A United Nations report released Monday says there are “compelling reasons” that Hamas used sexual torture in its attack on Israeli soil on October 7. He also points to the existence of evidence that the hostages held in the Gaza Strip have also suffered this type of violence.
UN Special Envoy Pramila Patten, who led the team’s visit to Israel and the West Bank between January 29 and February 14, said that in the work on the ground they found clear information and convincingly that Hamas had committed rape and other cruel and inhumane treatment, especially against women, during the shocking attack on Israeli territory near the border with Gaza.
The Israeli denunciation of this type of violence and the lack of condemnation by the United Nations provoked severe criticism of the mission of Israel and its Government at the UN. This is one of the elements that Israel relied on to forge the narrative that the multilateral organization was prejudiced against its country and favored Palestine.
The verdict comes almost five months after the attack by Hamas, in which around 1,200 people died and 250 more were taken hostage, of which more than a hundred are still missing. As a result, Israel launched a retaliatory operation that has resulted in around 30,000 deaths, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The UN has calculated that at least a quarter of the 2.3 million inhabitants of the strip suffer from starvation.
Patten explained that they had not found any victims of sexual violence willing to speak up, despite efforts to encourage them to do so. However, his team held 33 meetings with members of Israeli institutions and conducted interviews with 34 people, including survivors and witnesses of the October 7 attack, freed hostages and medical personnel, among them others
Based on the information gathered, the special envoy remarked that there are clear indications to believe that there was sexual violence that day, during the assault on multiple locations on the outskirts of Gaza, in Israeli territory, with cases of violations individual and collective in the manada style at three of those places.
In some places, the UN team gathered that they had found several bodies completely or partially naked, from the waist down, mostly women, with their hands tied and with multiple gunshot wounds, often to the head. Some of these bodies were tied to poles.
Although it is circumstantial, Patten stated that the pattern of naked and tied hands “may indicate some type of sexual violence”. In the context of the Supernova music festival, they found reasons to support that there had been numerous incidents of sexual violence with victims of rape or murder in the midst of aggression.
The report also noted that it had become aware of allegations that sexual violence had been committed by members of the Israeli security forces and settlers in the occupied territories against Palestinian citizens. They allegedly suffered “cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment during their detentions, including forms of sexual violence and abusive body searches, threats of rape and prolonged periods of nudity.
Patten clarified that his mission was not intended to conduct an investigation, other agencies have that mandate, he specified, but they had to give a voice to victims and survivors and offer them ways to support them.
The UN team was made up of experts who can interpret forensic evidence, analyze digital information and conduct interviews with victims and witnesses of sexual violence, the document specified.
