"Our lives are more important than their lives," many Israeli combat soldiers and commanders told Haaretz.

In a horrific description of the Palestinians randomly kidnapped by Israeli forces in Gaza to serve as human shields for soldiers during operations, Haaretz said they are usually wearing Israeli army uniforms; many of them are in their 20s; and they are always with Israeli soldiers of various ranks.

But if you look more closely, you can see most of them are wearing sneakers, not army boots. Their hands are cuffed behind their backs, and their faces are full of fear, it added.

The soldiers call each of them a Shawish, an Arabic word of Turkish origin meaning sergeant.

Israeli soldiers choose some Gazans for the missions and bring them to the brigades and battalions operating in the strip.

"There is pride in it," a source who took part in some of the locating work told Haaretz.

"The senior ranks know about it," added the source.

Systematic war crimes
 

There are numerous documented instances of civilians being used as human shields by Israeli forces in Gaza and the West Bank, which is considered a war crime, the Euro-Med Monitor said in a report.

In early July, video footage published by Al Jazeera showed Israeli soldiers tying Palestinians with ropes, installing cameras on their bodies, and forcing them to enter destroyed residences and tunnels in Gaza in search of explosives.

In another video posted online in June, the Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank tied a wounded Palestinian man to the hood of a military vehicle during a raid on the city of Jenin.

During the Al-Shifa Medical Complex raid in March 2024, Israeli forces exploited Palestinian civilians by making them form human barriers to surround Israeli soldiers and military vehicles or sending them under threat to residential homes and buildings to either help arrest or forcibly evacuate other civilians before the army raids and the subsequent destruction of many of these buildings, according to Euro-Med Monitor.

Palestinians were already used as human shields in 2002's Israeli aggression in the West Bank during the second intifada (uprising).

According to Haaretz, the High Court of Justice ruled in 2005 that the procedure was illegal and violated international law. At that time, the former Israeli chief of staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz ordered the military to enforce the court's ruling.

However, in recent months, the Israeli army did not comment on the matter although the most senior officers reportedly discussed it.

Sources say that Israeli Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi is among the senior officers aware of the use of Gazans as human shields, Haaretz noted.