Human shields drive state armies to distraction. Consider the following:

• “There are two things that restrict our movement: Taliban mines and the fear of civilian casualties,” said Brig. Gen. Moheedin Ghori, who commands the Afghan brigade ... Taliban fighters have put women and children on rooftops and fired from behind them ... the Taliban’s strategy has slowed the advance. (USA Today 2010; emphasis added)

• Hamas chose deliberately and systematically to exploit Palestinian civilians as shields for military targets in the IDF’s Gaza Operation ... The deliberate strategy of Hamas to blend in with the civilian population made it difficult for the IDF to achieve the objective of the Gaza Operation – reducing the threat of deliberate attacks against Israeli civilians – while also avoiding harm to Palestinian civilians. (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs [MFA] 2009:8, emphasis added)

Apart from claims that Hamas positioned their fighters and missile launchers in urban areas to shield them from Israeli attack in 2008–2009 (a claim that the report of the United Nations Human Rights Council questions, UNHRC 2009:§ 480), the Israel Defense Forces filmed startling videos depicting how strikes on apartment buildings suspected of housing weapons stores were cancelled when tens of individuals went to their rooftops. Others clips show how armed Hamas fighters called to children to escort them from under fire and, thereby, shield them from attack (Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center [ITIC] 2008, 2009).

The prevailing picture of human shields usually depicts civilians converging around militants or military sites to protect them from attack.

In this incident, civilians successfully shielded the fighters from capture and harm. The British, needless to say, were stymied, and the heroes of the Palmah live on in history and myth.