Sexual and gender-based violence in the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel
Sexual and gender-based violence committed by Hamas / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
During the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, Israeli women and girls were reportedly subject to sexual violence, including rape and sexual assault by Hamas or other Gazan militants.[1][2][3] The militants involved in the attack are accused of having committed acts of gender-based violence, war crimes and crimes against humanity.[4][5][6][7] Hamas has denied that its fighters committed rape and assault against women.[1] During the 7 October attacks by Hamas on Israeli communities, Israeli women and girls were reportedly raped, assaulted, and mutilated by Hamas militants, an allegation that Hamas denies.[8][9][10] Israeli police said dozens of women and some men were raped. The New York Times and the BBC reported that "videos of naked and bloodied women filmed by Hamas on the day of the attack, and photographs of bodies taken at the sites afterwards, suggest that women were sexually targeted by their attackers".[11][7][12]
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It was reported that some released hostages' testimonies indicated that both female and male hostages had been subjected to sexual violence by their captors while being held by Hamas in Gaza.[13][14][15] In late March 2024, Amit Soussana, a released Israeli hostage, told the New York Times, that she had been sexually abused by her Hamas captor.[16][17]
The UN was initially criticised for its muted response to sexual violence. A UN report in March 2024 concluded that there was "clear and convincing information" that Israeli hostages in Gaza experienced "sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment", that there are "reasonable grounds" to believe such abuse is "ongoing"[18][19] and there was also "reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred during the 7 October attacks in multiple locations across Gaza periphery, including rape and gang-rape, in at least three locations": the Nova music festival and its vicinities of Road 232 and kibbutz Re'im.[20][21][18][19] The UN mission that produced the report was not investigative in nature, but designed to collect and confirm allegations.[19][22] The UN noted that the acts of sexual violence that were detailed in the report constituted "evidence [that] rises above 'reasonable grounds to believe' yet falls below 'beyond a reasonable doubt.'"[23] A "fully fledged" investigation would be needed to establish the latter.[24]
A New York Times investigation by Jeffrey Gettleman, Anat Schwartz, and Adam Sella, released in late December 2023, found at least seven locations where sexual assaults and mutilations of Israeli women and girls were carried out. It concluded that these were not isolated events but part of a broader pattern of gender-based violence during the 7 October massacres. The newspaper's probe concluded that Hamas "weaponized sexual violence" during the attacks.[25] Nevertheless, Schwartz later revealed that she did not find any victim or complaint of sexual assault when she contacted every rape crisis clinic in Israel.[26] The Intercept and Mondoweiss both concluded that the mass rape allegations advanced by the New York Times were unfounded.[27][26] As Ha'aretz summarise, "On the one hand, pro-Palestinian websites are conducting an intensive campaign of denial, endeavoring to call into question the reliability of findings and testimonies. On the other hand, Israeli spokespersons latch onto every gut-wrenching report in their efforts to persuade the world of the truth of the atrocities that were perpetrated, and in some cases also invoke them in order to excoriate the enemy and score political points."[28]
Witnesses described the perpetrators using shovels,[29] beheading victims, engaged in rapes, and even playing with severed body parts,[7] although a number of testimonies were subsequently discredited.[30][31][32] These acts were denounced as gender-based violence, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, aligning with the International Criminal Court's recognition of sexual violence as such.[33][34] Some of the released hostages reportedly mentioned sexual abuse having occurred during their time in Gaza.[35][9]
Israel accused international women's rights and human rights groups of downplaying the assaults.[36] Hamas denied that it committed any sexual assaults, and has called for an impartial international investigation into the accusations.[37][38] On January 2024, UN experts Alice Jill Edwards and Morris Tidball-Binz [de] said in a statement that the sexual violence acts amounted to war crimes which "may also qualify as crimes against humanity".[39]
On 12 April 2024, the European Union sanctioned military and special forces wings of Hamas and the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad due to their responsibility for the alleged sexual violence on 7 October. An asset freeze and travel ban were imposed on the Qassam and Al-Quds Brigades and the Nukhba Force.[40] The EU said the two groups' fighters “committed widespread sexual and gender-based violence in a systematic manner, using it as a weapon of war.”[41]