EGN NEWS DESK
An Israeli group that helps survivors of sexual abuse launched a report on Wednesday concluding that acts of sexual violence towards Israelis throughout and after the Hamas-led assault on Oct. 7 had been “systematic and widespread.”
“The report finds that the Hamas assault included brutal acts of violent rape, usually involving threats with weapons, particularly directed in direction of injured ladies,” mentioned the group, The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, an umbrella group of 9 such organizations in Israel. The report added that many incidents concerned gang rape.
“Often, the rape was perpetrated in entrance of an viewers — companions, household or pals — in a fashion supposed to extend the ache and humiliation of all current,” the report mentioned.
The attackers additionally “minimize and mutilated sexual organs and different physique elements with knives,” the report mentioned.
The report asserted that its data and evaluation “clearly demonstrates that sexual abuse was not an remoted incident or sporadic circumstances however moderately a transparent operational technique.”
Based on evaluation of the knowledge collected by the group, the report concluded that intercourse crimes had been dedicated towards folks at a rave website, in kibbutzim and at navy bases and towards hostages held in Gaza.
The report was based mostly on testimonies, interviews with emergency medical employees and articles, together with a monthslong investigation revealed by The New York Times in late December, which documented a sample of gender-based violence within the Hamas-led Oct. 7 assault.
The topic of sexual violence has been among the many extra contentious points of the Oct. 7 assault. Multiple information organizations have reported allegations of sexual violence through the assault, and The Times, on Dec. 28, included accounts from a number of eyewitnesses who mentioned they noticed ladies being sexually assaulted and killed.
The Times seen images and movies of girls’s our bodies that bore indicators suggestive of sexual assault and mutilation. The Times additionally spoke with emergency responders who mentioned they discovered our bodies of bare or half-naked ladies and women who appeared to have been sexually assaulted.
Some critics on social media have challenged these findings, saying there was not sufficient forensic proof to substantiate the claims. Experts have mentioned that it isn’t uncommon for such proof to be minimal in circumstances of wartime sexual violence.
Women’s advocacy teams in Israel have denounced the pushback, saying that the quite a few and detailed allegations that Israeli ladies had been brutally attacked that day have been held to totally different requirements than allegations of girls in different places who claimed to have been victimized.
Demonstrators in Israel, indignant at what they take into account a sluggish response by the U.N. and different worldwide organizations, have chanted at protests, “Me too, except you’re a Jew!”
Hamas, which the United States and the European Union take into account a terrorist group, has repeatedly denied that its fighters perpetrated sexual violence on Oct. 7. For occasion, three days after the Times investigation was revealed, Hamas mentioned in a press release that the group’s leaders “categorically deny such allegations” and referred to as it part of Israel’s try and justify the killing of Palestinian civilians.
Hamas has maintained that its fighters’ “faith, values and tradition” forbid such acts, and that, as Muslims, they’re “honor-bound to respect and shield all ladies.” The group has mentioned it welcomes any worldwide inquiries into allegations of sexual violence.
In late January, a U.N. group visited Israel to look at these experiences, led by Pramila Patten, the U.N. secretary-general’s particular consultant on sexual violence in battle. Ms. Patten’s workplace mentioned she’s going to share some preliminary findings and that further data might be included in her workplace’s annual report on sexual violence in battle.
Orit Sulitzeanu, the manager director of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, mentioned in a information launch that the report was submitted to determination makers on the U.N. “Silence is not an choice,” she mentioned. “We anticipate worldwide organizations to take a transparent stance; we can not stand on the sidelines.”
