During the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, Israeli women and girls were reportedly subject to sexual violence, including rape and sexual assault by Hamas or other Gazan militants. The militants involved in the attack are accused of having committed acts of gender-based violence, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Hamas has denied that its fighters committed rape and assault against women. During the 7 October attacks by Hamas on Israeli communities, Israeli women and girls were reportedly raped, assaulted, and mutilated by Hamas militants, an allegation that Hamas denies. Israeli police said dozens of women and some men were raped. The New York Times and the BBC reported that "videos of naked and bloodied women filmed by Hamas on the day of the attack, and photographs of bodies taken at the sites afterwards, suggest that women were sexually targeted by their attackers".

It was reported that some released hostages' testimonies indicated that both female and male hostages had been subjected to sexual violence by their captors while being held by Hamas in Gaza. In late March 2024, Amit Soussana, a released Israeli hostage, told the New York Times, that she had been sexually abused by her Hamas captor.

The UN was initially criticised for its muted response to sexual violence. A UN report in March 2024 concluded that there was "clear and convincing information" that Israeli hostages in Gaza experienced "sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment", that there are "reasonable grounds" to believe such abuse is "ongoing" and there was also "reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred during the 7 October attacks in multiple locations across Gaza periphery, including rape and gang-rape, in at least three locations": the Nova music festival and its vicinities of Road 232 and kibbutz Re'im. The UN mission that produced the report was not investigative in nature, but designed to collect and confirm allegations. The UN noted that the acts of sexual violence that were detailed in the report constituted "evidence [that] rises above 'reasonable grounds to believe' yet falls below 'beyond a reasonable doubt.'" A "fully fledged" investigation would be needed to establish the latter.

A New York Times investigation by Jeffrey Gettleman, Anat Schwartz, and Adam Sella, released in late December 2023, found at least seven locations where sexual assaults and mutilations of Israeli women and girls were carried out. It concluded that these were not isolated events but part of a broader pattern of gender-based violence during the 7 October massacres. The newspaper's probe concluded that Hamas "weaponized sexual violence" during the attacks. Nevertheless, Schwartz later revealed that she did not find any victim or complaint of sexual assault when she contacted every rape crisis clinic in Israel. The Intercept and Mondoweiss both concluded that the mass rape allegations advanced by the New York Times were unfounded. As Ha'aretz summarise, "On the one hand, pro-Palestinian websites are conducting an intensive campaign of denial, endeavoring to call into question the reliability of findings and testimonies. On the other hand, Israeli spokespersons latch onto every gut-wrenching report in their efforts to persuade the world of the truth of the atrocities that were perpetrated, and in some cases also invoke them in order to excoriate the enemy and score political points."

Witnesses described the perpetrators using shovels, beheading victims, engaged in rapes, and even playing with severed body parts, although a number of testimonies were subsequently discredited. These acts were denounced as gender-based violence, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, aligning with the International Criminal Court's recognition of sexual violence as such. Some of the released hostages reportedly mentioned sexual abuse having occurred during their time in Gaza.

Israel accused international women's rights and human rights groups of downplaying the assaults. Hamas denied that it committed any sexual assaults, and has called for an impartial international investigation into the accusations. On January 2024, UN experts Alice Jill Edwards and Morris Tidball-Binz said in a statement that the sexual violence acts amounted to war crimes which "may also qualify as crimes against humanity".

On 12 April 2024, the European Union sanctioned military and special forces wings of Hamas and the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad due to their responsibility for the alleged sexual violence on 7 October. An asset freeze and travel ban were imposed on the Qassam and Al-Quds Brigades and the Nukhba Force. The EU said the two groups' fighters “committed widespread sexual and gender-based violence in a systematic manner, using it as a weapon of war.”

Overview

The attacks by Hamas on Israeli communities, in which 1,139 people were killed and 240 hostages were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, reportedly involved widespread sexual violence. In a review of evidence mainly provided by the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli officials, NBC News stated that the evidence "suggests that dozens of Israeli women were raped or sexually abused or mutilated". Hamas fighters infiltrated Israeli towns, where witnesses said they tortured, raped and sexually assaulted many women and girls of all ages, and some men.

Ina Kubbe, a scholar specializing in gender and conflict at Tel Aviv University, said that evidence aligns with sexual violence. However, she emphasized the necessity of a forensic investigation for an official determination of rape.

A March 2024 UN report found that injuries, predominantly gunshot wounds, were sustained to "intimate body parts such as breasts and genitalia" and found "reasonable grounds to believe" that rape, including gang rape, occurred in at least three locations.

Assessments of motivation

Hamas has stated that profound and increasing anger about Israeli policy, the treatment of Palestinians and the expansion of Israeli settlements motivated their violent attacks on October 7, while experts such as one that Vox interviewed, say that sexual violence is an "inherent, if under-examined, aspect of violent conflict". Hamas admitted "mistakes were made" on October 7, but denied that its fighters committed rape and sexual assault, noting that it is forbidden in Islam.

Israelis and others have accused Hamas of systematically using rape as a weapon of war.

Cochav Elkayam-Levy, a former Israeli government lawyer who headed a non-governmental commission advocating for recognition of sexual assault crimes on October 7 concluded that Hamas "weaponized" sexual violence in order to harm Israeli morale.

In February 2024, ARCCI, the Association of Rape Crisis Centers of Israel, published a report summarizing witness testimony and categorizing the alleged sexual violence of October 7 into "Practices of Rape During Wars" and "Sadistic Practices". Throughout the report ARCCI repeats conclusions that the alleged sexual violence was systematic, deliberate, widespread, and not spontaneous or incidental, and "Hamas terrorists employed sadistic practices aimed at intensifying the degree of humiliation and terror inherent in sexual violence".

Evidence

Following the attacks, Israeli police, Shin Bet and Israeli military began to collect evidence, take witness statements and to interrogate captured Hamas militants concerning the alleged sexual violence perpetrated during the October 7th attack. Police recorded the difficulty in collecting physical evidence in a war zone, due to this the full extent of the crimes may never be known. Authorities retrieved video evidence, photographs of victims' bodies, and militants' testimonies which they said confirmed accounts of sexual assault. Autopsies of victims also corroborated these accounts, according to the Israeli police.

Testimony of Israelis

Survivors, witnesses, first responders, and military personnel provided accounts of the alleged rape, mutilation and other sexual violence that Hamas militants inflicted. An official from Lahav 433 told the Knesset that 1,500 testimonies had been collected. Shelly Harush, the police officer leading the investigation recounted to The Times on 2 December 2023: "It's clear now that sexual crimes were part of the planning and the purpose was to terrify and humiliate people."

According to Tel Aviv University professor Tamar Herzig, witnesses heard militants discussing plans to rape specific girls. Herzig also said that they were also seen "parading the rape victims" with their clothes ripped off and blood between their legs. She said that testimony was taken from survivors who were brought to Israeli acute response centers. Herzig said that, over the next few weeks, forensic evidence collected from bodies of Israeli girls indicated that they had been raped, sometimes so violently that their legs and pelvis bones were broken. Survivors also testified to instances of gang rape and the breasts of young women being chopped off.

Interrogations of Hamas militants

Israeli security agencies released video footage, showing their interrogation of seven Hamas militants, one of whom says they were given permission to rape a corpse.

On 28 March 2024 the IDF released footage of a PIJ militant, Manar Mahmoud Muhammad Qassem, explicitly admitting his rape of an Israeli woman in a kibbutz on October 7. In the video, Qassem describes the incident in detail including her clothes, bra and underwear and the fact she was later taken with her mother by two other militants.

Limited forensic work

While many experts, including UN workers, have stated that forensic evidence is not necessary for human rights groups or courts of law to make findings of sexual violence, it can make things more difficult. Members of the UN, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, and the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel have all noted the lack of forensic investigation that was done on the deceased at the attack locations. Due to the large numbers of deceased individuals Israel was attempting to fully identify all of the victims at least a month after the 7 October attacks, causing overtaxed morgues to not collect physical evidence or process rape kits from any bodies. Morgue officials in Israel reportedly cannot designate individual cases of rape or sexual violence, due to a lack of physical proof that is necessary in a court of law. The UN, which found "clear and convincing information" of sexual violence during the Hamas attacks, reports that the limited forensic evidence is due to both the large number of casualties and the "dispersed crime scenes in a context of persistent hostilities".

Alleged acts by location

Alleged sexual violence took place in four types of locations:

• at the Nova (Re'im) outdoor music festival and the surrounding area to which attendees fled
• in kibbutzim – Be'eri and others – to civilians who were killed
• at Camp Shura and other IDF bases near the border, to soldiers
• in captivity in the Gaza Strip, to Israeli hostages

Re'im music festival and vicinity

Video of "the woman in black dress"

On 8 October, a video circulated on social media which showed a woman lying on her back, dress torn, legs spread and vagina exposed while her face was burned and her right hand covering her eyes. She was later identified as Gal Abdush (née Brakha). Eden Wessely, a woman searching for a friend after the rave who says she filmed the video, told ARCCI that she had seen a cut wound on the victim's leg, which led her to believe the victim's underwear had been cut off. After the Times "Screams without Words" article, Wessely told media that Abdush had been raped, burned, and murdered.

Wessely told Ynet in January 2024 that New York Times co-authors Schwartz and Sella had "called me again and again and explained how important it is to Israeli advocacy." She commended them for understanding the importance to verify every detail. Wessley also noted that she understood that "there were disagreements within the family about the publication that she had been raped", but that Gal's mother Eti Bracha, who believes Gal was raped, "had already been interviewed about this". Wessley stated that Gal's "voice should be heard, because whole appearance screamed: 'Look at me, hear me, I was raped, I was murdered.'" In March 2024, Wessley expressed to Ynet being "infuriated" that the UN report, which confirmed "reasonable grounds" sexual crimes had taken place, was "only coming out now". "Women were raped, and now, after five months, you remember?" she told the paper about the UN report.

Eti Bracha, Gal's mother; Rami Bracha, Gal's brother; and Nagi's mother all believe that Gal was raped. Eti stated that "there are witnesses who saw the sexual assault of my daughter" and emphasized the importance that the world knows about "the sexual assaults committed by these monsters, that they don't close their eyes and say they don't believe it really happened." Nagi's mother lamented how her son saw his wife sexually assaulted before being shot. Rami stated that "the feeling was difficult" learning his sister was raped and "knowing what she went through before she was shot and murdered".

Nissim Abdush, brother of Gal's husband Nagi, who was also killed, was interviewed on Channel 13 on 1 January 2024 and repeatedly denied that Gal was raped. He said Nagi had called him at 7 AM, saying his wife was killed but never mentioned anything related to sexual assault. Abdush reiterated that Gal had not been raped and that "the media invented it".

Miral Altar, Gal's sister, wrote on Instagram "It's clear that the dress is lifted upwards and not in its natural state, and half her head is burned because they threw a grenade at the car... At 6:51, Gal WhatsApp'ed saying 'we are at the border'...At 7 AM, my brother-in-law (Nagi) called his brother (Nissim) and said they shot Gal and she's dying. It doesn't make any sense that in four minutes, they raped her, slaughtered her, and burned her?" She subsequently deleted the post, although "critics circulated images of it to assert falsely that the family had renounced the article". She later told the Times she regretted her post being used to question whether Palestinian militants had raped women, and that she had been "confused about what happened" and was trying to "protect" her sister.

Esther / Witness S / Sapir

In October 2023, Israeli police showed multiple journalists a video of a woman whom Le Parisien called "Esther" and BBC called "Witness S" describing what she claims to have seen from her hiding place near the festival: a militant bent someone over, then "Esther" understood that he was raping the victim; the militant passed her on to someone else; she was still alive and bleeding from her back; the men cut off parts of her body, sliced her breast, threw it on the street and played with it; another militant raped her, then while still penetrating her, shot her in the head, and then ejaculated. Two months later, in December 2023, the New York Times reported accounts with very similar themes from a witness identified as "Sapir".

Knesset

A survivor told a Knesset panel her account, saying she saw naked girls, sliced bodies and violated girls whose pelvises were broken due to the extent of the abuse. An unnamed witness claims they found the festival vicinity an "apocalypse of bodies, girls without clothes, some missing their upper, some their lower parts".

Yoni Saadon

Survivor Yoni Saadon recounted to The Times: "they had caught a young woman near a car and she was fighting back, not allowing them to strip her. They threw her to the ground and one of the terrorists took a shovel and beheaded her and her head rolled along the ground. I see that head too".

Route 232

An unnamed man reportedly saw men in civilian clothes drag a woman out of a van in route 232 nearby, gather around her and penetrate her while she screamed, and that one of the men then killed her with a knife. Three other unnamed persons testified seeing women raped and killed there and at one other location along route 232.

Other accounts

A unnamed male witness told the BBC that he had heard what he was sure were the screams of women being raped and that dead women were raped as well. Another survivor, Ron Freger, told the Associated Press that he heard a woman screaming "They're raping me, they're raping me" followed by several gunshots, at which point she fell silent.

The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel cited four sources: Video of "the woman in the black dress", the Sunday Times report on Yoni Saadon, the account given at the Knesset, and Sky News reports of ZAKA responders who say bodies arrived partially clothed or unclothed, some with heavy pelvic bleeding and/or genital mutilation, which ARCCI asserts align with the other accounts.

Kibbutzim

Alleged rapes at Kibbutz Be'eri

In Kibbutz Be'eri, a paramedic from the 669 Special Tactics Rescue Unit said he went house to house looking for anyone still alive after the attack and found the bodies of two teenage girls in a bedroom. He said that he had no doubt one of the teenagers had been raped, but he did not know if she had died first. Two bodies of women were reportedly found with legs and hands tied to their beds, one of whose genitals were stabbed with a knife and internal organs removed.

In March 2024, The Intercept noted that Kibbutz Be'eri rejected the story of rapes of teenage sisters Y. and N. Sharabi, ages 13 and 16, taking place there that the New York Times had included in its article "Screams without Words". Kibbutz spokesperson Michal Paikin said "they were shot and were not subjected to sexual abuse". Israeli spokesman Eylon Levy connected the 669 Unit paramedic with international media outlets. In a Channel 12 interview, new Times reporter Anat Schwartz - criticized for encouraging witnesses to recount stories for the benefit of Israel - said she tried but failed to find a second witness to confirm that the girls had been sexually assaulted after the paramedic told her his story about them. This was supported by the UN special representative who stated they were "able to determine that at least two allegations of sexual violence widely repeated in the media were unfounded due to either new superseding information or inconsistency in the facts gathered".

Channel 12 published an interview in late February 2024 where the girls' grandparents also contradicted the reporting by the "Screams without Words" article that the girls were sexually assaulted and found alone in a bedroom; instead the grandmother said that the girls "were just shot — nothing else had been done to them", and that the girls were "found between the 'mamad' — the house's safe room — and the dining room", while the grandfather said that a soldier told him the girls' mother "was covering the two girls and they were shot". Earlier in October 2023, the grandmother had told BBC News that the girls were "found all cuddled together with [their mother] doing what a mother would do — holding her babies in her arms, trying to protect them at the end".

The New York Times later reported that video evidence contradicted the paramedic's claims about the girls supposedly being found in Be'eri with their clothes removed showing signs of abuse. Video evidence, which the Times verified, showed three girls "fully clothed and with no apparent signs of sexual violence". No other home in Be'eri had multiple female teenage victims. The medic declined to say if he stood by his story, though the Israeli military said that he did but that he may have been mistaken on the location.

Other accounts

The New York Times viewed photographs of a woman's corpse found in a kibbutz that had dozens of nails driven into her groin and thighs. It also reported testimony that women and girls were raped in Kibbutz Kfar Aza.

The ARCCI Report cited 6 cases and sources:

• Unspecified "testimonies collected" in Be'eri about "bodies of women and girls who were raped, mostly in their bedrooms... in their pajamas"
• Reuters, CNN, BBC, and Times of Israel reports of ZAKA volunteers who said they found bodies of women and girls without underwear, signs of semen, and one with a knife inserted into her genital area
• Chaim Otmazgin, a ZAKA commander who told ARCCI he saw two women's bodies naked with objects penetrating their bodies
• Nira Shpak of Kfar Aza who told ARCCI she saw several bodies with genitals exposed, some with torn clothes
• Noam Mark, emergency security team member at Re'im, who told ARCCI he found three bodies of women from the festival in a house, naked, with "clear signs of severe sexual violence". ARCCI says he provided police supporting video.
• New York Times reports of at least 24 bodies with signs of sexual abuse in Be'eri and Kfar Aza

IDF bases

Many of the bodies discovered in the various scenes were brought to the IDF Military Rabbinate Camp Shura, which hosts facilities for body identification.

Shari Mendes

Shari Mendes, an army reservist stationed at the camp, recounted in an event at the United Nations that her team discovered female soldiers who were shot in their vagina or breasts, and reported that it appeared there was systematic genital mutilation by Hamas militants. She further stated that they found beheaded bodies or bodies with missing limbs or bodies whose faces were mutilated, with some faces shot multiple times post-mortem. According to Mendes, bodies were found with little or no clothing, and some were only wearing bloodied underwear. Mendes provided testimony based on her observations of the dead, conveyed in a recorded video, which the IDF verified.

Captain Maayan

IDF Captain Maayan who was a dentist and member of the medical forensic team identifying bodies, said that she had encountered several bodies showing signs consistent with sexual abuse, recounting "I can tell that I saw a lot of signs of abuse in the [genital region] [...] We saw broken legs, broken pelvises, bloody underwear".

Lt. Tamar Bar Shimon

Lt. Tamar Bar Shimon, survivor of the attack at the military base attached to the Erez crossing, said that a Hamas member tried to undress her, but another Hamas militant stopped him, after which both left the room that she was hiding in.

Moshe Pinchi video

Moshe Pinchi shared a Hamas-filmed video that the IDF had recovered of two soldiers shot in the genitals.

The ARCCI Report cited as evidence "Screams without Words", Mendes, Maayan, Bar-Shimon, and Pinchi.

In captivity in Gaza

One of the Israeli hostages released during the temporary truce in late November and early December 2023, recounted to The Jerusalem Post that at least three women were sexually assaulted by their Hamas captors. The Associated Press reported that an unnamed Israeli doctor who treated 110 of the released hostages said that least 10 men and women had been sexually assaulted or abused while in captivity. The released hostages underwent pregnancy tests and were screened for sexually transmitted diseases. Two Israeli doctors as well as an unnamed Israeli military official confirmed to USA Today that Israeli women in captivity underwent sexual abuse in their captivity. One of the doctors also said that "many of the 30 females from ages 12 to 48 suffered sexual assault during captivity". Another doctor said that many of the women who had witnessed sexual assaults were experiencing PTSD. The Israeli military official said "we know that female hostages were raped during their captivity under control of Hamas."

In January 2024, a video taken October 2023 re-emerged showing 4 female Israeli soldiers held hostage: Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Daniela Gilboa, and Agam Berger. After this, released hostage Chen Goldstein-Almog reported having seen some of them who had told her that their captors had sexually abused them multiple times.

The ARCCI report cited the Times of Israel report plus two statements from former hostages from Kfar Aza: Chen and Agam Goldstein said they had encountered 3 female hostages who told them that captors had sexually assaulted them; and Kan ran a story with Aviva Sigal who said she saw a woman whom captors had just assaulted when taking her to the restroom, and said that captors turned women and men into "puppets on a string".

A UN report in March 2024 concluded that there was "clear and convincing information" that Israeli hostages in Gaza experienced "sexual violence, including rape" and there were "reasonable grounds" to believe such abuse is "ongoing against those still held in captivity".

In late March 2024, Amit Soussana, in an interview with the New York Times, became the first Israeli hostage to publicly say she was sexually abused while in captivity by Hamas. She was taken captive by ten Hamas militants, for which there is video evidence, on October 7th. Around October 24th, her assailant, who called himself Muhammad, dragged her at gunpoint to a child's bedroom, where Soussana said that "he, with the gun pointed at me, forced me to commit a sexual act on him." A medical report was filed jointly by senior Israeli gynecologist, Dr. Julia Barda, and a social worker, Valeria Tsekhovsky. Barda stated that “Amit spoke immediately, fluently and in detail, not only about her sexual assault but also about the many other ordeals she experienced." Siegal Sadetzki, a professor at Tel Aviv University Faculty of Medicine, recounted that Soussana first told her about the sexual assault within days of her release and also reported Soussana’s accounts have remained consistent. Soussana also described to NYT being detained in roughly half a dozen sites, including private homes, an office and a subterranean tunnel.

Notable reports

Report by Israeli rape crisis center association

In February 2024, the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel (ARCCI) published its survey of the of sexual violence carried out during the attack. The 35-page report, based in part on statements from ZAKA members, suggested that the attacks were more widespread than initially believed, occurring at various locations across southern Israel and in captivity in Gaza. It reported that in some instances, rapes were carried out in the presence of an audience, including partners, family, or friends, with the apparent intention of increasing pain, humiliation and trauma. It concluded there was evidence for a "systematic, targeted sexual abuse" of women during the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on 7 October, that ignited the war in Gaza.

ARCCI stated that the report included new testimony that it received "from professionals and confidential calls" and that "arrived at ARCCI centers".

New York Times' "Screams Without Words"

UN report of March 2024

On 4 March 2024, a United Nations team, led by Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten, published a report, concluding that "there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred during the 7 October attacks in multiple locations across Gaza periphery, including rape and gang-rape, in at least three locations": the Nova music festival and its vicinities of Road 232 and kibbutz Re'im. The mission did not manage to independently verify media reports of sexual violence in Nahal Oz kibbutz and Kfar Aza kibbutz. The UN team was also "unable to establish the prevalence of sexual violence", and "did not gather information and/or draw conclusions on attribution of alleged violations to specific armed groups", due to the lack of a "fully-fledged" investigation. The UN "mission was not investigative", but was designed to collect and confirm allegations, with information being in "large part sourced from Israeli national institutions", stated the report. Separately, Patten told the media that the Israeli government fully cooperated with them, with the mission finding the information given to be "authentic and unmanipulated". The report noted that the mission collected "Credible circumstantial information, which may be indicative of some forms of sexual violence, including genital mutilation, sexualized torture, or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment". The report also found "clear and convincing information" to show that Israeli hostages in Gaza had been subject to "sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment". According to the UN report, its "witnesses and sources ... adopted over time an increasingly cautious and circumspect approach regarding past accounts, including in some cases retracting statements made previously", with some disavowing confidence in allegations they had previously made to media outlets.

Screams before Silence

Sheryl Sandberg's documentary, Screams before Silence, directed by Anat Stalinsky is about the sex crimes committed by Hamas terrorists on October 7. The film includes testimonies of women who survived the attack, of abductees who were recently released, of women who are testifying for the first time to what they experienced and many others. In the opening remarks of the film, Sandberg says that "this is the most important work I have done in my life". According to her, she initiated the film as part of the attempt to go against the denial that there was sexual violence during the Hamas attack on Israel. The film includes the testimonies of Amit Sosna, who said in an interview with the "New York Times" that she was sexually assaulted in captivity, and of Agam Goldstein Almog. Goldstein Almog was taken prisoner alongside her mother and saw how her father and sister were murdered. She tells in the film about what she and other captives had to deal with. The film also has testimonies from survivors of the "Nova" festival about rape cases they saw or heard about. The film is available for free viewing on YouTube.

Other investigations and reports

Cochav Elkayam-Levy, a legal expert from the Davis Institute for International Relations at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, former Israeli government lawyer and former member of the military spokesperson's unit, established the “Civil Commission on October 7th Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children”, based at the Dvora Institute for Gender and Sustainability Studies, which aimed to give voice to the victims and their families. In March 2024, she received the Israel Prize for this.

The NGO Physicians for Human Rights published a position paper in November 2023, which brought together the accounts and reports published to date, testimonies of survivors, accounts by security and emergency personnel, and visual accounts published online. It concluded that there was significant evidence of acts of sexual and gender-based violence on 7 October and on-going risk to hostages: "Though we are unable to determine the dimensions of the harm inflicted, the accounts and reports of sexual abuse committed during the October 7 Hamas attacks, including those brought to our attention and those made public, provide sufficient evidence to require an investigation of crimes against humanity."

In December 2023, the BBC published the results of several interviews with people involved in collecting and identifying the bodies of those killed on 7 October, along with analysis of video testimony and open video footage filmed by Hamas of the attack.

Other controversies

ZAKA controversy

The mostly ultra-Orthodox ZAKA volunteer paramedic and rescue group began collecting bodies immediately after the Hamas attacks, while the IDF avoided assigning soldiers with training to carefully retrieve and document human remains in post-terrorism situations. Zaka spokesman, Simcha Greeneman, said in one kibbutz he came across a dead woman with sharp objects in her vagina, including nails. However, as part of the effort to get media exposure, Zaka spread accounts of atrocities that never happened, released sensitive and graphic photos, and acted unprofessionally on the ground, often mixing up remains of multiple victims in the same bag and creating little or no documentation about the remains. Additionally, while speaking with reporters in March 2024 a member of the organization and IDF reservist stated that he had modified the clothing on the remains of women at the Nova music festival in order to preserve their dignity before taking an identification photograph.

Claims of "weaponization" and "mass" rape as pro-Israeli propaganda

Pro-Palestinian news sources such as the Electronic Intifada claimed that Israel has exaggerated the claims of mass rape much as it has exaggerated particularly gruesome acts of Hamas violence on October 7. In February 2024, The Hill host Briahna Joy Gray criticized U.S. State Department assumptions without evidence that Hamas had raped female Israeli hostages, and in particular criticized the characterization of the sexual violence as "mass rape" rather than individual acts, or "weaponization of rape" as being Israeli war propaganda. American journalist Max Blumenthal has also claimed that Israel was inventing stories of mass rape on October 7.

Writing in The Atlantic in April 2024, Michael A. Cohen, a senior fellow at the Fletcher School's Center for Strategic Studies at Tufts University, observed that "rape denialists" among critics of Israel "refuse to acknowledge the widespread sexual assaults against Israeli women" during the 7 October attacks. He wrote that rape denialism "feeds the widely held belief among Israelis that non-Jews refuse to acknowledge the horrors of October 7—and that the world is hopelessly biased against them."

United Nations and human rights groups

The United Nations, particularly the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), were criticized by Jewish and Israeli media and advocates for not condemning rapes of Israeli women after being presented with evidence and witness testimonies. Israel condemned the UN for its response. Israeli human rights group, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, called for the International Criminal Court to investigate the sexual violence accusations. UN special rapporteur Reem Alsalem was criticized by Claire Waxman, London's Victims' Commissioner, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, as she did not speak out on reports of sexual and gender-based violence in the 7 October attack on Israel against Israeli women during and following the Hamas-led attack, reportedly labeling accounts of sexual violence as "disinformation".

The Israeli First Lady, Michal Herzog, called the response of international organizations such as UN Women an "inconceivable and unforgivable silence". UN Women briefly condemned Hamas in a post, but deleted the post shortly after. Jewish and Israeli media and advocacy organizations criticized UN Women and the #MeToo movement, saying they did not condemn the violence against women that took place during the October 7 attack. In response to UN Women, US- and Israel-based activists created the slogan "#MeToo Unless You're A Jew". Israeli law professor Cochav Elkayam Levy told The New York Times that she sent a letter signed by dozens of scholars to UN Women on November 2, calling for condemnation of sexual violence during the attack; she said she did not receive a response. A bipartisan group of more than 80 members of the US congress said the response of UN Women was "woefully unsatisfactory and consistent with the UN's longstanding bias against Israel".

On 25 November in Paris, a group of about 200 protestors attempted to join the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women march. Some carried Israeli flags and signs "denounc[ing] the deafening silence of feminist groups". The group was "effectively barred from joining the march" by pro-Palestine activists; march organizers later released a statement expressing "unambiguous condemnation of the sexual and sexist crimes, rapes and femicides committed by Hamas". On December 1, UN Women stated "We unequivocally condemn the brutal attacks by Hamas on Israel on 7 October". Israeli politician Zehava Galon criticized the organization, writing that "the UN women's organization took almost two months... to issue a pale condemnation." On December 4, human rights' organizations, including Jewish ones as well as their supporters, protested in front of the United Nations headquarters in New York, some dressed in only their underwear and with synthetic blood smeared on their bodies. A former lawmaker Carolyn Maloney stated: "We're here supporting Israeli women who were brutally raped. They deserve the support of other women. Any other attack on women would be treated as a crime."

On November 28, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that there were numerous accounts of sexual violence during the October 7 attack; he said the incidents "must be vigorously investigated and prosecuted". A UN commission of inquiry investigating war crimes on both sides of the Israel-Hamas conflict will include a focus on instances of sexual violence by Hamas. Israel's Permanent Representative to the UN, Gilad Erdan, accused the commission of antisemitism and stated that Israel will not cooperate with it. Navi Pillay, who chairs the UN inquiry, rejected claims that the UN had delayed acknowledging the sexual violence and said that, despite Israel not cooperating, her team could still take evidence from survivors and witnesses outside of the country: "All they [Israel] have to do is let us in," she told the BBC.

On 8 January 2024, two U.N. experts on torture and on extrajudicial executions demanded accountability for sexual violence against Israeli civilians by Hamas. They said that a substantial body of evidence supported the occurrence of rapes and genital mutilation, indicating potential crimes against humanity. On 16 January, Guterres again stated the accounts must be "rigorously investigated and prosecuted". Israel responded by forbidding doctors to speak to the UN commission investigating 7 October, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat calling the UN commission "an anti-Israeli and antisemitic body".

Meanwhile, early March 2024, the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (SRSG-SVC), Pramila Patten, has visited Israel to investigate acts of rape committed by Hamas. During her week-long visit, Patten and her team reviewed raw footage from October 7, met with released captives from Gaza, and heard their testimonies. Patten visited various locations, including the Nova festival site in Re'im, Gaza border communities, and the military base in Nahal Oz, to gain insights into sexual crimes committed by Hamas, and findings were submitted to the UN Secretary-General and the Security Council in March. The report was published 4 March 2024.

Other incidents

The director of the University of Alberta Sexual Assault Centre in Canada was fired after she signed a letter questioning the rape reports. After being criticized, student newspaper Yale Daily News issued an apology for issuing editors' notes that challenged statements rapes during the October 7 attack.

Sean Durns of the pro-Israel media monitor Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America complained that the Washington Post did not present mass rape on October 7 as a fact.

Hamas response

Hamas officials, including Basem Naim, denied the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war, citing Islamic principles that forbid any sexual relationship outside of marriage. Hamas accused Western media of bias and said the reports of sexual violence demonized Palestinian resistance. They also demanded that The New York Times apologize following a report on the matter. Hamas said that any sexual violence that occurred should be blamed on other militants that breached the Israel-Gaza border on October 7.

Naim stated that the New York Times report on sexual violence lacked conclusive evidence, argued that testimonies from Israeli women contradict the report, and cited Hamas's alleged good treatment of female hostages in Gaza Strip. Basem Naim also remarked that the operation on October 7th was "very short", adding that Hamas' militants only had enough time to complete their mission "to crush the enemy's military sites".

International responses

The Maltese, Spanish and Panama ambassadors to Israel condemned the actions of Hamas in a 27 November 2023 Knesset panel. The Canadian ambassador in the same panel lamented the quiet response to actions against Israeli women in the same panel.

The Foreign Affairs Minister of Canada Mélanie Joly, has pledged $1 million to support Israeli victims of sexual violence. Ottawa has not said which groups will receive the $1 million, nor when.

In France, Gender equality minister Bérangère Couillard criticized French women's rights organization for failing to advocate for universal values, warning them that their funding from the state was conditional. The organizers of the 25 November Paris march which 80,000 attended stated: "unambiguous condemnation of the sexual and sexist crimes, rapes and femicides committed by Hamas".

United States

In a speech on October 10, US president Joe Biden condemned Hamas, stating that the events represented "pure, unadulterated evil". Former US foreign secretary Hillary Clinton condemned the use of rape in war as a crime against humanity.

Former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, founder of Lean In, a women's rights and advancement group also condemned the rape as a crime against humanity and attacked UN silence as dangerous. Sandberg also described Hamas' rape of women as a weapon of war.

On December 4, spokesperson for the United States Department of State Matthew Miller said that the Biden administration had not made an explicit condemnation of rape on October 7 because they had not conducted an independent assessment, and not because they doubted the reports. On December 5, Joe Biden called for global condemnation of "the sexual violence of Hamas terrorists without equivocation", calling the events "horrific". Five days later, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the sexual violence inflicted by Hamas "almost beyond human description or beyond our capacity to digest", and criticized International organizations such as UN Women for being too slow to condemn them.

On December 12, 33 US Democratic and Republican senators demanded in a letter to the UN secretary general that the UN begin investigating sexual and gender based crimes committed by Hamas on October 7, 2023. They further requested the United Nations begin collecting testimonies from survivors and witnesses.

European Union

In April 2024, the European Union sanctioned military and special forces wings of Hamas and the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad due to their responsibility for the sexual violence on 7 October. An asset freeze and travel ban were imposed on the Qassam and Al-Quds Brigades and the Nukhba Force. The EU said the groups' fighters “committed widespread sexual and gender-based violence in a systematic manner, using it as a weapon of war.”

See also

• Sexual and gender-based violence in 2023 Israeli attack on Gaza
• Allegations of genocide in the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel
• War crimes in the 2023 Israel–Hamas war
• Bearing Witness (2023 film)
• Genocidal rape

Notes

References

Further reading

• Chotiner, Isaac (10 December 2023). "How Hamas Used Sexual Violence on October 7th". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
• Rozovsky, Liza (12 March 2024). "UN Envoy on Sexual Violence Says She Saw 'Shocking Brutality' Against Israelis; Russia Calls Report 'Half Truths'". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 12 March 2024. Retrieved 12 March 2024.

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