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Time of India
a day ago
- Politics
- Time of India
How Hamas used sexual violence as weapon during October 7 attacks; new Israeli report reveals chilling details
A newly released report by a coalition of Israeli legal and gender experts has presented the most comprehensive evidence to date that Hamas used sexual violence as a deliberate weapon of war during its October 7, 2023, assault on Israel . The report, titled "A Quest for Justice," was unveiled on Tuesday and includes harrowing eyewitness accounts, forensic data, and previously unseen testimonies from freed hostages and first responders. The investigation, led by law professor Ruth Halperin-Kaddari of Bar-Ilan University and supported by former senior legal officials, documents at least 17 separate incidents of sexual assault. The findings are based on interviews with 15 hostages who were released from Gaza, as well as additional evidence from survivors of the Nova music festival, one of the sites of the attacks. According to the report, 13 women and two men who survived captivity by Hamas described experiencing or witnessing sexual violence while being held hostage, including beatings, sexual assault at gunpoint, forced nudity, and threats of rape disguised as forced marriage. Many recounted being subjected to verbal sexual harassment, with some reporting repeated physical abuse and sexual humiliation. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Play War Thunder now for free War Thunder Play Now Undo The report's authors concluded that sexual violence was not random but systematic and tactical, intended to terrorize and humiliate victims and communities. Forensic evidence, visual documentation, and autopsy reports corroborated these accounts, with investigators describing patterns of gang rape, mutilation, and public humiliation. The report also highlighted the immense challenges in gathering evidence due to the killing or traumatization of many victims, which has left investigators reliant on survivor and witness testimony, as well as physical evidence collected from the attack sites. The United Nations and other international bodies have previously expressed alarm over the accounts of gender-based atrocities during the October 7 attacks , with a U.N. Commission of Inquiry finding "reasonable grounds" to believe that Hamas committed rape and sexualized torture. The International Criminal Court has also cited these crimes in its pursuit of charges against Hamas leaders. Live Events Hamas has denied the allegations of sexual violence, but the new report urges a shift in how conflict-related sexual violence is prosecuted, calling for legal frameworks that do not rely solely on victim testimony , given the systematic silencing of victims through murder or trauma. The authors argue that the evidence demonstrates a clear pattern of sexual violence used as a weapon of war, and they call for international action to hold perpetrators accountable.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hostages released from Gaza detail sexual violence as Israeli report concludes Hamas used it as ‘weapon of war' on October 7
Thirteen women and two men who survived captivity by Hamas said they experienced or witnessed sexual violence while held hostage in Gaza, according to a new report by a group of Israeli researchers known as the Dinah Project. The Dinah Project experts — all women — gathered first-hand testimonies from the 15 returned hostages, one survivor of an attempted rape during the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, 17 eye and ear witnesses and 27 first responders who attended the scenes of the attacks. These testimonies, coupled with forensic reports and photographs and videos from the attacks, led them to conclude that Hamas used sexual violence in a widespread, systematic and 'tactical' way as a 'weapon of war.' The report, published on Tuesday, describes some of the survivors' experiences. One female hostage was beaten and sexually assaulted at gunpoint while in captivity, according to the report. She said she was chained by an iron ankle chain for three weeks and was repeatedly asked about the timing of her menstrual cycle. The report details that many of the 15 former hostages were threatened with rape in the form of forced marriage. Almost all of them reported verbal sexual harassment and some physical sexual harassment, including unwanted touching of private parts, it said. Israel has in the past accused international organizations, including the UN and its agencies, of ignoring widespread sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas and other militant groups during the October 7 attacks. The Dinah Project is an Israeli group established following the attacks to seek justice for victims of sexual violence. Made up of legal and gender experts, it is led by legal scholar Ruth Halperin-Kaddari and Sharon Zagagi-Pinhas, who was the former chief military prosecutor of the Israel Defense Forces, and operates under the auspices of the Ruth and Emanuel Rackman Center for the Advancement of Women at Bar-Ilan University. The first official acknowledgment by the UN of the use of sexual violence during the attacks came some five months after October 7. Then, following a mission to Israel, the UN's Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten published a report concluding there were reasonable grounds to believe conflict-related sexual violence occurred in multiple locations, and that there was clear and convincing evidence that hostages in Gaza were subjected to sexual assaults. Hamas has denied in the past that militants committed sexual violence, saying in a statement in December that these were 'unfounded lies and allegations.' The scale of the atrocities committed on the day of the attacks meant that first responders and investigators were overwhelmed. According to Jewish customs, bodies must be buried as soon as possible after death, so the focus of the first responders, many of whom were Orthodox Jewish volunteers, was on recovering remains rather than investigation. In many instances, authorities did not have a chance to collect sufficient forensic evidence because they were attending scenes while the attacks were still ongoing. This meant that there were often no detailed records or photographs of the crime scenes in the immediate aftermath. Many of the victims of sexual violence were murdered by their attackers, which meant there were almost no first-hand testimonies, according to the report. As some of the hostages were released and more time passed, allowing victims to process their experiences, researchers were able to collect more comprehensive first-hand evidence. The Dinah Project researchers called for the sexual violence perpetrated during the attacks to be recognized as crimes against humanity, and said the perpetrators must be held accountable and receive international condemnation.
NBC News
2 days ago
- Politics
- NBC News
New Israeli report says Hamas used sexual violence as a 'weapon of war' in Oct. 7 attack
Newly released interviews and documentation further bolster evidence that Hamas systematically used sexual violence as a weapon of war during its Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack, according to a report by a group of Israeli gender and law experts unveiled Tuesday. The report, titled "A Quest for Justice," was published by the Dinah Project, a legal research initiative led by law professor and women's rights activist Ruth Halperin-Kaddari of Tel Aviv's Bar-Ilan University, Sharon Zagagi-Pinhas, a lawyer and the former chief military prosecutor at the Israel Defence Forces, and Nava Ben-Or, a former judge and deputy attorney general. Partly funded by the British government and Jewish non-profit organizations, the report contains previously unheard testimony from 15 returned hostages from Gaza, along with a rape survivor from the Nova music festival, one of at least six different locations where Hamas carried out its attacks. It also includes eyewitness testimony from at least 17 different incidents of sexual assault, as well as accounts from first responders, forensic evidence, and audio and visual documentation. The issue of sexual assault and rape during the Oct. 7 attacks is highly emotive and charged, with some in Israel accusing United Nations observers of betraying survivors by downplaying the issue. Meanwhile, some international observers, including a U.N. official appointed to investigate, say that while there is evidence of cases where rape and sexual assault took place, it does not point to those incidents having been systematic or directed by militant leaders. Hamas has denied its militants committed sexual crimes on Oct. 7, 2023. The report states that clear patterns emerged of sexual violence being perpetrated, including victims who were found 'partially or fully naked with their hands tied, often to structures like trees or poles; evidence of gang rapes followed by execution; genital mutilation; and public humiliation.' The details add to and corroborate past reporting on sexual violence that took place during the attacks. The sexual violence "continued in captivity, with many returnees reporting forced nudity, physical and verbal sexual harassment, sexual assaults and threats of forced marriage,' the report adds. The victims also include two returned male hostages who were released in January and February after being held captive for about 500 days, where they were subjected to "sexual humiliation, which included forced nudity and physical abuse when naked," according to the report. In light of the testimonies, the report aims to have the sexual violence acknowledged as crimes against humanity and to hold the perpetrators accountable. Notably, it calls on the U.N. to send a fact-finding mission and blacklist Hamas as a group. 'We hence call upon the U.N. Secretary-General to blacklist Hamas as an organization responsible for the tactical use of sexual violence as a weapon of war,' it states. Reem Alsalem, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, said in a statement that she and fellow rapporteurs and experts emphasized that reports of such violence needed to be independently verified and investigated and perpetrators be held accountable. She added that the U.N. special commission appointed to investigate "found patterns indicative of sexual violence against Israeli women at different locations. The Commission was also unable to independently verify specific allegations of sexual and gender-based violence due to Israel's obstruction of its investigations." "It is my understanding that neither the Commission nor any other independent human rights mechanism established that sexual or gender-based violence was committed against Israelis on or since the 7th of October as a systematic tool of war or as a tool of genocide," Alsalem wrote in the statement. The Dinah Project report's findings follow previously published reports by the U.N. and the International Criminal Court on sexual violence and gang rape during the attack. In March 2024, a report compiled by Pramila Patten, the U.N. Special Representative on sexual violence in conflict, stated that it had found 'reasonable grounds' to believe some victims of the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7 were raped and sexually assaulted. There was 'clear and convincing' information that some of those taken captive were subjected to sexual violence, the U.N. team of experts said in their report, including rape and sexualized torture — violence it said 'may be ongoing.' In December 2023, NBC News published a separate report which reviewed evidence suggesting that dozens of Israeli women were raped, sexually abused or mutilated during the Oct. 7 attack, where more than 1,200 people were killed in Israel. Since then, Israel's ongoing military offensive in Gaza has killed more than 56,000 people and seriously injured thousands more, according to health officials in the enclave. It also comes after a U.N.-backed body, the Human Rights Council, released an extensive report in March this year which accused Israel of 'the systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other gender-based violence' in the Gaza Strip. The report by the found that the widespread destruction of Gaza, the use of heavy explosives in civilian areas, and Israeli attacks on hospitals and health facilities had led to 'disproportionate violence against women and children.'
