Israeli army admits using dogs against Palestinians

Israel’s army is using attack dogs to stop Palestinians trying to damage the West Bank separation barrier in order to illegally enter Israel through the gaps, the military admitted on Thursday. An army statement said that in the past few years, a stretch of the barrier in the southern West Bank had been purposely damaged “to permit the passage of terrorists into Israel” in a move which endangers Israeli lives. “In order to prevent damage to the security fence, the IDF (army) uses a number of different measures, including the canine unit and its trained dogs, while taking appropriate precautionary measures to avoid unnecessary injury,” it said.
“The use of dogs actually limits bodily injuries and obviates the use of other measures,” the statement said. But Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said dogs have been used to attack at least 3 unarmed Palestinians who were attempting to pass through a breach in the barrier in order to find casual work in Israel. One worker was stopped then released on the spot, B’Tselem spokeswoman Sarit Michaeli told AFP, saying it would not have been the case if he was a suspected militant. “In the two cases that we know of, where the Palestinians were actually arrested, the arrests were not under suspicion of terrorism — they were because of suspected unlawful entry into Israel,” she said.