I mean I would recommend going to extreme measures to avoid any person who makes these arguments in person. They are quite literally openly "justifying" the murder of children and the destruction of an entire society. I don't care what their biases and motivations are: the human shields bullshit has been thoroughly destroyed since even 10/7 including many MSM segments.

But if you feel the need to converse with fascists, I guess you could say "isn't the point of a human shield to prevent the aggressor from shooting? If a bank robber took a hostage, do you support the cops shooting the hostage in the head a dozen times just to maybe hit the robber?" Or "Who is killing the people in Gaza? Is Hamas shooting their own friends' babies or it is Israel doing it?" Continue down this line. They usually flip in about one or two layers to just outright "I don't care. I hope they all die." Which is unfortunately the best you can hope for. For the fascists to be honest in their beliefs instead of hiding. Some will continue to just repeat "No Hamas is forcing the Israelis to kill kids." You could say to them: "The Nazis justified murdering babies and millions of innocent men and women by saying it was self defense of the Aryan Germans. They said they had no choice and these "subhumans" forced them to kill them."