Hezbollah's Use of Human Shields
Hezbollah militants and arms are systematically embedded in civilian areas and urban population centers. Hundreds of arms depots, thousands of militants, and tens of thousands of rockets are distributed throughout Southern Lebanon alone, an area characterized by its dense Shiite population.
24.01.18
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As an established part of Hezbollah's military doctrine, Shiite villages are designed to serve as battlefields. Command and control posts sit in the heart of well protected civilian centers, usually in close proximity to vital or sensitive public facilities such as schools, hospitals, and mosques. Lookout points, weapons depots, snipers, and ground forces span the main roads of each village, poised to react to any attempted infiltrations.
In July 2017, two Hezbollah fighting complexes were uncovered in Lebanese villages, one containing an arms warehouse located approximately 110 meters away from two mosques. Likewise, firing posts, rocket launching sites, and combatant gathering points are purposely situated in the midst of populated areas. Hezbollah has also dug a network of underground tunnels beneath civilian homes and structures to allow its fighters to move freely between posts. Thus, Hezbollah has turned its integration within the population into a strategic advantage, in a way that is illegal, immoral and knowingly leads to the death of innocent civilians. The embedding of militants and weapons into their populated surroundings and the intentional use of civilians and civilian infrastructure as a shield for military activities constitute grave violations of the international law.
