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Short answer
By blocking civilians from fleeing Gaza City and other active combat zones, Hamas is committing one of the most cynical war crimes imaginable, trapping its own people in the crossfire to use their suffering as propaganda. By forcing civilians to stay in conflict zones, Hamas guarantees that any Israeli strike will risk collateral damage. Those casualties are then broadcast worldwide to demonize Israel, restrict IDF operations, and turn Palestinian death into political leverage.
This tactic is not new. Hamas’s use of human shields has been extensively documented in past wars and again in the current one. A 2025 Henry Jackson Society report outlined Hamas’s systematic strategy of embedding fighters and infrastructure among civilians during and after the October 7 attacks. Today’s scenes in Gaza City, Hamas setting up roadblocks on escape routes, spreading false claims that evacuations are traps, and fueling rumors of “ethnic cleansing” to frighten people from leaving — It’s not resistance, it’s the calculated weaponization of innocent lives.
Long answer
Preventing Gazans from leaving Gaza City is not an accident, it is a deliberate strategy by Hamas, designed to trap civilians in active combat zones and exploit their suffering as fuel for its propaganda war.
Human Rights Watch and other legal bodies affirm that civilians have the right to flee conflict areas, and obstructing that right is a violation of international humanitarian law, yet Hamas systematically blocks evacuation to keep civilians in the line of fire. The Henry Jackson Society’s 2025 report documented Hamas’s entrenched use of human shields during the October 7 war and beyond, backed by evidence from global media investigations, military assessments, and eyewitness accounts.
On the ground, Hamas erects roadblocks and checkpoints on routes leading south, with armed operatives threatening or forcing civilians back and, in some cases, planting explosives near homes to make escape physically dangerous. At the same time, Hamas floods neighborhoods with disinformation, claiming evacuation orders are fake, insisting safe routes are Israeli traps, and spreading rumors that moving south is part of an “ethnic cleansing” plan to sow panic and paralysis.
Recent reporting confirms this abuse: on September 3, 2025, the Times of Israel published IDF audio of a Gaza City resident pleading, “We want to go south but Hamas are waiting for us on the way… they tell people: “Go back home, there is no evacuation, go back, go back — and people scatter.” A week later COGAT’s Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian warned that Hamas was running a “false campaign” about safe zones, stressing, “Contrary to Hamas’s claims, there are available spaces, Do not fall for Hamas’s lies.”
Hamas doesn’t allow Gazans to leave because civilian presence serves its strategy. By concentrating civilians in combat zones, every Israeli strike becomes a propaganda opportunity, turning Palestinian lives into tactical leverage and human suffering into political capital.
