These are crimes that are difficult to describe and impossible to understand. The Hamas terrorists who attacked Israel on October 7 treated women the worst and most cruelly. They were tortured, raped and often burned alive.
After the shocking attack on Israel, international attention focused largely on the country’s response to Hamas’ terror. But now those who, according to Israeli investigators, have already been silenced twice are finally speaking out. First by Hamas itself on October 7, and later by the silence of international organizations, which for several weeks did not respond to accusations that terrorists used sexual violence against women. – They put her down. One of them started raping her and then handed her over to others (…) She was alive. She was bleeding. He pulled her by the hair, then cut off her breast and threw her on the road – says a witness.
About 300 of the 1,200 Israelis murdered by Hamas on October 7 were women. The Israeli Ministry of Justice emphasizes that they were tortured, physically abused, dismembered and burned alive. – None of these people were simply killed. All the bodies showed serious signs of abuse and torture, says Maayan, a member of the investigative team. Rape was also allegedly a common weapon used by Hamas against Israeli women. “Even older women, and even very young women, they were all victims of rape,” says Avigayil, a member of the investigative team.
Israeli police are investigating possible sexual crimes committed by Hamas terrorists, and the services are said to have over 1,500 testimonies about the atrocities committed by the terrorists. – Women had no clothes, no underwear. Some had broken pelvises due to repeated rapes, says Yael Richert of the Israeli police.
Israeli police have not confirmed whether they have interviewed any of the victims of such violence. According to the authorities, only a few women survived these events and all of them are currently under the care of psychologists. The services know about what happened on October 7 from witnesses of these events, who often pretended to be dead in order to survive. – The women had their hands tied behind their backs. One of them had a blood stain between her legs – says one of the witnesses. – They focused on the sexual organs, so they targeted them. We saw cut off or shot breasts, adds another witness.
This is how rescue teams describe what they found after the Hamas attack in the kibbutzim bordering Gaza and at the music festival: – There is the body of a naked woman, her mouth is taped, her hands are tied, she has no clothes. It is important for people to know what we are witnessing here, reports one of the volunteers.
Investigators admit that the crime scenes – due to the ongoing war – could not be thoroughly examined, and a common Hamas practice was to burn the bodies of previously raped women. However, in addition to witness testimonies, the Israeli services also have over 60,000 “visual documents”, most of them recordings from cameras worn by the terrorists who filmed their entire attack. – This is one of the most documented atrocities in history. Hamas entered Israel with cameras and even recorded itself on victims’ phones, argues Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, head of the Hamas Crimes Against Women Commission.
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“Where the hell are you?”
Although the sexual violence committed against Israeli women by Hamas terrorists has been talked about for a long time, the government of Benjamin Netanyahu accuses international organizations of being slow to recognize and condemn these crimes. – I am appealing to organizations dealing with women’s rights and human rights. Have you heard about Israeli women being raped and mutilated, where the hell are you? – asks the Israeli prime minister.
Israel indicates that, among other things, It took the UN women’s agency 67 days to issue a statement of “concern over reports of Hamas crimes committed against women”, and the Israeli foreign minister called for the director of this institution to resign.
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A UN commission of inquiry investigating war crimes on both sides of the conflict said it would focus on sexual violence by Hamas, but Israel accused it of bias and refused to cooperate. – These were not just sick, random decisions to mutilate Israeli women and parade their naked bodies through the streets to the applause of onlookers. These were premeditated actions, emphasizes Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the UN. Hamas denies everything.
However, Israel responds that it has testimonies of the captured attackers, who claim that they were given orders to rape and desecrate the bodies of Israeli women.
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