Israel’s Use of Human Shields in Gaza Sparks Calls for US Probe

The Israel Defense Forces’ use of Palestinians – who are often handcuffed and forced to wear IDF uniforms – as human shields prompted the leading U.S. Muslim advocacy group on Monday to call on the Biden administration to investigate what experts say is a war crime by the No. 1 recipient of American military aid.

International law prohibits the use of combatants or civilians as human shields. However, numerous reports have emerged during Israel’s yearlong assault on Gaza – which has left more than 152,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing and is the subject of an International Criminal Court genocide case led by South Africa – of IDF troops forcing captured Palestinians, including children, to protect Israeli forces in life-threatening situations.

“The State Department and the Department of Justice must investigate these credible charges of widespread and systematic human rights abuses by military forces that receive weapons paid for by American taxpayers and used against a civilian population,” Nihad Awad, the national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement.