![In this picture taken on January 16, 2023, an Israeli army soldier part of a K-9 unit takes part in a drill at an army urban warfare training facility simulating Gaza City, at the Tze'elim training centre, also known as "Baladia" (Arabic for town), in the southern Negev desert. [Photo by MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/GettyImages-1252006347-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
The Dutch government bears direct legal responsibility for complicity in the crimes committed by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory — particularly in the Gaza Strip — due to its continued direct and indirect support for Israel’s war apparatus, NGO Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has alleged.
The Netherlands has persisted in exporting trained military dogs to the Israeli army and other security agencies in the region, despite their use as “tools of torture and systematic terror” against Palestinians. “These dogs are deployed as part of Israel’s broader system of domination, aimed at dehumanising Palestinians and erasing their presence,” said Euro-Med Monitor.
“According to the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO), Dutch companies obtained veterinary certificates to export 110 dogs to Israel between October 2023 and February 2025,” explained the NGO. “Of these dogs, 100 were allocated to the company Four Winds K9, a dog training centre based in the Dutch village of Geffen. SOMO indicates that the company has a long-standing record of exporting dogs to Israel.”
Dutch lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld filed a legal complaint against Four Winds K9 in 2017. Leaked documents later revealed that the Israeli Ministries of Defence and Justice intervened to defend the company, providing legal support through Dutch law firms in an effort to shield it from accountability for aiding Israeli crimes.
“This close coordination between Israeli state institutions, Dutch legal entities and Four Winds K9 illustrates a transnational network of deliberate complicity that is actively fuelling Israel’s machinery of killing and oppression,” said Euro-Med. “The arrangement ensures the continued supply of military dogs to units directly implicated in serious violations of international law.”
Field investigations conducted by Euro-Med Monitor have recorded numerous cases in which Israeli forces used military dogs to attack Palestinian civilians, including children, the elderly and the sick. The reports document incidents of dogs mauling corpses, terrorising families and torturing detainees, including horrific acts of sexual violence involving dogs. These grave violations, it insisted, demand an immediate halt to all military-related exports, a thorough investigation into the Dutch role in supporting the aforementioned crimes, and the prosecution of entities found to be complicit in enabling Israel’s ongoing breaches of international law.
“Israeli forces have been systematically using large military dogs during their assaults in the Gaza Strip, particularly during raids on homes, hospitals, and shelters, as well as in operations carried out in the West Bank,” said the human rights group. These dogs are employed in a variety of ways against civilians, including being outfitted with surveillance cameras on their backs to scout buildings before they are stormed by the Israeli army.
More disturbingly, dogs are unleashed to attack civilians, repeatedly mauling their bodies during raids.
According to documented testimonies, Israeli soldiers often remain passive during these attacks and, in many cases, directly command the dogs to attack Palestinian civilians before mocking the victims as they suffer.”
The Euro-Med Monitor field team has documented the Israeli use of attack dogs against men, women and children, terrifying them in homes and shelters, especially during ground invasions in Gaza City, the northern Gaza Strip and Khan Younis. This practice, said the team, is part of a systematic policy aimed at spreading fear and terror among the civilian population in the Strip.
As per the field team’s documentation, the most egregious use of military dogs has been directed at Palestinian detainees and prisoners. The documented abuses include reports of dogs being used to commit acts of brutal sexual violence against detainees, carried out in the presence of other inmates and prison guards. These crimes are part of a deliberate pattern of sexual violence, including forced nudity, sexual harassment, threats of rape and actual rape — the insertion of sharp objects into detainees’ anuses — all with the intent of physical and psychological torment.
One particularly harrowing case is that of Dawlat al-Tanani, a 60-year-old woman from the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. She was attacked by an Israeli military dog inside her home on 14 May 2024. In her testimony to the Euro-Med Monitor team, she recounted:
“I was asleep in my house, which I had refused to leave despite the Israeli army’s invasion of Jabalia. I woke up to the sound of Israeli forces entering my house after they blew a hole in the wall. Within moments, a dog with a camera on its back attacked me, biting my shoulder and sinking its teeth down to the bone. It dragged me outside as I screamed in agony.
“The soldiers laughed and did nothing to help or treat me.
“It wasn’t until one of my relatives who was in the house pushed the dog away with his cane that the attack stopped. I was bleeding heavily. My relative managed to close the room’s door and screamed at the soldiers for help, but they ignored him. He eventually used a headscarf to stop the bleeding. The next day, I was taken to Al-Yemen Al-Saeed Hospital, then to Kamal Adwan Hospital, and finally to Al-Awda Hospital. But due to limited medical resources, I was only given a splint, and I still suffer from the injury.”
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Euro-Med Monitor has also received testimonies confirming that the Israeli army used military dogs during raids on hospitals, with reports of dogs mauling displaced civilians and even corpses in hospital courtyards. These violations occurred during late 2023 and the more recent raid on the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in March 2024.
In one account, Yousef Fazzah, 67, told the Euro-Med Monitor team: “Around 9 am, Israeli forces stormed the Al-Yousef building near Al-Shifa Hospital. A soldier opened our flat’s door and let in a black dog. It attacked me, bit my chest, tore my leg, and dragged me from one end of the flat to the other. After a while, one soldier pulled it away from me, but by then, I had lost a large amount of blood.”
A woman who requested anonymity due to safety fears said: “Israeli forces raided our home. As soon as the door was opened, they released a dog into the flat. It attacked my elderly husband, biting his chest, stomach and leg. He lost a significant amount of blood while the soldiers stood by, doing nothing.”
MS, a mother of a two-year-old, also requested anonymity due to safety concerns. She described the horror she experienced: “Israeli forces stormed our house and let the dogs in. They attacked us; it was terrifying. They later forced us out and killed my husband’s grandfather and uncle. We were then ordered to head to southern Gaza.”
Dr Islam Sawali confirmed in February that the Israeli army used dogs to storm Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, terrifying medical staff and displaced civilians and forcing them to evacuate the hospital under duress.
Legal implications and Dutch complicity
Euro-Med Monitor pointed out that all states are under a clear legal obligation to prevent and halt any acts that constitute serious human rights violations or international crimes, wherever they occur. “States must refrain from any form of complicity — whether direct or indirect — in international crimes, especially genocide. This includes the transfer or export of weapons or equipment that could potentially be used to commit such crimes or facilitate breaches of international humanitarian and/or human rights law.”
International customary and codified law, particularly peremptory norms concerning genocide and the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, obligate countries such as the Netherlands to take all necessary measures to prevent genocide. “Therefore, the Netherlands’ continued authorisation of military dog exports to Israel, despite clear evidence of their use in crimes against Palestinians, constitutes a blatant failure to uphold its international legal obligations. This failure places the country in a position of complicity in crimes committed against the Palestinian population.”
The NGO condemned the role of companies supplying Israel with weapons and military equipment, including Dutch firms that provide or train military dogs.
International legal frameworks — including the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, customary international law, especially the principle of “aiding and abetting”, and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights — legally obligate companies to cease any cooperation or support that could facilitate or enable violations of international law, it noted.
“The continuation of such activities, given the instances detailed above, exposes both the Dutch government and companies such as Four Winds K9 to international criminal liability, particularly in light of repeated warnings and documented incidents that show Israel using Dutch military dogs in systematic assaults against Palestinians. Supplying Israel with military dogs under these circumstances indicates prior or presumed knowledge of Israeli crimes, and thus amounts to the facilitation of grave breaches of international humanitarian law; that is, the intentional participation in international crimes by providing the tools or enabling the means for the crimes’ commission.”
Euro-Med Monitor called upon the Dutch Parliament to launch a comprehensive investigation into the export of military dogs and related equipment to Israel. “This investigation should focus on the nature of the contracts, licensing conditions and the extent of the Dutch government’s and companies’ awareness of the associated risks. The investigation must include testimonies from victims and survivors and human rights organisations, as well as independent legal and technical experts, to ensure transparency and integrity in the findings.”
The Dutch government, added the NGO, must also impose an immediate freeze or complete suspension of all export licenses for military dogs destined for Israel until an independent and transparent investigation is completed. “It is essential to apply robust pre-risk assessment mechanisms and reinforce adherence to due diligence. The government must reject the renewal or issuance of any new licences where there is a clear risk that such equipment or animals may be used in violations of international law.”
Furthermore, said Euro-Med, the Dutch authorities must open criminal and civil proceedings, where necessary, to hold accountable any officials and company executives involved in exports that are found to have contributed to or incited international crimes against Palestinians in the Occupied Territory, particularly the ongoing crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip.
“Lastly, the Dutch government and implicated companies must establish a dedicated compensation fund for surviving Palestinian victims affected by the use of these dogs. This should include the provision of medical, psychological, and financial support to victims and ensuring that they have access to a transparent and effective claims mechanism, in accordance with the rules of international law.”
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