People carry a body identified by mourners as Hamas’ military wing commander Izz al-Din al-Haddad, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Friday, during a funeral, in Gaza City, May 16, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

News readers are well informed about the wholesale violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) committed by Hamas and its allies in Gaza. The Islamist extremists not only conduct attacks against Israeli civilians, but use their own civilian population as a giant human shield.

Less obvious is the conduct of Gazans who appear to be civilians, but legally lack that classification in wartime because they are participating in armed violence. IHL permits soldiers in an armed conflict to target enemy combatants but not civilians. By the same token, when civilians in the conflict join a combatant group or otherwise participate directly in the hostilities, they forfeit their civilian immunity and become subject to lawful attack.

Throughout the Gaza war, Palestinian soccer authorities accused Israel of illegally killing Palestinian soccer players to destroy the sports league. However, on July 22 of this month, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) published a report on 12 of the slain soccer players. The report contained documentation proving that the athletes were members of two recognized terrorist organizations: Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Thus, none of them enjoyed the legal protection of civilian immunity from IDF attack.

A similar misjudgment over civilian immunity arose in the news media industry. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a global organization dedicated to press freedom, once blamed the IDF for targeting Palestinian journalists in the Gaza war.

CPJ continued its complaints even after October, 2024, when the IDF produced enemy documents and photos showing that six Al Jazeera journalists were members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. But last month, after those same terror groups published obituaries revealing that eight Gaza “journalists” were terrorists, CPJ reversed itself. It admitted the individuals were not real journalists and overhauled its “journalists killed” verification policy.

Again in April, an IDF airstrike eliminated an Al Jazeera journalist who led a Hamas anti-tank missile unit. According to CPJ, Al Jazeera initially condemned the IDF strike but had no comment when confronted with evidence of the combatant’s military exploits.

A December, 2025 Israeli intelligence study estimated that roughly 60% of Gaza-based journalists who perished in the war as of November 30, 2025, were closely affiliated with Palestinian terrorist groups. In Gaza, just as there are legitimate combat reporters, there are reporters who moonlight as terrorists, and non-reporters who wear “PRESS” vests to camouflage their terrorist missions. The latter two groups lack civilian immunity from attack.

Civilian immunity is also forfeited by certain Palestinian healthcare professionals. During Hamas’ October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel, a still-undetermined number of Palestinian medical workers lost their immunity when they joined the mass-slaughter.

After October 7, video footage seized from a Gaza hospital showed the building was illegally used to imprison Israeli hostages. In 2024, a Gaza physician was captured at home while holding another Israeli hostage. The same year, a member of Doctors Without Borders was exposed as an operative of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and a fellow staffer was outed as a Hamas sniper. All those hostilities stripped the medical militants of their civilian immunity.

Another medical scandal unmasked a pediatrician who worked as a Gaza hospital director. In December, 2024, the IDF arrested the director upon discovery that his hospital was a Hamas command center. A confiscated Hamas photo showed him attending a ceremony dressed in a military uniform and seated with top Hamas officials. The Hamas-controlled Gaza Medical Services Facebook page identified him as a “colonel.”

Even non-Hamas hospital directors would squander their civilian immunity if they provide Hamas with war-fighting services, for example by letting their medical facilities harbor terrorists or store weapons.

Hamas fails to distinguish between Palestinian civilians and combatants each time it updates its estimate of total Palestinian fatalities. A breakdown of the numbers would show how the Palestinians became responsible for most if not all the deaths.

One category of Palestinian lives lost in the war consists of Palestinian combatants. Another category, tragically, includes innocent civilians caught in the crossfire due to Hamas’ illegal human shielding. Then there is the invisible contingent: people who look like civilians but scrap their civilian immunity by joining the fight. They lack legal protection from attack. If they fall in battle, they do not become victims of war crimes.

The existence of that last group is chilling. It reveals that Palestinian militancy is not limited to the known members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The next Palestinian bomb thrower could be anyone. Even a doctor.

Joel M. Margolis is the legal commentator of the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, the US Affiliate of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists. He is the author of  The Israeli-Palestinian Legal War.