Ramallah, January 14, 2025 – Israeli forces deployed a military dog to attack a three-year-old Palestinian boy in the northern occupied West Bank in early November.
Omar Ziyad Ismail Abu Taleb, three, sustained severe injuries after being attacked by an Israeli military dog during an Israeli raid on his family’s residential building around 6:30 p.m. on November 5, 2024 in the Palestinian town of Qabatiya, near Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International - Palestine. Israeli soldiers broke down the family’s front door and unleashed a military dog that bit Omar on his left shoulder, causing extensive wounds, and refused to let go. Despite repeated pleas from the family, soldiers delayed intervention for about five minutes. Even after the dog eventually released Omar, soldiers further delayed access to medical aid.
“The Israeli military routinely uses attack dogs to terrorize and maim Palestinian children,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “Both the companies that sell these dogs and countries that allow for their export are complicit in Israel’s crimes against Palestinian children like young Omar.”
Omar was hiding with his family in their kitchen amid the explosions and gunfire of an Israeli military incursion into the Palestinian town of Qabatiya on November 5, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Around 6:30 p.m., Israeli forces entered the family’s apartment building, broke into their apartment, and released a military dog, which attacked Omar while his father held him in his arms. The dog bit down on Omar’s shoulder and refused to release him for several minutes, even as his father and mother pleaded with the soldiers to intervene.
“My son Omar, who is three and a half years old, tried to push the dog away from him with his hand in a childish way, but to no avail,” recounted Omar’s mother, Hanan. “I was screaming and I was worried about Omar, especially since he was alone after the soldiers forced his father to leave him.”
Omar’s father attempted to remove the dog but was met with orders at gunpoint from Israeli forces to release his hold of his son. The soldiers continued to threaten the family and stood by as Omar remained trapped under the dog. Eventually, the dog released Omar, leaving him bleeding and in shock.
After the attack, an Israeli soldier identifying himself as a doctor briefly examined Omar, noting severe wounds from the dog bites, but providing no treatment. The family was instructed to call an ambulance. Soldiers then forced the family to evacuate on foot, walking over a kilometer (more than half a mile) with Omar bleeding from his shoulder, as Israeli forces blocked the ambulance’s access.
Once they reached the ambulance, Palestinian paramedics sterilized Omar’s wounds before transferring him to Jenin Governmental Hospital, where he received antibiotics, anti-rabies medication, and radiological exams to assess the extent of his injuries.
Israeli forces systematically use military dogs to attack Palestinian civilians, including children, during military incursions into Palestinian cities and towns, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
Attack dogs, supplied by companies like Dutch supplier Four Winds K9, have been continually used by the Israeli military to attack and injure Palestinian civilians, including children like Omar. Under international law, businesses and corporations have a duty to conduct heightened due diligence when engaging with countries like Israel, an occupying power, to ensure they are not complicit in the supply of tools of violence—such as military dogs—that directly contribute to human rights violations and breaches of international law. Companies like Four Winds K9 continue to disregard these duties, instead reinforcing Israel’s violent settler-colonial regime with more tools with which to terrorize, attack, and control Palestinian children.