22Palestinian civilians used as human shields by Israeli forces: the "mosquito procedure"
- Soldiers called it the “mosquito procedure”: civilians sent first into tunnels and rigged houses.
- Teenagers and the elderly used as shields — by an army citing human shields as its justification.
- The soldiers themselves testified it was systemic, not rogue.
An Associated Press investigation published in May 2025 — drawing on the accounts of Israeli soldiers and seven Palestinian former detainees, gathered in part by the Israeli veterans' group Breaking the Silence — found that Israeli units in Gaza routinely forced detained civilians, including teenagers and the elderly, to enter tunnels and possibly booby-trapped buildings ahead of troops, a practice soldiers called the "mosquito procedure"; CNN, +972 Magazine and Haaretz had earlier reported the same tactic. The Israeli military says using civilians for military missions is strictly prohibited and stated in March 2025 that its Military Police had opened criminal investigations, even as Israel has repeatedly cited Hamas's use of human shields to justify its strikes in Gaza.
The record — 14 sources
Date, publication and headline for each source, as the source itself published them. Sorted by publication date. 14 of 14 dated; a blank means the publisher's page didn't expose it, and we don't guess.