Israel seeks to unravel complex puzzle of Hamas sexual violence in October 7 attack

More than two months after Hamas’ attack on Israel, protests are increasing reports of rape and sexual assault during this bloody assault, but its extent is difficult to quantify, due to the paucity of testimonies and the lack of forensic evidence.

“Hamas has used rape and sexual violence as weapons of war,” the Israeli ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, denounced in early December.

Reports have increased in recent weeks that militants from the Palestinian Islamic movement who launched an attack in Israel have committed gang rapes, acts of necrophilia and mutilated the genitals of corpses.

Hamas denies the accusations and assures that they aim to “demonize” this Palestinian movement that governs in Gaza.

This was underlined by witnesses and experts interviewed by AFP it is not possible to have a complete picture of the atrocities committed during the attack nor whether they were systematic due to the chaos that followed this offensive.

The assault left nearly 1,140 dead, according to a tally based on official data from Israeli authorities.

In the following days, hundreds of bodies arrived at the Shura military base in central Israel.

Many were burned and mutilated to such an extent that the work of the experts was a delicate task.

Police spokeswoman Mirit Ben Mayor said no forensic reports regarding the sexual assault had been submitted.

“It has not been proven whether the bodies were raped, they were examined for identification,” he indicated. According to the traditional rules of Judaism, burial must take place immediately after death.

Bodies wrapped in “bloody rags”

The AFP agency interviewed an army reservist responsible for identifying and washing the bodies of soldiers killed in the attack.

“We were shocked,” said Shari, who identified herself only by her first name. The bodies of “many young women arrived wrapped in bloody rags,” she said.

“The commander of our group saw (the bodies of) several soldiers with shots in the groin, vagina or breast,” he said.

The attack on October 7th it was the deadliest against civilians on Israeli territory since the creation of that state in 1948. Israel has promised to annihilate the Islamic group and launched a barrage of bombings, followed by a ground offensive, which caused, according to Hamas, at least 20,000 deaths, for mostly women and minors.

Eli Hazen, a volunteer with the Zaka organization, which specializes in identifying disaster victims to be buried in accordance with Jewish traditions, said there were “communication problems” and coordination between different rescue teams, the army and police.

Horror testimonies

Hazen reported finding the body of a woman in Kibbutz Beeri. half naked, hit in the back of the head and in a position that suggests she was sexually assaulted.

The volunteer said that in the same farming community they found the body of a young woman lying under a dead fighter and that both were half-dressed.

The bodies had already begun to decompose and it’s difficult to be sure what happened, Hazen said.

Simcha Greiniman, also a Zaka volunteer, told AFP that on another kibbutz they found a dead woman with sharp objects inserted into her vagina.

Céline Bardet, French jurist and founder of the association “We are not weapons of war”, underlined that these are examples of sexual violence and also cited images on social networks of a half-naked woman in the back of a truck, mistreated and spat on by part of the militiamen.

At the moment “it is not possible to establish the extent or precise details of the abuse, the modus operandi or how many people were involved,” Bardet said.

Bardet expressed disappointment at the “lack of cooperation” from Israeli authorities, who have rejected an independent international investigation.

For rape cases, the situation is more complex, as experts say most of the women believed to be victims are dead and exhumation is prohibited by Judaism.

There are many eyewitness accounts in the media, especially those from survivors of the Nova festival, where 3,000 people celebrated a festival less than 10 km from Gaza. 364 people died there.

“There were three girls, naked from the waist down, with their legs open. One had her face burned,” recalled Rami Shmuel, one of the event’s organizers.

Lots of images are circulating on social networks They denounce a “mass femicide”. The Israeli military has released documents it says it found on the bodies of Hamas militants, including an instruction book with the phrases “take off your pants” or “take off your clothes” in Hebrew.

Several Israeli diplomats contacted by AFP called the UN Human Rights Council’s commission of inquiry “biased” and accused its members of being “anti-Semitic” and “anti-Israeli”.

The International Criminal Court (ICC), whose prosecutor Karim Khan visited the region after the conflict broke out, could decide whether to open an investigation.

Cochav Elkayam-Lévy, law professor, founded the “Civilian Commission on Hamas Crimes Against Women and Children” with the aim of documenting testimonies and evidence of the attacks.

For Elkayam-Lévy an investigation can take yearsas victims often take a long time to talk about what happened.

“We will never know what happened to the women (…) but we are unraveling this broken puzzle, piece by piece.”

Source: AFP