring justice to the Palestinian people have historically been misplaced because colonial racism – as critical legal scholars from Antony Anghie to Noura Erekat have pointed out – informs not merely Israel’s actions but also the international legal order, including the way the International Criminal Court (ICC) metes out justice. To get a glimpse of this racism, all one needs to do is browse the website of the International Criminal Court to see who it has been willing to indict.
Neve Gordon
During the first intifada Neve Gordon was the director of Physicians for Human Rights - Israel. He is the co-editor of Torture: Human Rights, Medical Ethics and the Case of Israel, the editor of From the Margins of Globalization: Critical Perspectives on Human Rights and the author of Israel's Occupation,
A screenshot from footage obtained by Al Jazeera shows a Palestinian man dressed in Israeli military forced to walk around in the rubble of a building in Gaza [Screenshot/Al Jazeera]
The use of human shields in war is not a new phenomenon. Militaries have forced civilians to serve as human shields for centuries. Yet, despite this long and dubious history, Israel has managed to introduce a new form of shielding in Gaza, one that appears unprecedented in the history of warfare.
The practice was initially revealed by Al Jazeera but, subsequently, Haaretz published an entire expose about how Israeli troops have abducted Palestinian civilians, dressed them in military uniforms, attached cameras to their bodies, and sent them into underground tunnels as well as buildings in order to shield Israeli troops.
“[I]t’s hard to recognise them. They’re usually wearing Israeli army uniforms, many of them are in their 20s, and they’re always with Israeli soldiers of various ranks,” the Haaretz article notes. But if you look more closely, “you see that most of them are wearing sneakers, not army boots. And their hands are cuffed behind their backs and their faces are full of fear.”
In the past, Israeli troops have used robots and trained dogs with cameras on their collars as well as Palestinian civilians to serve as shields. However, Palestinians who were used as shields always wore civilian clothes and thus could be identified as civilians. By dressing Palestinian civilians in military garb and sending them into the tunnels, the Israeli military has, in effect, altered the very logic of human shielding.
Indeed, human shielding has historically been predicated on recognising that the person shielding a military target is a vulnerable civilian (or prisoner of war). This recognition is meant to deter the opposing warring party from attacking the target because the vulnerability of the human shield ostensibly invokes moral restraints on the use of lethal violence. It is precisely the recognition of vulnerability that is key to the purported effectiveness of human shielding and for deterrence to have a chance of working.
The use of human shields in war is not a new phenomenon. Militaries have forced civilians to serve as human shields for centuries. Yet, despite this long and dubious history, Israel has managed to introduce a new form of shielding in Gaza, one that appears unprecedented in the history of warfare.
The practice was initially revealed by Al Jazeera but, subsequently, Haaretz published an entire expose about how Israeli troops have abducted Palestinian civilians, dressed them in military uniforms, attached cameras to their bodies, and sent them into underground tunnels as well as buildings in order to shield Israeli troops.
“[I]t’s hard to recognise them. They’re usually wearing Israeli army uniforms, many of them are in their 20s, and they’re always with Israeli soldiers of various ranks,” the Haaretz article notes. But if you look more closely, “you see that most of them are wearing sneakers, not army boots. And their hands are cuffed behind their backs and their faces are full of fear.”
In the past, Israeli troops have used robots and trained dogs with cameras on their collars as well as Palestinian civilians to serve as shields. However, Palestinians who were used as shields always wore civilian clothes and thus could be identified as civilians. By dressing Palestinian civilians in military garb and sending them into the tunnels, the Israeli military has, in effect, altered the very logic of human shielding.
Indeed, human shielding has historically been predicated on recognising that the person shielding a military target is a vulnerable civilian (or prisoner of war). This recognition is meant to deter the opposing warring party from attacking the target because the vulnerability of the human shield ostensibly invokes moral restraints on the use of lethal violence. It is precisely the recognition of vulnerability that is key to the purported effectiveness of human shielding and for deterrence to have a chance of working.
By dressing Palestinian civilians in Israeli military uniforms and casting them as combatants the Israeli military purposefully conceals their vulnerability. It deploys them as shields not to deter Palestinian fighters from striking Israeli soldiers, but rather to draw their fire and thus reveal their location, allowing the Israeli troops to launch a counterattack and kill the fighters. The moment these human shields, masked as soldiers, are sent into the tunnels, they are transformed from vulnerable civilians into fodder.
The Israeli army’s treatment of Palestinian civilians as expendable might not come as a surprise given the racialised form of colonial governance to which they have been subjected for decades. The deep-seated racism explains the ease with which Israeli President Isaac Herzog publicly claimed that there are “no innocent civilians” in the Gaza Strip as well as the prevailing indifference among Israel’s Jewish public to the tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians who have been killed.
Indeed, Israelis were not shocked when their political leaders repeatedly called to “erase” Gaza, “flatten” it, and turn it “into Dresden”. They have either supported or have been apathetic towards the damage and destruction of 60 percent of all civilian structures and sites in Gaza.
Within this context, dressing Palestinian civilians in military garb and sending them into tunnels is likely to be perceived in the eyes of most Israeli soldiers – and large sections within the Israeli public – as not much more than a detail.
Nonetheless, this new form of human shielding does shed important light on how racism plays out in the battlefield. It reveals that the military has taken to heart and operationalised Defence Minister Yoav Gallant’s racist guidelines that “we are fighting human animals”, exposing how Israeli soldiers are relating to Palestinians as either bait or prey. Like hunters who use raw meat to lure animals they want to capture or kill, the Israeli troops use Palestinian civilians as if they were bare flesh whose function is to attract the hunter’s prey.
Racism also informs Israel’s disregard for international law. By randomly detaining Palestinian civilians – including youth and the elderly – and then dressing them in military garb before forcing them to walk in front of soldiers, the Israeli troops violate not only the legal provision against the use of human shields but also the provision that deals with perfidy and prohibits warring parties from making use of military “uniforms of adverse Parties while engaging in attacks or in order to shield, favour, protect or impede military operations”. Two war crimes in a single action.
The horrifying truth, however, is that no matter how much evidence emerges around Israel’s use of this new human shielding practice or indeed any other breach of international law, the likelihood that it will change actions on the ground is small.
Hopes that international law will protect and bring justice to the Palestinian people have historically been misplaced because colonial racism – as critical legal scholars from Antony Anghie to Noura Erekat have pointed out – informs not merely Israel’s actions but also the international legal order, including the way the International Criminal Court (ICC) metes out justice. To get a glimpse of this racism, all one needs to do is browse the website of the International Criminal Court to see who it has been willing to indict.
Neve Gordon
During the first intifada Neve Gordon was the director of Physicians for Human Rights - Israel. He is the co-editor of Torture: Human Rights, Medical Ethics and the Case of Israel, the editor of From the Margins of Globalization: Critical Perspectives on Human Rights and the author of Israel's Occupation,
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