Heather Donahue, the star of the 1999 low-budget hit movie The Blair Witch Project, poses next to a “posted” sign in on a rural road, Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in Freedom, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
The two Israeli soldiers who spoke to the AP — and a third who provided testimony to Breaking the Silence — said commanders were aware of the use of human shields and tolerated it, with some giving orders to do so. Some said it was referred to as the “mosquito protocol” and that Palestinians were also referred to as “wasps” and other dehumanizing terms.This photo provided by Breaking the Silence, a whistleblower group of former Israeli soldiers, shows two detainees used as human shields being held inside a house in the Gaza City area in 2024. (Breaking the Silence via AP)
This photo provided by Breaking the Silence, a whistleblower group of former Israeli soldiers, shows two detainees used as human shields being held inside a house in the Gaza City area in 2024. (Breaking the Silence via AP)The soldiers — who said they’re no longer serving in Gaza — said the practice sped up operations, saved ammunition, and spared combat dogs from injury or death.The soldiers said they first became aware human shields were being used shortly after the war erupted on Oct. 7, 2023, when
, and that it became widespread by the middle of 2024. Orders to “bring a mosquito” often came via radio, they said — shorthand everyone understood. Soldiers acted on commanding officers’ orders, according to the officer who spoke to the AP.He said that by the end of his nine months in Gaza, every infantry unit used a Palestinian to clear houses before entering.
“Once this idea was initiated, it caught on like fire in a field,” the 26-year-old said. “People saw how effective and easy it was.”
He described a 2024 planning meeting where a brigade commander presented to the division commander a slide reading “get a mosquito” and a suggestion they might “just catch one off the streets.”Federal employees make up 7.6% of the workforce in Alabama’s 5th District, which includes Huntsville and is represented by Republican Rep. Dale Strong. The area encompasses NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, which has had a role in rocket engineering and U.S. space exploration efforts from the Saturn rockets integral to moon missions, the Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station’s laboratory modules.
The data examined here doesn’t pertain directly to military jobs. Thousands of civilian government employees across the country work in areas near or attached to military installations.Alaska’s sole U.S. House member, Rep. Nick Begich, represents a state with a total federal worker percentage of 6.3%.
Scott Goldsmith, an economist at the University of Alaska Anchorage, has described the state’s economy as a “three-legged stool” kept balanced by three components: the oil and gas industry, the federal government, and then all other industries combined.The federal government manages a significant amount of land in Alaska. Workers are employed by the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Fish and Wildlife Service, among others.