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BREAKING: Testimony from an Israeli soldier admitting to warcrimes and exposing how human shields are used regularly in the Israeli army.
I saw that six military police (MPI) investigations were opened regarding the use of Palestinians as human shields, and I almost choked. I’ve seen cover-ups in my life, but this is a new peak. In Gaza, human shields are used at least six times a day. If MPI were serious about doing their job, they would have to open at least 2,190 investigations. But MPI only wants to be able to tell themselves—and the world—that they are investigating, so they found a few scapegoats and pinned the entire case on them.
I was in Gaza for nine months. I saw quite a few new procedures. One of the worst was the “Mosquito Procedure”: innocent Palestinians were forced to enter homes in Gaza and “clear” them—that is, check that there were no militants or explosives inside. We called it by various names—“Mosquito Procedure,” “Shawishim” (slaves), “Platforms.”
I first encountered it in December 2023, two months after the ground maneuver began. This was long before there was a shortage of Oketz unit dogs, which later became the crazy and unofficial excuse for this crazy and unofficial procedure. At the time, I didn’t realize how widespread it would become. Today, almost every squad has a “Shawish,” and infantry forces do not enter a house before a “Shawish” clears it. That means there are four “Shawishim” in a company, 12 in a battalion, and 36 in a brigade—at least. We are holding a layer of slaves, and MPI is trying to brush it off with six investigations.
I attended a meeting where one of the brigade commanders presented the “Mosquito Concept” to the division commander as a “necessary operational achievement to complete the mission.” It was so normalized that I thought I was hallucinating. Already in August, when Haaretz and testimonies to Breaking the Silence exposed this, a senior official said that both the Chief of Staff and the outgoing Southern Command General were aware of the procedure.
Six months have passed since the initial report, and soldiers continued to capture Palestinians and force them to enter houses and tunnels ahead of them. I waited to hear the Chief of Staff and the Southern Command General say something—it never happened.
The highest levels in the field have known about human shields for over a year, and no one has tried to stop it. On the contrary, it was defined as an operational necessity. It’s important to note that we can enter houses without using human shields. We did it for months using a structured entry procedure that involved deploying a robot, a drone, or a dog. That method worked, but it took time, and command demanded results now. In other words, we forced Palestinians to serve as human shields not because it was safer, but because it was faster.
Because of this, we endangered the lives of Palestinians who weren’t even suspected of anything—except for being present at the wrong time.
A fellow officer told me about an incident in his unit: in one of the houses a “Shawish” cleared, they encountered an armed militant. The “Shawish” was an elderly civilian (an innocent man), and when he realized he had made a mistake, he soiled himself in fear. I don’t know what happened to him—I was afraid to ask. That’s just one case, but it shows how the claims about “security” are a myth. These people are not professional fighters; they don’t know how to clear a house. The soldiers don’t trust them anyway, because they are there against their will. Sometimes, they are sent in just to ignite or demolish the house. This has nothing to do with security.
Almost every squad has a “Shawish,” at least 36 per brigade, with full knowledge of the command. We are holding hundreds of slaves, and MPI opened only six investigations.
I don’t want to think about the psychological impact this has on the people forced to walk into a house, terrified, instead of armed soldiers.
Source: Haaretz.
Mike