It could not be clearer now that Hamas’s brutal attack on October 7th, 2023, was not only a massacre, but also a calculated campaign of coordinated sexual violence. A new report has revealed the horrifying extent of the rape and assault that was unleashed by Islamist terrorists on that day.
The report, published today by the Dinah Project, combines new and existing evidence and statements from survivors, eyewitnesses, and first responders, as well as forensic and video evidence. It documents incidents that together prove Hamas militants used rape as a premeditated weapon of war. These were not, as many pro-Palestine activists tried to convince us, isolated incidents.
The report documents how victims were found partially or fully naked. In some cases, they were tied up, subjected to gang rape, mutilation, and then executed. Sexual violence also regularly occurred in captivity, involving forced nudity, abuse, threats of forced marriage, and other degrading treatment. The report relays the experiences of one survivor, who says a terrorist “held her captive, forced her to shower, and after that, he beat and sexually assaulted her at gunpoint. She was held in captivity, chained by an iron ankle chain, for three weeks.” The woman also said that she was repeatedly asked “about the timing of her menstrual cycle.”
The trauma these women went through cannot be overstated. Another survivor of captivity, speaking in 2024, said: “I was in a cage with five young women; they are still there, abused and exploited.” Some of those who did not survive were found “with foreign objects inserted into [their] genitals” and “bearing signs of genital mutilation.” Quoting a separate UN report, the authors note that “there are further accounts of individuals who witnessed at least two incidents of rape of corpses of women.”
This harrowing evidence from the Dinah report provides the legal framework to eventually prosecute for these atrocities. It is also clear in its other aim, to “set the historical record straight” and show that “Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon of war.” This is particularly vital, given that, as the authors somberly remind us, “most victims were permanently silenced,” either killed or too traumatised to speak out about what they suffered.
Yet despite the overwhelming weight of this evidence, there remains a persistent effort in some quarters of the pro-Palestine crowd to downplay, deflect, or even outright deny the atrocities experienced by women during October 7th. As you might expect, Hamas leadership continues to deny that its forces used sexual violence or mistreated female hostages in any way. But activists, commentators, and even entire organisations that ordinarily pride themselves on fighting violence against women and championing women’s rights have also either questioned the existence of mass sexual assault or refused to acknowledge it at all. Some of them continue to frame October 7th as an act of political resistance, and Hamas as noble freedom fighters striking back against the ‘oppressive’ and ‘apartheid’ Israeli regime.
You might think, for example, that renowned American feminist Judith Butler would have something insightful to say about gender-based violence during war. Instead, she described the brutality of that day as “an act of armed resistance.” Likewise, you would hope that UN Women, the United Nations’ agency dedicated to advancing women’s rights, might rush to condemn the brutalisation and degradation of Israeli women at the hands of terrorist men. But UN Women spent the two months following October 7th decrying Israeli ‘war crimes’ in Gaza. It was only in December 2023 that it could bring itself to mention the sexual violence carried out by Hamas. The UN special rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, Reem Alsalem, went further than simply ignoring the violence and labelled accounts of sexual assault as “disinformation.” She instead lamented how, since October 7th, “the assault on Palestinian women’s dignity and rights has taken on new and terrifying dimensions.” Hamas is a terrorist organisation with the express aim of committing a genocide against Jews—but for some reason these people think that rape is where it would draw the line.
The reality is, as crucial as the Dinah report is in collecting and presenting it, the evidence for Hamas’s mass rape of Israeli women has been out in the open ever since the October 7th pogrom took place. What many of the deniers and downplayers seem to forget is that much of that evidence comes from Hamas itself. It was bodycam footage from an Islamist fighter that showed IDF soldier Naama Levy being thrown into a jeep, with blood covering the back of her sweatpants. It was Hamas’s own film that showed Levy and other young women being taken hostage and held at gunpoint, as a male voice tells the cameraman: “Here are the girls, women who can get pregnant. These are the Zionists.” This footage was released and circulated on social media on the day of the attack.
Another early piece of horrific evidence was the video showing the body of Shani Louk, a 22-year-old Israeli-German influencer who had been attending the Nova Festival when Hamas attacked. In a propaganda video released by Hamas, Louk could be seen, partially clothed and covered in blood, being paraded through the streets of Gaza City in the back of a truck while crowds shouted and jeered.
More proof came out in the aftermath of the massacre, including a father-and-son Hamas duo admitting on camera that they had raped an Israeli woman before executing her. In December 2023, the BBC saw and heard evidence from a witness who saw Hamas militants brutally gang rape a woman, kill her, and continue assaulting her. “They sliced her breast and threw it on the street,” the witness said. “They were playing with it.”
Where were the Western feminists to speak out against this barbarism? Those who had spent the best part of the last decade complaining about misogynistic ‘microaggressions,’ supposed wage gaps, and the ‘trauma’ of being wolf-whistled by construction workers were curiously silent when confronted with details about some of the most awful violence a woman could possibly be subjected to. The sisterhood, it seems, has its exceptions—hence the slogan “#MeToo unless you’re a Jew.” The suffering of Israeli women was immediately deemed unimportant and, worse still, justified in a perverse sort of way. There was an unspoken attitude among some on the pro-Palestine left that these women were finally getting what they deserved and receiving punishment for the ‘occupation.’
The Dinah Project’s report is a wake-up call, both about what happened on October 7th and about the moral rot that allowed so many in the West to ignore it. Those who stayed silent or attempted to spin the mass brutalisation of Israeli women as ‘resistance’ have lost any right to call themselves defenders of women. The rest of us must now ensure that the world never looks away again.
Rape Is Not Resistance: How Western Feminists Betrayed Israeli Women
Columbia University students organize dueling memorials and rallies both for Israel and Palestine on the one-year anniversary of the October 7th Hamas attack, on October 7, 2024 in New York City.
Alex Kent / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP
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It could not be clearer now that Hamas’s brutal attack on October 7th, 2023, was not only a massacre, but also a calculated campaign of coordinated sexual violence. A new report has revealed the horrifying extent of the rape and assault that was unleashed by Islamist terrorists on that day.
The report, published today by the Dinah Project, combines new and existing evidence and statements from survivors, eyewitnesses, and first responders, as well as forensic and video evidence. It documents incidents that together prove Hamas militants used rape as a premeditated weapon of war. These were not, as many pro-Palestine activists tried to convince us, isolated incidents.
The report documents how victims were found partially or fully naked. In some cases, they were tied up, subjected to gang rape, mutilation, and then executed. Sexual violence also regularly occurred in captivity, involving forced nudity, abuse, threats of forced marriage, and other degrading treatment. The report relays the experiences of one survivor, who says a terrorist “held her captive, forced her to shower, and after that, he beat and sexually assaulted her at gunpoint. She was held in captivity, chained by an iron ankle chain, for three weeks.” The woman also said that she was repeatedly asked “about the timing of her menstrual cycle.”
The trauma these women went through cannot be overstated. Another survivor of captivity, speaking in 2024, said: “I was in a cage with five young women; they are still there, abused and exploited.” Some of those who did not survive were found “with foreign objects inserted into [their] genitals” and “bearing signs of genital mutilation.” Quoting a separate UN report, the authors note that “there are further accounts of individuals who witnessed at least two incidents of rape of corpses of women.”
This harrowing evidence from the Dinah report provides the legal framework to eventually prosecute for these atrocities. It is also clear in its other aim, to “set the historical record straight” and show that “Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon of war.” This is particularly vital, given that, as the authors somberly remind us, “most victims were permanently silenced,” either killed or too traumatised to speak out about what they suffered.
Yet despite the overwhelming weight of this evidence, there remains a persistent effort in some quarters of the pro-Palestine crowd to downplay, deflect, or even outright deny the atrocities experienced by women during October 7th. As you might expect, Hamas leadership continues to deny that its forces used sexual violence or mistreated female hostages in any way. But activists, commentators, and even entire organisations that ordinarily pride themselves on fighting violence against women and championing women’s rights have also either questioned the existence of mass sexual assault or refused to acknowledge it at all. Some of them continue to frame October 7th as an act of political resistance, and Hamas as noble freedom fighters striking back against the ‘oppressive’ and ‘apartheid’ Israeli regime.
You might think, for example, that renowned American feminist Judith Butler would have something insightful to say about gender-based violence during war. Instead, she described the brutality of that day as “an act of armed resistance.” Likewise, you would hope that UN Women, the United Nations’ agency dedicated to advancing women’s rights, might rush to condemn the brutalisation and degradation of Israeli women at the hands of terrorist men. But UN Women spent the two months following October 7th decrying Israeli ‘war crimes’ in Gaza. It was only in December 2023 that it could bring itself to mention the sexual violence carried out by Hamas. The UN special rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, Reem Alsalem, went further than simply ignoring the violence and labelled accounts of sexual assault as “disinformation.” She instead lamented how, since October 7th, “the assault on Palestinian women’s dignity and rights has taken on new and terrifying dimensions.” Hamas is a terrorist organisation with the express aim of committing a genocide against Jews—but for some reason these people think that rape is where it would draw the line.
The reality is, as crucial as the Dinah report is in collecting and presenting it, the evidence for Hamas’s mass rape of Israeli women has been out in the open ever since the October 7th pogrom took place. What many of the deniers and downplayers seem to forget is that much of that evidence comes from Hamas itself. It was bodycam footage from an Islamist fighter that showed IDF soldier Naama Levy being thrown into a jeep, with blood covering the back of her sweatpants. It was Hamas’s own film that showed Levy and other young women being taken hostage and held at gunpoint, as a male voice tells the cameraman: “Here are the girls, women who can get pregnant. These are the Zionists.” This footage was released and circulated on social media on the day of the attack.
Another early piece of horrific evidence was the video showing the body of Shani Louk, a 22-year-old Israeli-German influencer who had been attending the Nova Festival when Hamas attacked. In a propaganda video released by Hamas, Louk could be seen, partially clothed and covered in blood, being paraded through the streets of Gaza City in the back of a truck while crowds shouted and jeered.
More proof came out in the aftermath of the massacre, including a father-and-son Hamas duo admitting on camera that they had raped an Israeli woman before executing her. In December 2023, the BBC saw and heard evidence from a witness who saw Hamas militants brutally gang rape a woman, kill her, and continue assaulting her. “They sliced her breast and threw it on the street,” the witness said. “They were playing with it.”
Where were the Western feminists to speak out against this barbarism? Those who had spent the best part of the last decade complaining about misogynistic ‘microaggressions,’ supposed wage gaps, and the ‘trauma’ of being wolf-whistled by construction workers were curiously silent when confronted with details about some of the most awful violence a woman could possibly be subjected to. The sisterhood, it seems, has its exceptions—hence the slogan “#MeToo unless you’re a Jew.” The suffering of Israeli women was immediately deemed unimportant and, worse still, justified in a perverse sort of way. There was an unspoken attitude among some on the pro-Palestine left that these women were finally getting what they deserved and receiving punishment for the ‘occupation.’
The Dinah Project’s report is a wake-up call, both about what happened on October 7th and about the moral rot that allowed so many in the West to ignore it. Those who stayed silent or attempted to spin the mass brutalisation of Israeli women as ‘resistance’ have lost any right to call themselves defenders of women. The rest of us must now ensure that the world never looks away again.
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