The Hague (Quds News Network)- The Dutch government has been accused of being complicit in Israeli war crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territories—particularly in Gaza—due to its ongoing direct and indirect support for Israel’s assaults, including supplying military dogs.
According to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, the Netherlands has persisted in exporting military dogs to the Israeli forces 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.”
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. 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.
Notably, 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. The arrangement ensures the continued supply of military dogs to units directly implicated in serious violations of international law,” Euro-Med Monitor said.
Israel’s Use of Military Dogs
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 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,” the human rights group noted.
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.
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, they 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 documented abuses also include reports of dogs being used to commit acts of brutal sexual violence against Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, 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.
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.
The human rights group has called on the Dutch Parliament to launch a comprehensive investigation into the export of military dogs and related equipment to Israel.
The Dutch government 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 added.