New UN Report Highlights ‘Sexualized Torture’ of Israeli Victims of Hamas Violence on October 7 and Afterward

The next round of outrage over sexual violence at Gaza is the finding that any Israeli hostages still alive are likely facing rape and sexual abuse by Hamas terrorists, according to a new report from the United Nations that’s likely to stoke the fury. This is the first time an international organization has confirmed what Israel has alleged since October 7 — a “pattern” indicating “sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment” by Hamas terrorists against mostly female victims. That’s the conclusion of a UN special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Pramila Patten, who was in Israel and the West Bank last month with a mission team investigating Hamas’s crimes against women. “There are reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing against those still held in captivity,” Ms. Patten says in the report. She calls on Hamas “to immediately and unconditionally release all those being held as hostages and to ensure their protection, including from sexual violence.”Across the areas of the October 7 attacks, “several fully naked or partially naked bodies from the waist down were recovered — mostly women — with hands tied and shot multiple times, often in the head.” Despite the evidence presented Monday, the UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, has not yet used his authority to convene the Security Council to declare Hamas a terrorist organization and impose sanctions on its supporters.“The shame of the UN is on clear display,” the UN’s ambassador to Israel, Gilad Erdan, said in a statement Monday in response to the report. He pointed to the fact that Mr. Guterres has failed to order a discussion on the topic yet continues to call for a cease-fire at Gaza, which Mr. Erdan says would “lengthen the suffering of the hostages.”The report comes two weeks after the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel also confirmed that Hamas committed sexual violence across three main areas — the Nova music festival site, Road 232 of the Negev highway, and the Kibbutz Re’im in Southern Israel. The UN team included Ms. Patten and nine UN specialists who analyzed a myriad of evidence, including 50 hours of footage, 5,000 photographs, and 34 independent interviews. They concluded that “the true prevalence of sexual violence during the 7 October attacks and their aftermath, may take months or years to emerge and may never be fully known.”“The UN report landed the same day as a news report from the Times of Israel disclosing audio recordings from two Unrwa teachers who appear to appeared to brag about their terrorism on October 7. “I’m inside, I’m inside with the Jews,” an Unrwa teacher, Mamdouh al-Qali, says, according to the Israeli Defense Forces, who released the recording. Another Hamas terrorist who worked as a teacher at a Unrwa school in Deir al-Balah, Yousef al-Hawajara, was quoted boasting about kidnapping Israeli hostages. “We have female hostages, I captured one!” Mr. al-Hawajara says in the recording. He says that when he entered into Israel, “they did actions for liberations, God willing.” IDF spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said in a statement that the military chose to release the evidence to “remind and not forget.” That report brings the total number of Unrwa workers that Jerusalem says actively participated in Hamas’s attacks to 14.

New UN Report Highlights ‘Sexualized Torture’ of Israeli Victims of Hamas Violence on October 7 and Afterward

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