JERUSALEM – The Israeli army is extensively using Palestinians as human shields in Gaza, referred to as “Shawish” by employing them at least six times daily.
The revelation was made by an Israeli soldier in an article published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
The soldier’s identity was kept confidential by the newspaper.
In his article, the anonymous Israeli soldier wrote that he was part of the Gaza war for nine months and first heard of the “Mosquito Protocol” in December 2023. This term refers to the Israeli military’s policy of using Palestinians as human shields.
According to the soldier, the policy was initially introduced as an operational necessity due to an alleged shortage of trained sniffer dogs in the army.
However, the soldier clarified that, in reality, there was no such shortage of trained dogs capable of detecting explosives in houses and tunnels. Despite this, the Israeli army chose to use innocent Palestinian civilians—called Shawish—to clear suspected homes and tunnels of explosives and resistance fighters.
The soldier stated that in Gaza today, Israeli troops do not enter any house without a Shawish. Every platoon has one, every company has four, every battalion has 12, and every brigade has at least 36—essentially, the Israeli army in Gaza has an auxiliary force made up of enslaved civilians.
Ongoing war crimes: Wounded Palestinian tied to jeep as human shield
The soldier recalled attending a meeting in which a brigade commander presented the Mosquito Protocol to a division commander as a successful and necessary tactic. He expressed his shock that this policy was treated as normal.
He further argued that the justification of using the protocol for soldier safety was baseless. For years, the army had standard procedures involving robots, drones or trained dogs for such high-risk operations—methods that take more time.
The soldier revealed that the high command demands immediate results, which is why Shawish are used.
In other words, the Palestinians are made human shields because it saves time, he said.
He criticized the policy for endangering Palestinian lives and noted that the civilians used are untrained, unable to detect the explosives and are not doing this willingly.
According to the soldier, the military police have announced investigations into only six such incidents which he called a cover-up. He argued that if the army truly wanted accountability, it would have to investigate over a thousand cases. Probing just six would only lead to a few scapegoats allowing the most perpetrators to escape justice.
He further stated that senior military officials have been aware of the Mosquito Protocol for over a year but never attempted to stop it. Instead, they continued presenting it as an operational need.
In his article, the soldier shared that he and some other soldiers tried to resist the practice but no one listened.
He wrote, “This is what happens when you’re obsessed with pulling the trigger, when you’re exhausted, when you’re fighting an endless war that has failed to recover the hostages alive. In such conditions, you lose your sense of right and wrong,”.
He questioned whether every Israeli mother who sends her son to fight in Gaza realizes that one day he might grab a Palestinian man—possibly the age of his father or brother—and force him to walk ahead into a minefield.
“We have not only failed to protect Israeli soldiers but we have also damaged their morality and conscience. It’s impossible to predict how this will affect our collective thinking and society once they return from war,” he added.
Heroic Chinese nurse protects newborns amid strong Earthquake (VIDEO)
