Asymmetric Warfare and the Use of Human Shields

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Asymmetric Warfare and the Use of Human Shields UNIVERSITY OF UTAH S.J. QUINNEY COLLEGE OF LAW LEGAL STUDIES RESEARCH PAPER SERIES A Critical Decision Point on the Battlefield-Friend, Foe, or Innocent Bystander Matthew V. Ezzo and Amos N. Guiora [Research Paper No. 057- 08-03] This paper can be downloaded without charge from the Social Science Research Network Electronic Paper Collection: http://ssrn.com/abstracts=33333 A Critical Decision Point On the Battlefield – Friend, Foe, or Innocent Bystander By Matthew V. Ezzo and Amos N. Guiora Captain James Smith reported to the Battalion Command Post outside of Kabul, Afghanistan. Captain Smith was anxious to receive the next mission for India Company. Captain Smith and his men had been actively engaging al Qaeda supported militants over the past 2 weeks. They had successively conducted raid operations against militant compounds near the Afghanistan and Pakistan border. On each occasion, the militants were caught off-guard and therefore had little opportunity to offer resistance. Captain Smith sat in the Command Post listening to the latest intelligence reports from the Battalion Intelligence Officer. The intelligence reports indicate an unusually large amount of activity from the local civilian population in and around suspected militant strongholds. Captain Smith notes this as the Battalion Commander steps into the tent to issue the operations order for the next day. India Company is to conduct an early morning raid on a suspected militant compound near the southeastern Afghanistan and Pakistani border. Unmanned aerial vehicles have provided imagery that indicates that the militants are consolidating and re- grouping in a large clay and brick enclosed compound at the base of Hill 402. India Company is to seize the objective by force and consolidate on the compound so that follow-on forces can conduct a thorough search of the compound for weapons caches and any other valuable intelligence. Captain Smith leaves the Command Post confident about his mission and anxious to brief his subordinates. Captain Smith and his men infiltrate to the objective under the cover of darkness and reach the compound about an hour before their pre-dawn, coordinated attack. As Captain Smith and some of his subordinate leaders are conducting a visible reconnaissance of the compound using their night vision devices, they begin to notice a group of women and older males starting to walk the perimeter of the compound about an hour before dawn…just when the attack is supposed to launch. The women and older aged males appear to be unarmed, but seem to be walking the perimeter of the compound in a fashion normally associated with sentries walking their post. Captain receives a call on the radio from the Battalion Commander asking him to launch the Matthew V. Ezzo, J.D. is currently a Presidential Management Fellow with the Department of the Navy. The opinions and content expressed in this article are exclusively those of Mr. Ezzo and Prof. Guiora. They do not represent the views of the Department of Defense or the Department of the Navy. Amos N. Guiora, Professor of Law, S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah, Publications include ―Global Perspectives on Counter-terrorism‖ (Aspen Publishers); ―Constitutional Limits on Coercive Interrogation‖ (Oxford University Press, March, 2008); ―Fundamentals of Counterterrorism‖ (Aspen Publishers, Fall, 2008), Interrogating the Detainees: Extending a Hand or a Boot,‖ University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, 41 U. MICH. J.L. REFORM ___(forthcoming) The authors would like to thank Mr. Jeffrey Lowe (J.D. expected, S.J. Quinney College of Law, May 2009) for his significant research and editing contributions. 1 attack as planned as the follow-on forces are on their way. Captain Smith knows he is at a critical decision point…are these people walking the perimeter of the compound innocent civilians or are they working with the militants and therefore legitimate targets?1 I. Introduction We come to this article from different—yet ultimately similar—professional backgrounds. One of us, Matt Ezzo, was a United States Marine Corps infantry officer who served in various company level leadership positions. During his time in the Marine Corps, Mr. Ezzo led Marine Corps infantry units during security operations in the Republic of Haiti and various operations in Kosovo and Albania. Amos Guiora served for 19 years in the Israel Defense Forces and had command responsibility for the development of an interactive video based on international law, Israeli law and the IDF code teaching junior commanders an 11 point code of conduct with respect to a civilian population in ―armed conflict short of war‖. We write this article based on our mutual conviction that a (perhaps the) significant challenge facing military commanders in operational counter-terrorism is the requirement to distinguish between innocent civilians and combatants2. The rules of war boil down to one central principle: the need to distinguish combatants from noncombatants.3 That requirement is rooted in and articulated by international law which 1 This scenario is fictitious, but is meant to serve as a potential real-world situation for junior commanders on today‘s battlefields. This scenario should be kept in mind as you read this article regarding the critical strategic, operational and legal decisions that junior commanders must assess and ultimately make regarding human shields. Human shields are a very real threat on today‘s battlefield. Identifying whether they are there voluntarily or not is an important assessment that a junior commander may have to make before he decides to engage an enemy force. 2 In the context of operational counter-terrorism we define combatants as individuals who threaten innocent civilians and soldiers alike. However, we do not argue that an individual who kills a soldier is a terrorist, as terrorism is acts only against civilian targets. A combatant in the terrorism paradigm is not a soldier, as he/she does not meet the four-part Geneva Convention requirement (bear arms openly, follow the rules of war, belong to a chain of command and wear insignia). In terms of dress, the civilian is undistinguishable from the combatant and therein lies the dilemma facing the commander who must decide quickly if the person before him/her is a represents a threat. 3 See also Amos N. Guiora, Teaching Morality in Armed Conflict – The Israel Defence Forces Model Jewish Political Studies Review, 18 JEWISH POL. STUD. REV., NO. 1-2 at 3 (Spring 2006)(―What concerns us is how the contemporary army prepares itself for today's war, which is 2 soldiers are obligated to act in accordance with. Unlike traditional war in which soldiers fought soldiers and tanks attacked tanks, the post 9/11 world is characterized by the ―unseen enemy in the dark shadows of the back alleys‖. What increasingly complicates the commanders‘ dilemma in determining the status either of the individual standing before him, or the shadow he believes to be a person in the near-by alley, is what we describe and define as ―voluntary human shields‖. Our definition refers to a civilian who voluntarily4 places himself between the soldier and the armed combatant. We have chosen to address this issue for multiple reasons: commanders demand clear criteria regarding the status of those in the ―zone of combat‖5; the innocent civilian must be protected6; international law demands the soldier be trained in distinguishing between the innocent and non-innocent and the community supporting terrorist organizations must know that the truly innocent will be protected (to the greatest extent possible). fundamentally different from yesterday's war. That difference relates to the core question of whom is the soldier fighting; who is the enemy? Contemporary armed conflict does not and will not take place on the vast battlefields of the past; rather, it will occur in the back alleys of Groznyy, Nablus and Mosul. The soldier will not be facing another soldier wearing a uniform with insignia, carrying his weapon openly, and serving in a unit with a clear chain of command. In the contemporary combat arena, the combat is far more complicated, complex, and ambiguous than in traditional warfare for two primary reasons. Increasingly, combat will occur in urban centers and not on a battlefield, and civilians will be very much present.‖). 4 A term we define as: A person not compelled by another‘s influence, who acts without compulsion and on his or her own initiative; See also Black‘s Law Dictionary (8th ed., West 2004)(Voluntary - 1. Done by design or intention <voluntary act>. 2. Unconstrained by interference; not impelled by outside influence <voluntary statement>. 3. Without valuable consideration; gratuitous <voluntary gift. 4. Having merely nominal consideration <voluntary deed>); See also Merriam-Webster Online (Voluntary - 1: proceeding from the will or from one's own choice or consent 2: unconstrained by interference: SELF-DETERMINING 3: done by design or intention: INTENTIONAL <voluntary manslaughter> 4: of, relating to, subject to, or regulated by the will <voluntary behavior> 5: having power of free choice 6: provided or supported by voluntary action <a voluntary organization> 7: acting or done of one's own free will without valuable consideration or legal obligation.) Available at http://www.m- w.com/dictionary/voluntarily (last viewed 25 January 2008). 5 The term refers to the location of a terrorist attack and highlights its flexibility; unlike the set- piece battle field of yesterday, the ―zone of combat‖ includes a just hijacked commercial airliner, a shopping center under attack and an alley in Mosul where American forces are under fire 6 It is our thesis that the innocent civilian requires protection from two sources: the military unit that may mis-identify him and categorize him as a threat and from the terrorist organization that has pushed him into the line of fire 3 History provides some insight on the impact human shields have on the decisions made on today‘s battlefield.
Recommended publications
  • When Palestinians Became Human Shields: Counterinsurgency, Racialization, and the Great Revolt (1936–1939)
    Comparative Studies in Society and History 2021;63(3):625–654. 0010-4175/21 © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work. doi:10.1017/S0010417521000219 When Palestinians Became Human Shields: Counterinsurgency, Racialization, and the Great Revolt (1936–1939) CHARLES ANDERSON Department of History, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, USA On 24 September 1936, Palestinian rebel fighters conducted a multipronged assault on British targets in Nablus. The raid was testament to the growing boldness and reach of the rebels, whose power had waxed in late summer as their months-old insurgency deepened throughout the country. During what the military later purported was only a heavy barrage of sniping, the local commanding officer, Brigadier J. F. Evetts, took an extraordinary step as countermeasure. Fearing a decisive rebel offensive on the city’s garrison, he summoned the mayor, Sulayman Tuqan, to army headquarters. Tuqan believed that he was being brought in for consultation with government officials, but when he arrived, he was escorted to the roof of the building, where he was forced to spend the night as a visible, high-value human shield.
    [Show full text]
  • View/Print Page As PDF
    MENU Policy Analysis / PolicyWatch 3387 Hezbollah’s Secrets Explode—and Are Covered Up—Again by Assaf Orion Oct 8, 2020 Also available in Arabic ABOUT THE AUTHORS Assaf Orion Assaf Orion, a retired Israeli brigadier general and defense strategist whose broad research scope ranges from relations with China to Israel’s regional political-military strategy and policy, is the Liz and Mony Rueven International Fellow with The Washington Institute. Brief Analysis Hezbollah leaders are still trying to conceal their strategy of hiding military assets in civilian areas, but each self-explosion and Israeli exposure reveals more about the group's political plight, its persistent quest for precision missiles, and its skill with information operations. ast week saw another round in Israel’s efforts to expose Hezbollah’s precision weapons and its longstanding L human-shield strategy inside Lebanon, with the group inevitably fighting back through denials and cover-ups. As the new revelations and the group’s counterpunches make clear, the status quo poses a profound risk to both the Lebanese people and regional security. In response, Israel and the international community need to pursue more intensive information campaigning, integrative policy, and peacekeeping improvements. DUELING SPEECHES O n the evening of September 29, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the UN General Assembly by video. Recalling the August 4 port blast in Beirut and the September 22 explosion in Ain Qana, he revealed the existence of a “secret arms depot” near a gas company in the capital’s Janah neighborhood, urging the Lebanese people to demand that Hezbollah and Iran “tear these depots down.” Shortly thereafter, the Israel Defense Forces published further details about Hezbollah’s Janah site along with two other manufacturing sites for precision- guided missiles in the Laylaki and Choueifat neighborhoods, both sheltered beneath residential buildings.
    [Show full text]
  • Beyond Human Shielding: Civilian Risk Exploitation and Indirect Civilian Targeting
    Beyond Human Shielding: Civilian Risk Exploitation and Indirect Civilian Targeting Geoffrey S. Corn 96 INT’L L. STUD. 118 (2020) Volume 96 2020 Published by the Stockton Center for International Law ISSN 2375-2831 International Law Studies 2020 Beyond Human Shielding: Civilian Risk Exploitation and Indirect Civilian Targeting Geoffrey S. Corn CONTENTS I. Introduction ............................................................................................. 119 II. The Law of Armed Conflict and the “Basic Rule” ............................ 131 III. The Doctrine of Innocent Instrumentality ......................................... 145 IV. What Makes an Attack “Innocent” for the Purposes of the Innocent Instrumentality Doctrine? ..................................................... 152 V. Why Applying this Doctrine Will Enhance Condemnation of Civilian Exploitation ............................................................................... 156 Vinson and Elkins Professor of Law, South Texas College of Law Houston; Lieuten- ant Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired) and former Special Assistant for Law of War Matters and Chief of the Law of War Branch, Office of the Judge Advocate General, U.S. Army; Chief of International Law for U.S. Army Europe; Professor of International and National Secu- rity Law at the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s School. Special thanks to my research assistants Aby Lukos and Kyle Moore. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the U.S. government, the U.S. Department
    [Show full text]
  • Israel's Other Terrorism Challenge
    The University of Notre Dame Australia ResearchOnline@ND Arts Book Chapters School of Arts 2010 Israel's other terrorism challenge Sandra M. Nasr University of Notre Dame Australia, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/arts_chapters Recommended Citation Nasr, S. (2010). Israel's other terrorism challenge. In R. Jackson, E. Murphy, E & S. Poynting (eds.). Contemporary state terrorism: Theory and practice. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. This Book Chapter is brought to you by the School of Arts at ResearchOnline@ND. It has been accepted for inclusion in Arts Book Chapters by an authorized administrator of ResearchOnline@ND. For more information, please contact [email protected]. (In Contemporary State Terrorism: Theory and Practice , Sep. 2009) ‘Israel’s other Terrorism Challenge’ By Sandra Nasr In the West, we hear a lot about terrorism in relation to Israel: Palestinian militants in Gaza using rockets to fire at Israeli towns over the ‘border’; and Palestinian suicide bombers strapping on explosives and detonating their payloads in Israeli cafes, bars, restaurants and buses. These attacks on civilian targets for the purpose of making a political statement are, indeed, examples of terrorism and Israeli civilians are right to demand that their government act decisively to prevent such acts. Yet Israel often responds to these terrorist tactics by adopting its own. When Israel sanctions and employs tactics which are designed to instil fear, humiliate, injure or otherwise cause harm to a civilian population for a political purpose, the state is guilty of state terrorism. Identifying those policies which constitute state terrorism requires an examination of both the intent and effect of actions (and inaction) by the state.
    [Show full text]
  • Operation Olive Branch: a Political – Military Assessment Dr
    Foreign Policy & Security 2018/2 January 2018 Operation Olive Branch: A Political – Military Assessment Dr. Can Kasapoğlu | EDAM Defense Analyst Sinan Ülgen | EDAM Chairman Foreign Policy & Security 2018/2 Operation Olive Branch: A Political – Military Assessment Dr. Can Kasapoğlu | EDAM Defense Analyst Sinan Ülgen | EDAM Chairman Executive Summary Operation Olive Branch’s air campaign, especially at the already declared objective of clearing the entire Afrin its outset, marked the highest sortie– rates and the most province from PKK terrorist organization’s offshoots, then intensive operational tempo in Turkey’s cross–border mili- the second ground phase has to take place in the form tary record in the last decade. As reported by the Turkish of urban warfare. Considering the al–Bab offensive during General Staff, on the very first day of the intervention, the the Euphrates Shield, Turkish military planners should at- air force assigned 72 combat aircraft which is tantamount tach utmost importance to tunnel and trench complexes, to roughly 25% of the total F–16 variants and the F–4 2020s improvised explosive devices, and anti–tank guided mis- in the inventory.1 At the time of writing, about %10 of the siles (ATGMs). fighter arsenal have been flying combat missions over -Af rin. Despite the pilot–to–cockpit ratio problems, so far, the An alternative option to fighting a risky urban warfare Turkish Air Force is performing decisively. is to lay siege on Afrin’s town center, and force the YPG mil- itants to the leave. Although siege warfare is legal in terms The underlying reason of the abovementioned heavy of the law of armed conflict, such a risk–aversive concept bombardment strategy is to gain rapid dominance for the could only succeed when coupled with very effective infor- follow–on land operations.
    [Show full text]
  • Justice Denied: Gaza Human Shield
    Justice Denied Gaza human shield survivors and the systemic failure of Israel’s military investigation system to provide accountability September 2018 Justice Denied “[The human shield incident] affects every area of my life, even my daily life and my studies. Anyone who sees me says ‘you’ve changed’. My view of life is more complicated now, I’m not optimistic—not in my daily life or even the future. I’m always afraid and I have to think a lot before I do anything. A lot of people who hear my story say ‘may God help you’. A lot of close relatives said it is like a movie, something you can’t imagine.” - High school student, Ahmed Abu Reyda, about life after being used as a human shield Justice Denied Executive Summary In the summer of 2014, during the military bombardment of Gaza that Israel termed ‘Operation Protective Edge’, at least five Palestinians in Gaza, including a child, had their lives endangered when used as human shields by Israeli military forces. These five documented incidents began within a 48-hour period in a confined geographical vicinity during the Israeli forces’ ground invasion into Khuza’a town and Wadi As- Salqa village in Gaza between 21 July and 1 August. The five incidents, publicly catalogued together for the first time in this report, are part of a pattern of reported human shield use against Palestinian civilians by Israel's military forces over a number of years that has effectively gone unpunished. This state of affairs is indicative of there being an established practice or policy of Israel's military to use Palestinian civilians as human shields.
    [Show full text]
  • Human Shields Directly
    HUMAN SHIELDS: STANDARD OF PROTECTION UNDER INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW AND INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW AUTHOR: KATERYNA DRONOVA SUPERVISOR: PROFESSOR ROGER O'KEEFE Submitted to the Central European University, Legal Studies Department, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Laws in Human Rights CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2012 ABSTRACT This thesis examines the existing legal framework governing the use of human shields, an increasingly deadly tactic prevailing in modern conflicts. International human rights law and international humanitarian law do not address the problem of human shields directly. In the absence of an express and clear treaty-based prohibition of this practice it is important to establish the realistic threshold of positive and negative obligations resting upon warring parties, which defines the standard of protection accorded to individuals used as shield. The purpose of this paper is to construe such a universal standard of protection based on the human rights norms, but which is also reflective of the realities of modern warfare. One of the conclusions of this thesis is that addition of customary principles of humanitarian law to the established human rights framework renders a modified framework designed to consider the human shields dilemma, which is effective and in line with the rule of law and realities of the decision-making in emergency situations. The cogent and reasonable interpretation is required towards the laws governing the use of persons as human shields and the employment of lethal force against targets shielded by civilian population. Due to the factual complexity of shielding cases such framework should comprise of the separate but not isolated review of obligations of impeded party and shielding party.
    [Show full text]
  • Report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict∗
    UNITED NATIONS A General Assembly Distr. GENERAL A/HRC/12/48 25 September 2009 Original: ENGLISH HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL Twelfth session Agenda item 7 HUMAN RIGHTS IN PALESTINE AND OTHER OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES Report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict∗ ∗ Late submission. GE.09-15866 A/HRC/12/48 page 2 CONTENTS Paragraphs Page Acronyms and abbreviations .......................................................................................... 11 Executive summary .............................................................................. 1-130 13 PART ONE: METHODOLOGY, CONTEXT AND APPLICABLE LAW INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 131-150 37 I. METHODOLOGY ............................................................... 151-175 41 A. Mandate and terms of reference ................................. 151-155 41 B. Methods of work ......................................................... 156-167 42 C. Assessment of information ......................................... 168-172 44 D. Consultation with the parties ...................................... 173-175 45 II. CONTEXT............................................................................. 176-222 46 A. Historical context......................................................... 177-197 46 B. Overview of Israel’s pattern of policies and conduct relevant to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and links between the situation in Gaza and in the West Bank...................................... 198-209
    [Show full text]
  • Congressional Record—House H4068
    H4068 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE April 25, 2007 Mr. ACKERMAN. If the gentleman attacks. Hezbollah terrorists used Lebanese resulted in the killing of eight brave will yield back the balance of his time, civilians as human shields, sacrificing the Israeli soldiers and the kidnapping of we are prepared to do so as well. innocent in an effort to protect themselves two others, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Mr. BOOZMAN. Madam Speaker, I from Israeli response . .’’; Regev. Whereas Jan Egeland, United Nations Un- yield back the balance of my time. dersecretary-General for Humanitarian Af- The suffering of the Lebanese people Mr. ACKERMAN. I yield back the fairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, ac- was immense as thousands fled their balance of our time. cused Hezbollah of ‘‘cowardly blending . homes in the subsequent fighting. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The among women and children’’; Many homes were damaged or de- question is on the motion offered by Whereas for states parties to Additional stroyed, and lives were lost. the gentleman from New York (Mr. Protocol I, such as Lebanon, Article 50(1) to The key reason that civilian areas ACKERMAN) that the House suspend the the Geneva Convention defines civilian as, were destroyed was the cynical strat- rules and pass the bill, H.R. 1678. ‘‘[a]ny person who does not belong to one of egy of Hezbollah guerrillas to stage the categories of persons referred to in Arti- their attacks from the middle of towns The question was taken. cle 4(A)(1), (2), (3), and (6) of the Third Con- The SPEAKER pro tempore.
    [Show full text]
  • Hamas Exploitation of Civilians As Human Shields
    Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Israel Intelligence Heritage January 2009 & Commemoration Center (IICC) Hamas Exploitation of Civilians as Human Shields Firing rockets at Israel from a densely populated area in the Gaza Strip (Photo: Edi Israel, December 27, 2008). 2 SSSeeeccctttiiiooonnn III::: OOOvvveeerrrvvviiieeewww 1. This study examines how Hamas and the other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip make extensive use of Palestinian civilians as human shields. It shows how the terrorist organizations constructed a vast military infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, including a large arsenal of rocket and mortar shells used to target the southern Israeli population (in 2001-2008 more than 8,000 rockets and mortar shell were fired into populated Israeli areas). The terrorists’ military infrastructure was hidden in and around civilian homes and dispersed to locations scattered around the Gaza Strip, home to an estimated more than 1.4 million people, one of the most densely populated areas on earth. 2. The calculated, cynical use of the civilian population as human shields is intended to decrease the vulnerability of Hamas and the other Palestinian terrorist organizations by affording them a kind of immunity from the IDF’s counterterrorism activities, since they are aware that Israel avoids harming the civilian population insofar as is possible. It is also intended to make it possible for Hamas and the other terrorist organizations to make political-propaganda gains in the battle for hearts and minds by representing Israel as operating against innocent civilians. The terrorist organizations’ doctrine of using human shields was inspired by Hezbollah’s tactics in Lebanon and by the lessons they learned from the terrorist campaign they have been waging against Israel since 2000.
    [Show full text]
  • Exposé: 28 Missile Launching Sites in Beirut Hezbollah's Use of Civilians
    1 Exposé: 28 Missile Launching Sites in Beirut Hezbollah’s Use of Civilians as HUMAN SHIELD 1 Exposé: Suspected locations of Hezbollah’s medium range missile arrays in southern Beirut that exploit civilian populations as HUMAN SHIELDS middle east map : GULF!!!! Social Intervention Deir a-Zour Model Disclaimer The Alma Center’s Research Department initiated a project to find the locations of missile launching sites in South Lebanon adjacent to the civilian population, as part of Hezbollah Human Shield tactic. Unfortunately, despite the fact that a large proportion of Hezbollah’s missiles are located in south Lebanon, the information in public sources on the subject is scarce. We were astonished to find that information on the subject in public sources was available in terms of locations in Beirut. The primary source of this project is the site Wikimapia.org. We estimated due to the findings there that the locations and details are relatively accurate. First, all the locations are in the southern part of Beirut (controlled by Hezbollah), while none exist in the northern part of the city where Hezbollah is not dominant. Also, the first locations we found were all close to civilian infrastructure, which drove us to further the research on the subject and thus find 28 missile launching locations and the sites connected with these locations. The missiles in this area according to the sources are medium-range missiles. The same as those subject to the Hezbollah missile precision guided missile project (PGM's). Some of the locations have been deleted (for the sake of hiding evidence), but most are still available in the sources we present in this research project.
    [Show full text]
  • The Deliberate Abuse by Terrorists of Children and Civilians a Testimonial
    Human Shields The deliberate abuse by terrorists of children and civilians A Testimonial Report by IDF Soldiers With Appreciation This Report has been published thanks to the support of many individuals whose only goal is to share the truth, and create a balanced and objective presentation of the conduct of the IDF. We thank everyone who supported this project. We are especially grateful to the dozens of witnesses who shared their stories, and to the dedicated My Truth professional and lay team who worked day and night to bring this project to fruition. Special thanks to Dan Topaz and the Mazal Group for their support of this project in memory of Private Rami Blumenfeld z”l who was killed in battle fighting the Hezbollah on the second day of the First Lebanon War (June 7, 1982) at the entrance to the city of Tzidon, Lebanon. Credits: Editing: Yoav Mor Transcription: Oded Stern Research: Avihai Shorshan Proofing: Karen Katzman and Manny Firsel Graphics and paging: Maor Tzfira Video editing: Miri Lavi Pictures: AFP Cover photo: Hamas terrorist take cover during an Israeli military operation in Gaza Strip, EPA Human Shields The deliberate abuse by terrorists of children and civilians A Testimonial Report by IDF Soldiers Printed in Israel, November 2018 Table of Contents About ‘My Truth’ .......................................................................................... 7 Introduction ................................................................................................... 8 Article by Ron Prosor .................................................................................... 12 Article by Irwin Cotler .................................................................................. 16 Part 1 Child Abuse in the Name of Terrorism The exploitation of children; tools of terrorism and use as human shields 1 "They were simply shooting at us between the children's heads" ............
    [Show full text]