On October 7, Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel. They massacred over 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took around 240 hostages, including babies, children, women, and elderly people.
Hundreds of Israeli and non-Israeli women were exposed to sexual assaults, including rapes and gang rapes, at multiple locations at the hands of Hamas terrorists. Many of the victims were murdered after or during the rapes that took place in the presence of the victims’ friends, partners, or family members. Men were also sexually assaulted. In many cases, alongside the sexual assault, deliberate mutilation of the bodies occurred, including facial mutilation, burning, decapitation, and disfigurement. The mutilation of sexual organs of both men and women was also commonplace.
Yet the glaring silence of women’s organizations around the world has been deafening.
The sexual crimes of Hamas are well documented. The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel (ARCCI), for instance, published on February 21 a report entitled “Silent Cry – Sexual Crimes in the October 7 War” which provides a collection of testimonies and conclusions about the sexual abuse, torture, and murder inflicted upon Israeli men, women, and children by Hamas during and in the aftermath of the October 7 invasion of Israel. It also provides evidence of such crimes being perpetrated on an ongoing basis against hostages still held in Gaza.
The report presents detailed information regarding the systematic use of brutal violence to commit rape and gang rape, rapes in the presence of family and community members, sexual offenses against males, executions during or after the rapes, and sadistic practices such as binding and tying of the victims, mutilation and destruction of genital organs, insertion of weapons (such as grenades or knives) in sexual organs, and destruction and mutilation of bodies by Hamas terrorists. The ARCCI’s findings followed months of testimony and the collection of evidence.
The report finds that the Hamas attack included brutal acts of violent rape, often involving threats with weapons, specifically directed towards injured women. Many rape incidents occurred collectively, with collaboration among the perpetrating terrorists. In some cases, rape was conducted in front of an audience, such as partners, family, or friends, to increase the pain and humiliation for all present. Some Hamas members pursued victims who escaped the massacre, dragging them by their hair with screams. The majority of victims were subsequently killed during or after the sexual assault. Several testimonies, interviews, and additional sources indicate the use of sadistic practices by Hamas terrorists, aimed at intensifying the humiliation and fear of sexual abuse. Many victims’ bodies were found mutilated and bound, with sexual organs brutally attacked, and in some cases, weapons were inserted into them. Some bodies were discovered deliberately booby-trapped.
According to the report, which was submitted to the United Nations (UN), those crimes were committed in four main places: the Nova music festival, kibbutzim (Israeli neighborhoods), IDF (Israel Defense Forces) bases that were overrun by Hamas, and places where hostages were held in Gaza.
Some of the findings and conclusions of the report include:
Sexual assault in front of family members, community members, or other relatives … aims to undermine the dignity and masculinity of men who fail to protect their women, as well as to instill fear to deepen oppression and degradation. When other women are forced to witness the sexual assault, even if they were not themselves victims, they are influenced and subdued by the perpetrator’s power. Forcing spouses, parents, and siblings to witness the sexual assault of a family member is a practice of torture. In many cases, family members are killed when they try to protect their family from sexual assault …
From the testimonies of eyewitnesses, rescue and medical forces, a picture emerges of deliberate harm to genital organs of both men and women. This includes, among other things, direct and targeted shooting, mutilation of organs, and destruction and burning of sexual and intimate organs …
Bodies of women were found with gunshot wounds targeted at the breasts and genital mutilation, some with severed breasts …
Bodies of men were found with their genitilia severed, while others had their genitilia shot and mutilated. According to testimonies from ZAKA [Israel’s leading non-governmental rescue and recovery organization] Personnel, the intimate organs of men who suffered sexual assault were mutilated.
Many bodies were found with detached heads, making the identification and burial of the victims more difficult …
There is a high likelihood that the kidnapped women and men in Hamas captivity are still at risk of sexual abuse at any given moment.
It is believed that around 100 hostages remain in Gaza, along with the bodies of 32 people.
According to Dr. Carmit Klar-Chalamish and Noga Berger, the report’s authors,
The brutal practices used on October 7, such as genital mutilation of girls, women, and men, shooting, and weapon insertion, were designed to destroy and inflict sadistic terror. The manner in which these assaults were carried out aimed to reinforce their impact on the victims and their communities, which failed to prevent the harm. As the scars in our hearts refuse to heal, and the souls of our sisters and brothers cry out to us from the depths of the earth, a significant portion of those we considered partners responded in silence and denial of these horrors. We call on you to raise your voices and not allow the cries of these victims to fade away.
An Associated Press investigation also found that sexual assault was part of an atrocity-filled rampage by Hamas. “Ron Freger was at the music festival when Hamas attacked and said he heard a woman screaming for help. ‘I was lying in a pit (and) I heard (a girl) yelling: ‘They’re raping me, they’re raping me!’” he told the AP.
“Several minutes later, he heard gunshots close by and she fell silent, he said. ‘The feeling in that moment is one of complete powerlessness. I’m lying in this hole and I have no ability to do anything. I have no weapon, I have nothing, I’m surrounded by other people who are hiding with me and we’re completely powerless,’ said the 23-year-old from the northern Israeli town of Netanya.
The New York Times also published a report on December 28—based on 150 interviews of witnesses and first responders, video footage, and photographic evidence—that stated Hamas carried out widespread sexual violence on October 7.
Finally, on March 4, the United Nations released a report finding evidence that Hamas has committed widespread sexual crimes. Pramila Patten, the UN’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict, led a two-week investigation in Israel from January 29 to February 14, during which her team reviewed more than 5,000 photos and 50 hours of audio and video footage. The team also interviewed more than 30 survivors and eyewitnesses.
According to the UN’s report,
Interviews with stakeholders and material reviewed by the mission team describe an indiscriminate campaign to kill, inflict suffering and abduct the maximum number possible of men, women, and children – soldiers and civilians alike – in the minimum possible amount of time. People were shot, often at close range; burnt alive in their homes as they tried to hide in their safe rooms; gunned down or killed by grenades in bomb shelters where they sought refuge; and hunted down at the Nova music festival site as well as in the fields and roads adjacent to the Nova music festival ground. Other violations included sexual violence, abduction of hostages and corpses, the public display of captives, both dead and alive, the mutilation of corpses, including decapitation, and the looting and destruction of civilian property.
“Based on the totality of information gathered,” the team reported, “there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred at several locations.”
“[T]he mission team received clear and convincing information that sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment occurred against some women and children during their time in captivity and has reasonable grounds to believe that this violence may be ongoing,” read the 23-page UN report.
Despite all the evidence at hand, some people still deny these crimes, or blame them on the so-called ‘Palestinian grievances or statelessness,’ demonstrating either their sheer ignorance of history, Jew-hatred, or both.
It is the Palestinian-Arab leadership that has rejected offers for a Palestinian state at least six times in the past 90 years, without so much as a counteroffer: in 1937, 1947, 1967, 2000, 2008, and in 2020. All the offers were made by or accepted by Israel.
In 1947, the United Nations proposed a plan to partition the western part of the territory of the British Mandate for Palestine into two sections: an independent Jewish state and an independent Arab state. While Jewish leaders accepted the plan, Arab leaders vehemently opposed it. On the day that Israel declared its independence, May 15, 1948, five Arab countries invaded it to try to kill it at its birth: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.
Hamas, a jihadist organization, has a charter that calls for the obliteration of Israel and the extermination of the Jewish people. The EU, U.S., and many other countries have designated Hamas a terrorist organization.
Since Israel’s unconditional withdrawal in 2005 from Gaza, where Jews had resided for millennia, Israel has suffered significant violence and terrorism from Palestinian Arabs. Less than two years after the Israeli withdrawal, Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, at times tossing PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) members from the top floors of high buildings.
Palestinian-Arab groups have for decades rejected all offers for peaceful coexistence and instead chosen war and terrorism. On October 7, they made yet another similar choice and invaded Israel, which ignited the ongoing war in Gaza.
Many human rights or women’s rights organizations, however, have refused to condemn Hamas or express solidarity with the Israeli victims.
Liora Rez, the Executive Director of Stop Antisemitism, told the European Conservative,
It may be March, but for the global Jewish community, it remains October 7th. This date marks a somber anniversary tainted by the heinous actions of Hamas terrorists who breached Israeli borders, perpetrating atrocities that stain the fabric of humanity. Their actions, meticulously documented through self-aggrandizing footage spread across various platforms, stand as stark evidence of their barbarism.
Yet, despite the indisputable evidence, a troubling silence blankets the global stage. The world, in its collective indifference, gaslights the Jewish community, attempting to mute our voices in the face of injustice. However, the Jews of this century stand resolute, refusing to be silenced, even as the echoes of [the] #MeToo Movement fail to reverberate in solidarity.
We refuse to avert our gaze from the blind eye turned by institutions like the United Nations. We refuse to ignore the glaring hypocrisy of Hollywood, whose moral compass seems to flicker in the face of such egregious crimes. Reports of rape, gang rape, and mutilations inflicted upon innocent Israelis, some as young as 12, while others are elderly citizens with shattered pelvises, paint a grim picture of the savagery unleashed.
History often bears witness to atrocities overlooked by the privileged world, but to label the evidence presented as mere propaganda is not only reprehensible but also a grave injustice. It’s a stark reminder of the moral bankruptcy that plagues our supposedly enlightened world.
Since the crimes committed by Hamas on October 7, reactions have shown that if the victims are Israeli, the most inhumane atrocities, including rape, torture, and murder, are often shrugged off and even defended by certain people. The dehumanization of Israelis is at a genocidal level even in the eyes of the so-called ‘women’s rights organizations,’ whose reaction to Hamas’s sexual crimes has been total silence. The irrational prejudice of such people is naturally a betrayal of whatever principles or ethics they claim to have. No matter what such people’s reactions or non-reactions are, Israel’s war against rapist barbarians is morally right. It must end in total victory in order that Hamas terrorists will never commit such crimes again, or better yet, that they cease to exist at all.
Hamas’ Use of Rape as War Crime Against Israelis
On October 7, Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel. They massacred over 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took around 240 hostages, including babies, children, women, and elderly people.
Hundreds of Israeli and non-Israeli women were exposed to sexual assaults, including rapes and gang rapes, at multiple locations at the hands of Hamas terrorists. Many of the victims were murdered after or during the rapes that took place in the presence of the victims’ friends, partners, or family members. Men were also sexually assaulted. In many cases, alongside the sexual assault, deliberate mutilation of the bodies occurred, including facial mutilation, burning, decapitation, and disfigurement. The mutilation of sexual organs of both men and women was also commonplace.
Yet the glaring silence of women’s organizations around the world has been deafening.
The sexual crimes of Hamas are well documented. The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel (ARCCI), for instance, published on February 21 a report entitled “Silent Cry – Sexual Crimes in the October 7 War” which provides a collection of testimonies and conclusions about the sexual abuse, torture, and murder inflicted upon Israeli men, women, and children by Hamas during and in the aftermath of the October 7 invasion of Israel. It also provides evidence of such crimes being perpetrated on an ongoing basis against hostages still held in Gaza.
The report presents detailed information regarding the systematic use of brutal violence to commit rape and gang rape, rapes in the presence of family and community members, sexual offenses against males, executions during or after the rapes, and sadistic practices such as binding and tying of the victims, mutilation and destruction of genital organs, insertion of weapons (such as grenades or knives) in sexual organs, and destruction and mutilation of bodies by Hamas terrorists. The ARCCI’s findings followed months of testimony and the collection of evidence.
According to the report, which was submitted to the United Nations (UN), those crimes were committed in four main places: the Nova music festival, kibbutzim (Israeli neighborhoods), IDF (Israel Defense Forces) bases that were overrun by Hamas, and places where hostages were held in Gaza.
Some of the findings and conclusions of the report include:
It is believed that around 100 hostages remain in Gaza, along with the bodies of 32 people.
According to Dr. Carmit Klar-Chalamish and Noga Berger, the report’s authors,
An Associated Press investigation also found that sexual assault was part of an atrocity-filled rampage by Hamas. “Ron Freger was at the music festival when Hamas attacked and said he heard a woman screaming for help. ‘I was lying in a pit (and) I heard (a girl) yelling: ‘They’re raping me, they’re raping me!’” he told the AP.
“Several minutes later, he heard gunshots close by and she fell silent, he said. ‘The feeling in that moment is one of complete powerlessness. I’m lying in this hole and I have no ability to do anything. I have no weapon, I have nothing, I’m surrounded by other people who are hiding with me and we’re completely powerless,’ said the 23-year-old from the northern Israeli town of Netanya.
The New York Times also published a report on December 28—based on 150 interviews of witnesses and first responders, video footage, and photographic evidence—that stated Hamas carried out widespread sexual violence on October 7.
Finally, on March 4, the United Nations released a report finding evidence that Hamas has committed widespread sexual crimes. Pramila Patten, the UN’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict, led a two-week investigation in Israel from January 29 to February 14, during which her team reviewed more than 5,000 photos and 50 hours of audio and video footage. The team also interviewed more than 30 survivors and eyewitnesses.
According to the UN’s report,
“Based on the totality of information gathered,” the team reported, “there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred at several locations.”
“[T]he mission team received clear and convincing information that sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment occurred against some women and children during their time in captivity and has reasonable grounds to believe that this violence may be ongoing,” read the 23-page UN report.
Despite all the evidence at hand, some people still deny these crimes, or blame them on the so-called ‘Palestinian grievances or statelessness,’ demonstrating either their sheer ignorance of history, Jew-hatred, or both.
It is the Palestinian-Arab leadership that has rejected offers for a Palestinian state at least six times in the past 90 years, without so much as a counteroffer: in 1937, 1947, 1967, 2000, 2008, and in 2020. All the offers were made by or accepted by Israel.
In 1947, the United Nations proposed a plan to partition the western part of the territory of the British Mandate for Palestine into two sections: an independent Jewish state and an independent Arab state. While Jewish leaders accepted the plan, Arab leaders vehemently opposed it. On the day that Israel declared its independence, May 15, 1948, five Arab countries invaded it to try to kill it at its birth: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.
Hamas, a jihadist organization, has a charter that calls for the obliteration of Israel and the extermination of the Jewish people. The EU, U.S., and many other countries have designated Hamas a terrorist organization.
Since Israel’s unconditional withdrawal in 2005 from Gaza, where Jews had resided for millennia, Israel has suffered significant violence and terrorism from Palestinian Arabs. Less than two years after the Israeli withdrawal, Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, at times tossing PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) members from the top floors of high buildings.
Palestinian-Arab groups have for decades rejected all offers for peaceful coexistence and instead chosen war and terrorism. On October 7, they made yet another similar choice and invaded Israel, which ignited the ongoing war in Gaza.
Many human rights or women’s rights organizations, however, have refused to condemn Hamas or express solidarity with the Israeli victims.
Liora Rez, the Executive Director of Stop Antisemitism, told the European Conservative,
Since the crimes committed by Hamas on October 7, reactions have shown that if the victims are Israeli, the most inhumane atrocities, including rape, torture, and murder, are often shrugged off and even defended by certain people. The dehumanization of Israelis is at a genocidal level even in the eyes of the so-called ‘women’s rights organizations,’ whose reaction to Hamas’s sexual crimes has been total silence. The irrational prejudice of such people is naturally a betrayal of whatever principles or ethics they claim to have. No matter what such people’s reactions or non-reactions are, Israel’s war against rapist barbarians is morally right. It must end in total victory in order that Hamas terrorists will never commit such crimes again, or better yet, that they cease to exist at all.
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