Palestinian forced to stripped in public

Meanwhile, three Israeli soldiers forced a Palestinian man to strip naked
at gunpoint and walk like a dog in a West Bank city under curfew,
Palestinian witnesses said yesterday.

A Reuters photographer snapped Yasser Sharaf, 25, standing naked in a cold,
muddy street in Nablus on Sunday as two men were handing him clothes to put
on and two Israeli armoured vehicles were pulling away from the scene.

Sharaf declined to comment yesterday about the incident.

Israeli military sources denied that Sharaf was forced to strip, saying
checks with soldiers involved determined that he had been ordered only to
raise his shirt to show whether he was carrying explosives.

"When he saw members of the media in the area, he decided to undress
completely," a military source said.
Witnesses including two Palestinian firemen said Israeli soldiers stopped
Sharaf after spotting him walking in a street in violation of curfew and,
"pointing their rifles at him, ordered him to start stripping".

"Yasser told them he had nothing to hide but they continued shouting and
readied their rifles to shoot," fireman Samir El Lifdawi said by telephone
from Nablus.

"They forced Yasser to take off all his clothes including his
underwear...They ordered him to walk like a dog and then he burst into
tears," Lifdawi said.

He said he watched the incident unfold from a fire station a few metres
away. A colleague, Sultan Al Minawi, provided the same account.

"He kept crying and was in a very stressful situation... "Many residents,
including women, watched him and he was very embarrassed," Minawi said.

Palestinian civilians have often complained of being humiliated and abused
by Israeli troops who have reoccupied Palestinian-administered West Bank
cities to combat an uprising for statehood spearheaded by armed fighters.
The army says strict controls on Palestinian residents are necessary
because militants hide among the population and wear civilian clothing when
they carry out martyrdom attacks.

Scenes of Palestinians rolling up their shirts to prove they are not hiding
bomb belts have become frequent since the Israeli Army swept into West Bank
cities in June after a spate of attacks which have killed scores of Israeli
civilians.

Sunday's incident in Nablus would be the first time a Palestinian was
reported to have been ordered to strip naked in a security operation.
Palestinian civilians have complained of being ordered to strip to their
underwear at roadblocks.

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