Israeli report accuses Hamas of using sexual violence as a weapon of war on Oct. 7
By TIA Goldenberg
Like Aviv, Israel (AP) – An Israeli report published on Tuesday said that Hamas had used sexual violence as a “war tactical weapon” in its attacks of October 7, 2023, based on other surveys for international and Israeli and United Nations rights groups.
The report of the Dinah project, a team of legal and gender experts, based its conclusions on the testimonies of survivors and witnesses, the accounts of the first stakeholders and the forensic, visual and audio evidence. He called for a change in the way in which conflict -related sexual violence is prosecuted, saying that Hamas has silenced its victims by killing them, stealing key evidence investigators.
“Most of the victims have been permanently reluctant – either murdered during or after the attacks, or have remained too traumatized to speak – creating unique evidence,” according to the report, calling for a more personalized legal approach.
The report comes while Israel and Hamas negotiate a ceasefire for the 21-month war in Gaza, which started with the surprise cross-border raid. The agreement suspected fighting on Palestinian territory and would release some of the 50 remaining hostages, more than half that would have died.
Accounts of sexual violence of hostages and witnesses
The report indicated that it counted on dozens of accounts, including a survivor of the rape attempt during a music festival, 15 otages returned, 17 witnesses and several first stakeholders.
In some cases, the Dinah project carried out its own interviews, while in others, it relied on testimonies accessible to the public or published accounts.
Citing accounts in the Israeli and international media, he said that 15 old hostages have known or witness a form of sexual assault that included physical sexual violence, forced nudity, verbal sexual harassment and forced marriage threats. Two male hostages said they had faced forced nudity and physical violence when naked.
The report indicates that witnesses indicated at least 15 distinct cases of sexual assault, including at least four cases of gang rape.
The report indicates that its results showed models in the attacks, including the victims found partially or entirely naked with their linked hands, evidence of gang rape followed by murder, genital mutilation and public humiliation, indicating that they were intentionally used as a weapon of war.
The report is based on other charges of sexual violence by Hamas
An official of Hamas did not immediately respond to a request for comments. Hamas has already denied the allegations that its forces carried out sexual violence on October 7, 2023, when the fighters broke into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
Hamas has been appointed a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.
In a report from last year, the United Nations said that there were “reasonable reasons” to believe that Hamas had rape, “sexual torture” and other cruel and inhuman treatments of women during its attack.
By issuing arrest warrants against three Hamas leaders who were finally killed by Israel, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said they had responsibility for “rape and other acts of sexual violence as crimes against humanity” during the October 7 attack.
“ The feeling of being the property of someone else ”
The report included testimonies of more than a dozen returned hostages.
“In captivity, I went through hell: hunger, thirst, loneliness,” said Ilana Gritzewsky, who was kidnapped from her house to Kibbutz Nir Oz and held hostage for 55 days, during an event in Jerusalem marking the publication of the report. “Physical and psychological torture. My body hurt. My bones were broken. But humiliation, fear, the feeling of being the property of someone else – it is the pain that never leaves.”
Gritzewsky said after passing out during her kidnapping, she woke up in Gaza, half undress, surrounded by activists who pointed their weapons while groping it. “Today – almost two years later – people are still asking if it happened. If they have really violated, burned, murdered, kidnapped. If they really injure women. If men were really injured too. I tell you – yes. It happens. And it always happens.”
Gritzewsky was a frank activist for her boyfriend, Matan Zangauker, who was also kidnapped and was held hostage in Gaza for 21 months.
The report requires a new approach
The report recommended that sexual violence linked to conflicts be treated differently from regular sexual crimes to allow evidence that does not mainly be based on the testimonies of the victims, to take into account the “systematic silence of the victims”.
He asked that different forms of evidence be admitted in any pursuit and that joint criminal responsibility be applied to all participants in the attack, rather than trying to link individual authors to specific acts and victims.
This approach would create “a path to justice for the victims of the October 7 attack and potentially for the victims in other areas of conflict,” said the report.
“We must learn from past experience and understanding that we, as Israeli women, must scream our voices for those who can no longer cry, and we must bring them justice,” said Michal Herzog, the first lady of Israel.
The writer Associated Press Fatma Khaled in Cairo and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel contributed to this report.
