Unleashing terror: Dutch dogs in Israel’s war crimes – publication
The Israeli military systematically uses dogs to brutalise Palestinians, including children, elderly people, and detainees, sometimes with fatal consequences, evidence obtained by SOMO reveals a significant risk that police dogs exported from the Netherlands are used by the Israeli army in international law abuses.
The Netherlands is a key country from where police-trained dogs are exported to the Israeli army, but corporate confidentiality means that no public information is available about the suppliers or the number of dogs supplied to the Israeli army by Dutch companies. SOMO discovered that police dog companies in the Netherlands obtained the required veterinary certificates for the export of at least 110 dogs to Israel between October 2023 and February 2025. One hundred of these certificates were granted to the company Four Winds K9, a police dog training centre in the southern Dutch village of Geffen. Early 2024 in Nablus, occupied West Bank. Amna’s three-year-old son Ahmad is sleeping in her arms as she gets her other children ready for school. Suddenly, Israeli soldiers force their way into her home with a large police dog. The dog attacks Amna and Ahmad, clenching its jaw around the toddler’s buttocks for several minutes. “I could hear my son scream in pain and my daughters were shrieking and crying out of fear and terror,” Amna recalls. The soldiers drag the dog and Ahmad down the stairs and out of the building, hitting Amna with the butt of a rifle to stop her from reaching Ahmad. When the soldiers return Ahmed to his mother, he is “unconscious, wrapped in a bloodied foil blanket.” Ahmad is hospitalised for eight days and needs 42 internal and external stitches, while Amna’s other children suffer “severe psychological trauma after everything they witnessed.” From Gaza to the West Bank, from Palestinian homes to Israeli detention centres, Palestinians have shared horrifying testimonies of dog attacks by the Israeli military. These testimonies demonstrate the Israeli military’s systematic use of dogs to brutalise Palestinians, including children, elderly people, and medical staff – sometimes with fatal consequences.
Links:
An important step in cutting Dutch ties to genocide! ✊🏽
Hondenleverancier Four Winds heft zichzelf op om vervolging te voorkomen
