The Israeli military said Wednesday it is reining in a controversial practice of conducting late-night raids of Palestinian homes in the West Bank aimed at gathering intelligence about the houses and their inhabitants.
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The military has in the past defended the practice, known as "intelligence mapping," as a necessary measure to counter militant groups. But human rights groups say the policy served only to intimidate civilians.
Under the practice, soldiers would rouse families in the middle of the night to document the dimensions and of homes. Rights groups said the raids, conducted in homes where no one was suspected of illegal activities, served no strategic purpose.
The change in policy came six months after Yesh Din, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, and Breaking the Silence, three Israeli activist groups, published a report on what they described as "arbitrary invasions" of private Palestinian homes. They said the practice "effectively serves as a means to oppress and intimidate the Palestinian population and increase control over it."
