IDF troops hold fire as Gazan child carries weapon down street for terrorist

By JNS STAFF

(JNS.org) – Israel’s Foreign Ministry posted video on Sunday of footage from the Israel Defense Forces showing a terrorist using a Gazan child as a human shield to move weapons to a civilian home. The IDF refrained from opening fire to avoid hitting the child.

A Hamas terrorist in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo by Saeed Mohammed/Flash90.

“This is how Hamas exploits Palestinian children. A child used to move weapons. A child used as a human shield. Children turned into tools of war and terror. Hamas exploits Palestinian children for terror,” the Foreign Ministry posted to X.

Hamas and other terrorist group have long exploited civilians as human shields.

Troops operating in the Strip spotted the child, who was used by the terrorist so the IDF could not stop the weapon from being moved, the IDF said in a statement.

The military called the incident “another example of the systematic exploitation of children” by terrorist groups in violation of international law.

The goal of the terrorists is to attack Israeli soldiers and civilians near the ceasefire line established in Gaza on Oct. 10, 2025.

“IDF troops under the command of the Southern Command are deployed in the area in accordance with the agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat,” the IDF said.

In May, the IDF published extensive visual evidence that also proved Hezbollah’s systematic use of Lebanese civilians as human shields.

The materials, released by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, show rockets fired from a school, weapons stockpiled in a government hospital in Bint Jbeil and terror tunnels dug beneath civilian areas, including a clothing store in Khiam.

According to the IDF, the footage documents launchers moved into homes, schools and other civilian structures immediately after rocket-fire, as well as a weapons-production site embedded in a clinic that triggered powerful secondary explosions when struck.

Additional videos and still photographs show rifles, rockets and other munitions discovered in ambulances, a children’s bedroom and along a tunnel network in the Qantara area, including images captured on the body cameras of soldiers and a military dog, underscoring Israel’s charge that the Iranian terror proxy has turned civilian infrastructure in Southern Lebanon into a military zone.