Oketz means Bite. The Oketz Unit is the independent canine special forces unit of the Israel Defense Forces, founded in 1939 as part of Haganah, in preparation for the Zionist ethnic cleanse genocide of 1948..
After losing interest in K9 activity for some years, in 1974 the Oketz unit was restarted at the Sirkin base, from a keennel of 11 recruited dogs that soon expanded to hundreds.
Originally Oketz preferred German Shepherds, Canaan dogs, or Rottweilers for training, but in line with K9 Units globally, switched to the more versatile, longer living Belgian Shepherd (Malinois) that remains the preferred breed for Oketz.
Oketz dog training was originally intended for hostage situations, to attack kidnappers, without hurting the hostage. Specialty training has diversified options for Oketz.
One specialty for Oketz training emerged in the late 70’s. Improvised Explosive Dogs (IED’s) in which trainers strap explosive harnesses on the dogs for remote control detonation when they reached their target.
The first use of this speciality animal was in 1986 during Operation Blue and Brown in Lebanon. An Oketz IED (Improvised Exploding Dog) was used in Israels attempt to assassinate Ahmed Jibril, the Palestinian founder and leader of PLO offshoot, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, near Beirut.
The operation failed when the dogs training proved inadequate to suppress the dogs natural instinct. Locked and strap-loaded, while on his run towards the target the dog became disoriented after being spooked by gunfire. He ran away in terror. The operation failed, one Israeli was killed, and the dog was later recovered by Hizbollah. I was unable to find out what happened to that dog afterwards. I would imagine he would have had a far better life in Lebanaon than as an Israeli IED.
After that Oketz increased training dogs to function better under duress.
The Israeli military used Oketz dogs widely in the October 7 Genocide.
In July 2024, Mohammad Bhar, a mobility challenged 24-year-old Palestinian with Downs syndrome, autism and speech difficulties, died after being mauled by an Israeli Oketz military dog in a Gaza Strip house. Training dogs to attack the weak and infirm takes some determinations and abuse of the dog.
Muhammed Bhar’s mother, Nabila Bhar, 70, told the BBC: “He didn’t know how to eat, drink, or change his clothes. I’m the one who changed his nappies. I’m the one who fed him. He didn’t know how to do anything by himself.”On 3 July, according to the family, the IDF raided their home on Nazaz Street. Nabila says there were several dozen soldiers with a combat dog, who the BBC descrivbes as “animals used to find Hamas fighters, and check for booby traps and explosives.”
At first she heard them “breaking in and smashing everything” before the soldiers and dog arrived in the room. She said “I told them, ‘He’s disabled, disabled. Have mercy on him, he’s disabled. Keep the dog away from him.'”
Nabila watched them set the dog to attack.
“The dog attacked him, biting his chest and then his hand. Muhammed didn’t speak, only muttering ‘No, no, no.’ The dog bit his arm and the blood was shed. I wanted to get to him but I couldn’t. No one could get to him, and he was patting the dog’s head saying, ‘enough my dear enough.’ In the end, he relaxed his hand, and the dog started tearing at him while he was bleeding.”
Around this point, says Nabila, the soldiers took the bleeding young man into another room, and away from the dog. They tried to treat his wounds. The family was then ordered at gunpoint to leave, leaving Muhammed behind with the soldiers, receiving medical assistance. There were pleas and cries. Two of his brothers were arrested by the army. The rest of the family found shelter in a bombed out building.
They returned a week later. Muhammed’s brother Jibreel recorded what they found on his cell phone.
Muhammed’s body is lying on the floor. There is blood around him, and a tourniquet on his arm. This was most probably used to stop heavy bleeding from his upper arm. Jibreel points to gauze used to bandage a wound, and remarks on the blood that clotted after the tourniquet was applied. The soldiers left the bleeding victim to die alone, in agony. After forcing his mother to leave at gunpoint.
The IDF did provide a statement for the BBC request into the death of Muhammad Bhar. “IDF regrets any harm to civilians during combat” the statement accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields. The statement does not address Mr Bhar’s condition when the soldiers left him.
There are multiple reports of Oketz dogs being released in Hospitals to attack bed ridden wounded. In December, 2023, Israeli forces used Oketz attacker dogs during a raid on the Kamal Adwan Hospital.
Oketz dogs are shown in a verified-video, mauling a 60-year-old woman in her home in the Jabalia refugee camp.
As a matter of course, Occupation troops sent Oketz dogs into Resistance tunnels to check for booby traps. Many of these dogs died as a result.
In February 2024, the Israeli Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that 17 operational dogs had been killed in Gaza. It claimed that Hamas operatives left large dogs, capable of killing the smaller Malinois breed, chained inside the targeted houses.
Thousands of Palestinian animals have been killed by the occupation force. They target house pets, stray animals, and even zoo animals.
As a result of the high attrition rate of Oketz dogs, the same Israeli newspaper said the Israeli Ministry of Defense will purchase trained dogs from Europe, mostly Malinois, from the Netherlands and Germany.
I wonder how legal that is. Selling an attack trained dog, a lethal weapon, when you know it might be used to kill a child in a hospital bed. Or a special needs boy
In my book Half the Story - there is a chapter on Moral Turpitude. I maintain there is a long standing element of moral turpitude, possibly a psychological component affecting the post Genocide generation trying to make sense of what happened in Germany, in the behaviour we see representing the Zionist Israelis.
I saw that Oketz named one of the dogs they sent into Gaza Aisha. The name of the Prophets 11th wife. Possibly this was the dog they set on poor Muhamad Bhar, who had the mental age of a child and must have suffered terribly as the dog mauled him, while his mother heard his anguished screams, unable to do anything to save the dependent she cared for for 24 years.
Moral turpitude. How else do you describe the pathology of young men who behave in this way. Abusing dogs and people with equal disregard for enything but their entitlement to manifest that specific brand of Zionist moral turpitude, that lowers the bar of humanity for the whole planet.
Certainly I think the way they use dogs as suicide bombers and assassins of the sick and frail is contemptible
.