The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Monday that an Israeli military force forced five Palestinian women to undress inside their home after it was raided in Hebron.
According to the newspaper, on July 10th of last year, at 1:30 AM, 50 soldiers entered the home of the "A" family (the family name is withheld), in the southern neighborhood of Hebron. Police dogs accompanied the soldiers.
Under the threat of police dogs biting the Palestinian women, they were forced to undress in front of the Israeli soldiers, in the presence of their children.
Following this traumatic incident for the family, it was revealed that the soldiers had stolen gold jewelry and money from the house.
The family of the women filed a complaint about the theft at an Israeli police station in the Kiryat Arba settlement. The next day, they were contacted and asked to collect the gold, which the soldiers had mistaken for ammunition, but the stolen money was not returned.
The newspaper provided detailed information about the painful night experienced by the family.
Manal al-Ja'bari, a human rights activist with the Israeli left-wing organization B'Tselem, stated that recently there have been 20 documented cases of such incidents. There is a clear increase in the coercion of Palestinian women to undress under the threat of weapons and the use of police dogs.
Al-Ja'bari also mentioned that the Palestinian women who have experienced such incidents often refuse interviews and discussing the matter, but members of this particular family affected by the incident shared details of what transpired.
"Al-Quds" newspaper apologizes for not publishing the full details of that painful night, as it involves a tragic reality that the women who endured it continue to suffer from.
The Israeli army claimed that the operation was conducted to search for a weapon found inside the house, and it was deemed necessary to carry out the inspection in a separate room without using any cameras.
