Beyond terror: Hamas’s campaign of sexual violence uncovered in disturbing report
Hamas committed “brutal sexual assaults, carried out systematically and deliberately” on October 7, a report released on Wednesday, the first such report to detail the day’s sexual violence.
ZAKA volunteers search through the rubble of Kibbutz Nir Oz for human remains on Dec. 11, 2023. Photo by Eitan Elhadez-Barak/TPS
“Hamas’s attack included violent acts of rape, accompanied, accompanied by threats with weapons, and in some cases, targeted towards injured women. Many of the rapes were carried out as a group, with the participation of violent terrorists. Often the rape was perpetrated in front of an audience — partners, family or friends — in a manner intended to increase pain and humiliation of all present,” said the 39-page report, written by the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel.
The ARCCI is an umbrella organization of Israel’s regional rape crisis centres.
The report specified that sexual violence took place at the Nova Music Festival, in the communities near the Gaza border, on the army bases that were attacked, as well as continuing abuse of hostages still held in Gaza.
“The actions targeted women, girls and men. In most cases, the victims were killed after, or even during the rape,” the report said.
The report was based on an analysis of public and confidential information such as the testimonies of eyewitnesses and first responders, but cautioned that the true scope of the sexual attacks may never be known because most of the victims and witnesses were killed that day.
Shari Mendes, who helped identify bodies at Camp Shura, a military base near Rehovot, said she examined many mutilated bodies, including women whose breasts were either severed or shot, and whose genitalia were mutilated. “This seemed to be a systematic genital mutilation of a group of victims,” the report quoted Mendes saying.
Chaim Otmazgin, a volunteer for the ZAKA emergency response service was quoted describing finding many of the bodies partially clothed with “severe bleeding in the pelvis and the destruction of sexual organs.”
Other rescue workers described finding knives and other objects inserted into genitalia.
“The report, which will be submitted to the decision-makers at the UN, leaves no possibility of it being denied or ignored. The terrorist organization Hamas has chosen to harm the State of Israel with two clear strategies – taking citizens hostage and sadistic sex crimes,” said AARCI head Orit Sulitzeanu.
“It is no longer possible to remain silent. We expect the international organizations to take a clear position. It is impossible to stand on the sidelines. Remaining on the other side will be remembered as a historic stain on all those who chose to remain silent and deny the sexual crimes committed by Hamas,” she said.
