Hamas systematically used sexual violence on and after Oct 7, the report found
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WARNING: This article contains graphic and disturbing accounts from the October 7 massacre in Israel.
Hamas and its Palestinian collaborators used sexual and gender-based violence “deliberately and systematically” as part of a broader strategy of 2023 genocide in southern Israel, according to a report released Tuesday by the Civil Commission on Oct. 7 Crimes Against Women and Children.
An Israeli non-profit organization said its investigation has documented evidence of torture at multiple sites during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, including the Nova Music Festival, a kibbutzim near the Gaza border, Israel Defense Forces bases, among hostages taken hostage and in the form of bodies found showing signs consistent with sexual violence.
According to the report, investigators identified at least 13 types of repeated abuse, including rape, sexual abuse, shooting at the victims’ private parts and postmortem torture.
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A Hamas terrorist can be seen walking around a residential area in southern Israel in bodycam images released by the Israel Defense Forces. This video was shown to foreign correspondents on October 16, 2023, as part of a 40-minute reel compiled from the Hamas attack on Oct. 7. (Israel Defense Forces/AP)
Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, founder and chairman of the Civil Commission and co-author of the report, told Fox News Digital that the main challenge in compiling the findings was the group’s repeated exposure to graphic material and the trauma associated with constantly reviewing it.
“We have to not only collect materials, but also review and analyze them together with intelligence experts while we see the suffering of the people is worse,” said Elkayam-Levy. “What motivates us is denial, doubt and asking questions. We wanted to make sure that the world knows what happened to the victims.
“For us, it is the last act of justice for the victims,” he added.
The report also detailed incidents where sexual violence was perpetrated in front of family members or contacts, including one incident where relatives were forced to carry out acts against each other.
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People visit the site of the Nova music festival in Re’im, southern Israel, where revelers were killed in a cross-border Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. The visit took place on Jan. 14, 2024, marking 100 days since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas. (Leo Correa/AP)
It also accused Hamas and its allies of using videos, digital platforms and social media as tools to increase psychological harm, spread fear and spread attacks, including spreading sexual material.
Elkayam-Levy said that she hopes that these findings will not be limited to academics, human rights organizations or activists, but will also be studied by counter-terrorism and national security experts to better understand and deal with this threat.
“We can’t prevent what we don’t fully understand,” Elkayam-Levy said. “No single prosecutor can reveal the full extent of these crimes the way this report does. So it’s important that policy makers, decision makers, members of Congress and senators find ways to legally recognize these findings and hold hearings so we can begin to address this issue. We want the findings of this report to get official institutional recognition.”
The report, Elkayam-Levy noted, emphasizes that the victims of the October 7 atrocity came from 52 countries, highlighting the global scope and impact of the attack.
Witness testimony cited in the report includes the story of a woman who was sexually assaulted before her head was beheaded. Another witness described seeing a woman being dragged from a car, pinned to a wall, repeatedly raped and then stabbed, it is said that the beating continued after her death.
In another case, the witness described the discovery of the body of a man whose genital organ had been cut, lying next to the body of a woman who was holding it, in what the report described as attempts to degrade and humiliate the victims.
A Hamas terrorist is seen walking around a residential area in southern Israel in unidentified camera footage released by the Israel Defense Forces during a Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces/AP)
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Investigators said some of the female victims were found naked or naked, with evidence of severe mutilation and objects including bombs, nails and household tools embedded in their bodies. The report also cited gunshot wounds, cuts and burn injuries concentrated in close quarters.
The report said some of the women’s bodies brought in from the mortuary showed broken hips or legs, bloody underwear and additional injuries to the abdomen or pelvis.
The abductees, women and men, also testified to rape, sexual abuse and other forms of torture during their abduction or kidnapping, according to the report. It says that some of the abducted women reported that they were sexually abused while being treated in Gaza hospitals due to the injuries they received during the attack.
A bloody handprint stains a wall inside a house in the Nir Oz kibbutz near the Gaza border after a Hamas attack days ago. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
The male captors also described sexual abuse during their detention, including beatings and armed intimidation while the victims were naked, the report said. Another abductee recounts being sexually assaulted when the abductor forcibly rubbed his genitals against the victim’s anus.
Last month, former hostage Rom Braslavski recounted the torture he said he endured while incarcerated in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.
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“They beat me with whatever they had. I was severely tortured, enslaved and sexually abused. They did everything they could do to me. My body is still full of scars. After four months of being tortured, I died in the clinic, my eyes widened and I fainted. They decided to stop this violence and brought doctors to treat me with injections and gave me food,” he said.
The report said sexual and gender-based violence was “widespread and systematic” and comprised a “significant part” of both the Oct. 7 and the subsequent treatment of hostages, while calling the prosecution of those cases an “urgent” priority that must be pursued through international accountability mechanisms.
A soldier of the Military Rabbinate unit opens a container containing bodies killed during a Hamas attack on Israel’s southern border as identification continues at the Shura military base in Ramle, Israel, on Oct. 24, 2023. (Amir Levy/Getty Images)
Among its recommendations, the commission called for sanctions targeting individuals and organizations suspected of carrying out or materially supporting the October 7 attack and its aftermath. It also called for action against what it described as the denial, minimization or politicization of sexual crimes committed during the killings and kidnappings.
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“The Commission also recommends that Israel implement a comprehensive gender strategy within its prosecution framework and establish a special chamber or panel of judges dedicated to the prosecution of sex and gender crimes committed on October 7 and during the arrest,” the report said.
Elkayam-Levy said the report received widespread international attention, including front-page coverage in the US and international media outlets. “We feel that the discussions have changed from asking if these cases happened but to examining their results,” he said. “There is now a legitimate evidence base preserved in a secure archive that cannot be disputed.”
