Strip search with attack dog in Hebron; stabbing in Jerusalem

Two masked and armed women soldiers threatened Palestinian women with an attack dog during a raid in the West Bank in July.

Two masked Israeli women soldiers with rifles and an attack dog forced five female members of a Palestinian family to strip naked, each one separately, in the West Bank city of Hebron in July. The soldiers threatened to release the dog if the women did not comply.
During the raid on the family’s home, male soldiers searched the male family members but did not require them to take off their clothes. The army had intelligence that there were weapons in the home, and the Israel Defense Forces’ Spokesperson’s Unit told Haaretz that an M16 rifle and ammunition were found there, requiring a search of the house’s other residents.
A total of 26 people, including 15 children aged from four months to 17 years old, live in three adjoining apartments in the Ajluni family’s home in south Hebron. The family says that on July 10 at 1:30am, around 50 soldiers massed around the house accompanied by at least two dogs.
The case, reported by both B’Tselem and Haaretz this week, has sparked outrage in the Palestinian community.

The Human Rights Committee of the Palestinian Legislative Council said in a statement that the event demonstrated “the extent of the ugliness and fascism of the occupation before the world,” and demanded the formation of an international investigation committee.

Hamas vowed revenge, saying in a statement that the event represented a “dangerous escalation that the Palestinian people and their resistance will not ignore,” and that the “violations committed by the fascist occupation […] will fall in the face of our steadfastness […] until the last soldier and settler are uprooted from our occupied land.”

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) spokesperson, Tarik Salami, called on Palestinians in Hebron and other West Bank cities to “escalate their confrontations with the occupation” and “avenge the free women against whom this grave violation occurred,” according to the Middle East Monitor.

On Tuesday, dozens of women participated in a rally organised by the women’s section of the PIJ in Gaza. In an interview to the Maan news outlet, Sa’ida Hallas, head of the women’s section, said that “this shameful act by the [Israeli] occupation must not be tolerated by the Palestinian people nor by any Muslim.”

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, also weighed in on the incident, and wrote on Twitter: “The reports of masked soldiers storming Palestinian homes at night, waking up families, forcing women to strip naked at rifle point under threat of releasing attack dogs, while children scream in terror, are absolutely appalling. This relentless assault on people and rights must end.”

Terror attack in Jerusalem

This week also saw yet another terror attack on Israelis. Two people were wounded, including one seriously, in a stabbing attack on a promenade near Jerusalem’s Old City on Wednesday afternoon, police and medics said.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said a 56-year-old Israeli man was seriously hurt after being stabbed in the upper body and a 17-year-old tourist was slightly hurt after sustaining a superficial stab wound to his abdomen. A woman in her 50s was treated by medics for acute anxiety.

According to police, the alleged terrorist, a 17-year-old Palestinian from East Jerusalem, carried out the attack with a cleaver just outside the Jaffa Gate entrance to the Old City.

The assailant, who attempted to flee the scene after tossing the knife, was arrested by officers following a brief chase, police said.

READ MORE
Using an attack dog, Israeli women soldiers forced Palestinian women to undress (Haaretz)  

Report of IDF strip-searching Palestinian women causes uproar, draws UN criticism

Two wounded, 1 seriously, in terror stabbing near Jerusalem’s Old City (Times of Israel)

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Illustration: Roni Nova (Haaretz)