New Report Reveals Barbarity of Sexual Assaults, Genital Mutilations by Hamas on October 7, During Hostage Crisis

Hamas and other terror groups committed systematic sexual violence both on October 7 and against hostages inside Gaza, a new comprehensive study reveals. The nearly 300-page report by a non-profit independent organization, the Civil Commission on October 7th Crimes Against Women and Children, relies on over 10,000 photographs, 1,800 hours of video footage, and more than 430 testimonies and interviews with survivors, witnesses, released hostages, experts, and family members.Gang-rape, rape, sexual torture, forced nudity and mutilation of genitalia are among the many sexual and gender-based crimes committed by Hamas and its affiliates. Both female and male hostages in Gaza described systematic sexual violence. Many victims have already spoken out publicly about what they endured, however, the report reveals additional accounts, of sexual assault, including against two hostages, both minors, who were family members. After they were released from captivity, the two said they were forced to perform “sexual acts on one another.” They were reportedly compelled by their captors to “take off their clothes, and their captors then touched their private parts and whipped their genitalia,” reads the report. A male survivor from the massacre at the Nova Music Festival site testified that he was gang raped by a group of perpetrators: “They injured my genitalia … I was beaten with a belt, they also laughed at me … In the final stage, I felt like they just left me there. There were several of them, and they genuinely enjoyed it. They laughed, they were really pleased, as if I was their sex doll … I was completely naked. They did whatever they wanted to me.”An eyewitness at the festival recounted how he saw terrorists pull a woman from a car and pin her against a wall. They then forcibly removed her clothing and raped her. The woman was stabbed repeatedly with a knife until she died but the perpetrators continued to rape her after her death, according to the witness. “When you ask me what I remember hearing — it’s the screams. Screams for life. Screams that were unbearable to hear. Screams I had never heard in my life,” he said. A third witness at the festival testified that he he saw “a beautiful woman with the face of an angel” and eight or 10 fighters beating and raping her. The woman, he said, screamed, “Stop it, already. I am going to die anyway from what you are doing, just kill me!” When they were done raping her they laughed and shot her in the head, he said. Witnesses, first responders, photo, and other documentation also confirmed that numerous women were found naked with mutilation to their genitalia. A volunteer described a case involving the recovery of a female victim whose body showed “clear indications of sexual abuse, including the insertion of foreign objects into the genital area,” reads the report. “When he attempted to move and position the body respectfully, he was unable to close her legs and observed that metal cans had been inserted into her vaginal area,” the report continues. Another witness described finding a male and female victim which seemed to have been “deliberately staged” as the male victim’s genitals had been severed and placed in the woman’s hand. The report is accompanied by videotaped statements by survivors and lists the countries of 52 individuals with dual citizenship who were harmed during the attacks. It contains more than 400 footnotes and a 17-page appendix that states the commission’s methodology, code of ethics, and explanation for the conditions in which testimony was collected. The report includes videos and photographs taken by first responders at the scene who shared with the commission materials they used for “documenting the site and victims’ bodies, including materials relevant to SGBV.” Eyewitnesses and first responders also testified that several women were found naked in the Kibbutzim near the Gaza border, which suffered some of the worst atrocities on October 7. In Kibbutz Be’eri, where 96 residents were murdered, an eyewitness told the commission that the body of a naked woman was found inside a home which has nails embedded in the “intimate area.” “In the vaginal area there was embedded some kind of plastic or metal or something that was inside her,” the witness said. The report states that three forensic pathologists who reviewed the images and videos from the site together with the civil commission concluded that the materials “depict the body of a naked woman. The victim’s groin area appears to have been cut using a sharp instrument.”“The pathologists further identified nails inserted into the woman’s lower abdomen and a ‘spike-like’ item embedded in her groin area,” the report adds. Female and male soldiers at army bases near the Gaza border also suffered from sexual violence on October 7, according to the report. A female officer who survived the attack on one of the bases reported how she heard a person being raped outside the building where she was hiding and that she found a naked body of a female soldier. The officer also said she found the body of a man whose penis had been mutilated. Other members of the witness’s reserve unit also reported seeing “female soldiers who were shot in the crotch, intimate parts, vagina. Or shot in a breast. This seemed to be systematic genital mutilation of a group of victims,” the report says. The report also reveals that it was provided with video footage from a military base, provided by a senior government official with direct access to the underlying materials and responsibilities in the post-attack response. In the footage, a woman can be seen shot in the genitalia while still alive.A dental expert, involved in the identification of the bodies of female soldiers, testified that she saw bodies of female soldiers bearing signs of sexual violence, including several bodies with cuts in the groin or other indications of sexual abuse, including bone fractures, inserted items, and amputated genitals. “For two years, we have listened to survivors and witnesses, painstakingly examined the evidence, and confronted material that is often beyond comprehension. We have worked to preserve this evidence within a dedicated war crimes archive, to ensure their voices are heard and that the world knows what happened. The report reveals that sexual violence was a deliberate strategy, carried out with exceptional cruelty,” said a human rights expert and founder of the civil commission, Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy. The report’s legal conclusions state that “Hamas and affiliated actors have engaged in genocidal acts, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and SGBV amounting to torture.” The commission recommended accountability through international cooperation in the investigation and prosecution of individuals responsible for the crimes with proceedings to be held by a specialized chamber or panel of judges dedicated specifically to sexual and gender-based crimes committed on October 7 and during captivity.“Now is the time to act, to confront the truth and ensure it is heard. We cannot prevent future atrocities if we ignore, deny, question, or look away from them. Nor can we begin to prevent what we do not know – or what we choose not to fully understand. Documenting these crimes is essential for giving voice to victims and to ensuring a different future for our children,” she added.

New Report Reveals Barbarity of Sexual Assaults, Genital Mutilations by Hamas on October 7, During Hostage Crisis

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