A Pentagon official comments on photos of Palestinians being arrested stripped of most of their clothes

CNN anchor Pamela Brown spoke with Michigan Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA officer and Pentagon official, about new photos showing Palestinian men detained by the Israeli military.

Commenting on the photos, Brown said: “I am seeing these photos for the first time and they are clearly shocking. We are not used to seeing this, a row of people with almost no clothes on.”

“I’m trying to remember a time, as someone who was a former CIA officer and a Pentagon official who served three tours in Iraq alongside the military — when this practice was used — and I’m having a hard time coming up with that,” she said.

“I think this is part of this larger conversation about how do you determine the difference between civilian and armed in a very crowded place? The United States had to grapple with the same question when we were in places like Ramadi and Fallujah and Afghanistan,” Brown added. “It’s one of the hardest things to do, and so “It requires extreme caution on the part of the army launching these operations.”

Brown concluded her comment by saying: “Here in the United States, there is a debate about the types of tactics used and whether tactical victory actually equals strategic success for Israel when they alienate — clearly a lot of people are in pain in Gaza right now.”