What we know about sexual violence during the October 7 attacks on Israel

From the first days after the October 7 attacks on Israel, Israel has accused Hamas terrorists of committing widespread sexual violence.

Israeli authorities say they are investigating reports of sexual assaults and have gathered significant evidence – from witnesses, medical workers and photographs of the crime scene – that they occurred.

But they say it has been extremely difficult to gather the evidence because most of the victims are dead.

Many activists say not enough credence is given to what they say was a pattern of widespread rape during Hamas’s attacks.

The activists have complained that some news media questioned the veracity of the allegations and that international organizations such as the United Nations were too slow to speak out on the issue.

Jewish women’s groups organized a conference at the United Nations on Monday to draw attention to the issue.

Hamas officials have denied reports of sexual violence and said any atrocities were committed by other armed groups that poured into Israel after Hamas fighters breached the barrier around Gaza. But extensive witness statements and evidence of killings, including videos posted by Hamas fighters themselves, support the allegations.

Here’s what we know.

Israel accuses Hamas of mass rape

Meni Binyamin, the head of the Israeli police’s International Crime Investigation Unit, has said that “dozens” of women and some men were raped by Hamas militants on October 7.

“We are investigating sexual crimes against both women and men committed by Hamas terrorists,” Mr. Binyamin said in an interview with The New York Times. “There were violent rape incidents, the most extreme sexual abuse we have ever seen, among both women and men. I’m talking dozens.”

“This is an ongoing investigation,” Mr Binyamin added. “I can’t go into details.”

Mr Binyamin said a team of researchers had collected “tens of thousands” of testimonies from survivors and witnesses of the attack, as well as soldiers and medical workers. He said intelligence officers were sifting through a trove of video and photographs of the Hamas raid. They have not shared any information about interviewing rape victims.

Autopsies, forensic evidence and confessions of captured Hamas fighters also confirm that sex crimes were committed, he said.

Israeli authorities have released little information about specific crimes and victims, but in mid-November police officials shared a video of an Israeli woman who said she saw Hamas terrorists rape a young woman they captured during a music festival in the Negev Desert . . The witness, who was not identified by police, said she was hiding during the festival and watched as Hamas terrorists took turns raping a young woman, mutilating her and then shooting her in the head.

Her testimony was consistent with other witness statements from the music festival.

Top Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have accused Hamas of using rape as part of a broader campaign of atrocities.

“Hundreds have been slaughtered, families have been swept away in their beds in their homes, women have been brutally raped and murdered,” Netanyahu said in early October.

Activists seek broader condemnation

Women’s rights activists have expressed dismay at what they see as a lack of credibility to claims that sexual violence was widespread on October 7. To date, no rape or sexual assault survivors have spoken publicly about their experiences.

“We’ve come so far in believing survivors of rape and sexual assault in so many situations,” wrote Sheryl Sandberg, Meta’s former director and a leading voice on women in the workplace. in an op-ed for CNN. “Yet this time, many are ignoring the stories these bodies tell us about how these women spent the last moments of their lives.”

“Failure to loudly condemn the October 7 rapes — or any rapes for that matter — is a huge step backwards for the women — and men — of the world,” Ms. Sandberg said.

Many people in Israel and elsewhere have complained that it took too long for organizations like the United Nations to issue condemnations, a delay they took to imply that initial reports of sex crimes had not been believed.

UN Women, the United Nations organization dedicated to gender equality and women’s empowerment, issued a statement last week calling for all accounts of gender-based violence that occurred on October 7 to be investigated and prosecuted.

“We are alarmed by the numerous stories of gender-based atrocities and sexual violence during these attacks,” the organization said.

The statement came a day after UN Secretary General António Guterres acknowledged “numerous stories of sexual violence during Hamas’s abhorrent acts of terror on October 7, which must be vigorously investigated and prosecuted.” message on Xformerly Twitter.

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan posted on X on November 29, UN Women had “immediately and harshly condemned every other mass slaughter involving such heinous sexual crimes.”

“But if Israeli women are the victims,” ​​he added, “the organization casts doubt on the allegations.”