What “human shields” means in international law?

What “human shields” means in international law

• Under humanitarian law, using civilians or other protected people to shield military targets or operations — by placing them in or near military objectives — is prohibited. (guide-humanitarian-law.org)
• It does not require that civilians be forced into a specific spot; the mere presence of civilians near or around a military objective — if intended as protection — may count as “human shields.” (Henry Jackson Society)

What tactics Hamas is alleged to use under “human-shield strategy”

According to multiple sources and captured documents, the following tactics are repeatedly attributed to Hamas as part of a systematic strategy. (Wikipedia)

• Embedding military infrastructure — weapons caches, rocket launchers, tunnels, command centers — inside or under civilian buildings: homes, schools, mosques, hospitals. 
• Using civilian facilities (especially hospitals and schools) for military purposes: e.g. storing weapons, positioning fighters, running command-and-control operations, launching attacks or rocket fire from such locations. (idf.il)
• Launching rockets or carrying out attacks from within or close to densely populated civilian areas, making it harder for a responding force to strike without causing large numbers of civilian casualties. (Henry Jackson Society)
• Constructing and using a tunnel network under urban, civilian-populated zones, with tunnel entrances or shafts hidden in civilian buildings. This means that military movement, manufacturing of weapons, storage, or hiding may all occur underneath civilian infrastructure. 

What Hamas aims to achieve by these tactics

The alleged goals behind this strategy are both military and political/propaganda:

• To shield its combatants, weapons, and infrastructure from enemy attacks — by making any strike risk large civilian casualties, thus discouraging or complicating military retaliation. (idf.il)
• To exploit the presence of civilians: when civilians are harmed in strikes, that can be used to delegitimize or draw condemnation against the attacking force — framing civilian deaths as evidence of war crimes. (idf.il)
• To complicate the conflict environment: hiding fighters and weapons among civilians makes distinguishing combatants from non-combatants difficult (blurred “friend or foe”), which can give the militants a tactical advantage in urban warfare or guerrilla-style resistance. (ICT)
• To use civilian population density and urban terrain to offset the technological and military superiority of the opposing force — turning dense cities and built-up areas into a kind of natural shield. (ICT)

Why it’s considered a “war crime” when used

• International humanitarian law (IHL) prohibits using civilians as shields — whether by forcing them to shield a military asset (“active” shielding) or by placing military assets among civilians to exploit their presence (“passive” shielding). (guide-humanitarian-law.org)
• The use of civilian infrastructure (hospitals, schools, mosques) for military purposes — particularly when civilians are present or able to be present — undermines their protected status, placing civilians at disproportionate risk. (idf.il)
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