Screenshot of portion of B'tselem report on humiliating Israeli miliatry attack against five Palestinian women inside their own home in Hebron.
According to an investigation conducted by the Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem, and reports by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Israeli soldiers forced five Palestinian women to undress, while attacking them using army dogs.
Palestinian reactions continued following the abuse of five Palestinian women from the city of Al-Khalil, Hebron by Israeli soldiers.
The calls for revenge followed an investigation conducted by the Israeli rights group, B’Tselem, and reports by Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Terrifying testimonies of 5 Palestinian women about their exposure of brutal abuse after being forced by Israeli soldiers to strip naked inside their home, after storming it in Hebron.
Watch for more details ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/P7b6KNrUXI
— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) September 4, 2023
According to the reports, Israeli soldiers forced five Palestinian women to undress and unleashed army dogs on them.
The incident took place on July 10, according to the investigation, published on Tuesday, September 5.
Palestinian reactions
Several Palestinian attacks were already reported in Jericho and other Palestinian cities as a response to the abuse of the women.
More such attacks are expected.
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Various Palestinian groups, including the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, have vowed revenge.
In response to a Palestinian attack on Israeli occupation soldiers in the Jordan Valley on Tuesday, Hamas said that the operation “was carried out by the rebellious youth in response to the crime of the occupation .. [in] Al-Khalil [Hebron].”
A Hamas spokesman had earlier said that the Resistance would continue its strikes against the Israeli occupation and its settlers until they pay for their crimes against these women.
Hamas considered the incident a dangerous escalation, stressing that all these crimes and violations practiced by the occupation would fail in front of the steadfastness and determination of the Palestinian people and their Resistance, Aljazeera Net reported.
The Islamic Jihad movement also called on the people of Hebron and other Palestinian cities to “escalate the confrontation with the occupation in retaliation for the women against whom this grave violation was committed.”
In the Gaza Strip, a women’s group affiliated with the Islamic Jihad organized a vigil to denounce the “crime of attacking the women of Hebron.”
A spokeswoman for the women’s collective said the incident would not go unnoticed, insisting that the Palestinian Resistance “will not stand idly by in the face of this heinous incident.”
For its part, the Palestinian Resistance group, the Lions’ Den issued a statement declaring that it will avenge the women of Hebron, by attacking Israeli occupation soldiers “anywhere they are found.”
The Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine also declared that “assaulting women in Hebron is a major crime that will not go unpunished.”
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh described the attack on the women as “shameful” and reflecting the nature of the “occupation’s criminal practices.”
What happened
The investigation by B’tselem was entitled “Soldiers enter homes of extended Ajlouni family with dogs, separate children from their parents and steal items. Female soldiers strip search women.”
It said that scores of Israeli soldiers and army dogs broke into the home of the Palestinian Ajlouni family in Hebron.
They separated the men from the women and children who were being held in the living room of the house.
The soldiers took one of the women to a room where her children, who woke up terrified, were sleeping.
During a night raid in Hebron, 5 Palestinian women were subjected to a humiliating experience as they were forced by two female Israeli soldiers, accompanied by K9 dogs, to strip naked and walk in front of their children, who were screaming in fear.
The women were threatened to… pic.twitter.com/RPBwZTn8FJ— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) September 4, 2023
Two other masked soldiers prevented the mother from approaching her children and threatened her with the dog they were holding if she did not completely undress in front of them.
The mother was forced to undress and turn around in front of them completely naked.
Then, the soldiers took the boys to the living room while taking three other women and a girl naked for body searches.
Excerpts from the report
An excerpt from the report is provided below:
On Monday, 10 July 2023, at around 1:30 A.M., dozens of masked soldiers, with dogs, entered homes belonging to the extended Ajlouni family in the neighborhood of Khallat al-Qaba in southern Hebron.
They threatened, using their weapons, 26 members of the family who were home at the time, and confined them to one of the apartments.
The soldiers handcuffed three family members, one of them a 17-year-old boy, blindfolded them and took them to another apartment. They then separated the remaining men from the women and children, who were kept in the living room and searched them in a separate room.
The soldiers then took one woman to the room where her children, ranging in age from four to seven, were sleeping. The children woke up in a fright. Two masked female soldiers kept the mother from going up to them, and threatened to set the dog they had with them on her if she did not strip naked in front of them. The mother had no choice but to undress and turn around in front of the soldiers, and her frightened children, unclothed…
The soldiers left at around 5:30 A.M., at which point family members found two relatives locked in a room in one of the apartments handcuffed and blindfolded…
The family filed complaints about the theft with the Kiryat Araba police that same day, and the jewelry stolen by the soldiers was returned to them the next day, with the excuse that it had been taken by mistake.
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What will happen next
“This shall prove to be a watershed moment in an already escalating resistance throughout Palestine,” Palestinian journalist and editor of The Palestine Chronicle Ramzy Baroud said.
“For Palestinian culture, the humiliation of women and mothers is a great and unforgivable offense, and all Palestinian groups are expected to shoulder the responsibility of responding to the violations of women’s rights,” he added.
Israeli occupation soldiers forced 5 Palestinian women to strip their clothes and be naked in front of their children in Hebron.#SavePalestineWomen
WATCH the video for more details👇 pic.twitter.com/cNCQjfclQj
— Kuffiya (@Kuffiyateam) September 5, 2023
“Quite often, Palestinian groups issue statements and make declarations that are not followed up with action,” he said. “This time is different since Palestinian society is very sensitive to these kinds of violations, and it expects that some action will be taken in defense of these women, and rapidly so.”
