A United Nations report launched on Monday discovered indicators that sexual violence was dedicated in a number of places throughout the Hamas-led Oct. 7 assault on Israel and stated that some hostages being held within the Gaza Strip had additionally been subjected to rape and sexual torture.
From late January to early February, the United Nations deployed a staff of consultants to Israel and the West Financial institution led by Pramila Patten, the secretary-general’s particular consultant on sexual violence in battle.
In their report, the consultants stated that they had discovered “reasonable grounds” to imagine that sexual violence occurred throughout the Hamas-led incursion into Israel, together with rape and gang rape in not less than three places: the Nova music festival web site and the realm round it, in addition to Highway 232 and Kibbutz Re’im.
“In most of these incidents, victims first subjected to rape were then killed, and at least two incidents relate to the rape of women’s corpses,” the report stated.
The U.N. report, which additionally cited allegations that Palestinians detained by Israel have additionally been sexually abused, was issued three months after The New York Occasions printed an extensive report on sexual violence throughout the Hamas-led assault, together with a number of incidents alongside Highway 232. Hamas leaders denied the accusations, and the U.N. report, noting the array of fighters who took half within the Oct. 7 assault, stated its consultants couldn’t decide who was accountable for the sexual assaults.
Of their report, the U.N. consultants cited indications of sexual violence that had not beforehand been extensively reported, together with the rape of a girl exterior a bomb shelter on the entrance of Kibbutz Re’im. That incident was corroborated by witness testimony and digital materials, the report stated.
The consultants stated that they had additionally discovered “a pattern of victims, mostly women, found fully or partially naked, bound, and shot across multiple locations.” Though the proof was circumstantial, they stated, the sample may point out some type of sexual violence and torture.
When it got here to the hostages seized in Israel and brought to Gaza, the report provided a extra conclusive discovering.
It stated it had discovered “clear and convincing information” primarily based on firsthand accounts of launched hostages that sexual violence, together with rape, sexualized torture, and merciless, inhumane and degrading remedy, was inflicted in opposition to some girls and kids throughout their time in captivity. It additionally stated there have been cheap grounds to imagine that such abuse was going down in opposition to the hostages nonetheless being held.
Israel welcomed the report for recognizing “that the crimes were committed simultaneously in different locations and point to a pattern of rape, torture and sexual abuse,” a spokesman for the International Affairs Ministry stated.
The U.N. report stated that its consultants couldn’t confirm the stories of sexual violence in Kibbutz Kfar Aza or Kibbutz Be’eri. However in each locations, it stated, circumstantial info — “notably the recurring pattern of female victims found undressed, bound, and shot,” in Kfar Aza, for instance — indicated that sexual violence, together with “potential sexualized torture,” might have occurred.
It stated that two particular allegations of sexual violence in Kibbutz Be’eri that had been extensively repeated by the media, nonetheless, had been “unfounded.”
First responders instructed The Occasions that they had discovered our bodies of ladies with indicators of sexual assault at these two kibbutzim, however The Occasions, in its report, didn’t confer with the particular allegations that the U.N. stated had been unfounded.
The U.N. report detailed the daunting challenges to figuring out what occurred on the day of the assault.
To start with, it was practically inconceivable to achieve entry to the form of forensic proof typically used to determine sexual assault. Partially, this was due to the big variety of casualties and the extensively dispersed assault websites.
The report additionally stated that first responders — typically untrained volunteers — targeted extra on search and rescue operations and the restoration of the lifeless than on gathering proof. And most of the our bodies had been badly burned, compromising any proof.
The consultants stated that they had put out calls to girls in Israel who survived assaults on Oct. 7 to come back ahead, however had not talked to any immediately. A small variety of survivors, they stated, had been reported to nonetheless be in remedy for trauma.
In addition they famous a deep reservoir of suspicion amongst Israelis towards worldwide organizations just like the United Nations, in addition to the truth that the staff was on the ground for a restricted interval of two and a half weeks.
“Overall, the mission team is of the view 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,” stated the report.
The report stated that the U.N. staff had additionally heard accounts of sexual violence in opposition to Palestinians that implicated Israeli safety forces and settlers.
Palestinian officers and civil society representatives, it stated, instructed the U.N. staff of “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of Palestinians in detention, including various forms of sexual violence in the form of invasive body searches, threats of rape, and prolonged forced nudity, as well as sexual harassment and threats of rape, during house raids and at checkpoints.”
The U.N. staff requested the federal government of Israel to present entry to different U.N. our bodies, together with the Workplace of the Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights and the Unbiased Worldwide Fee of Inquiry on the occupied Palestinian Territory, to allow them to conduct thorough unbiased investigations into these allegations.
The International Ministry spokesman, Lior Haiat, stated, “Israel rejects the report’s call to investigate Palestinian claims regarding ‘sexual violence by Israeli elements.’”
Ms. Patten had stated that her journey was not supposed to be investigative — different U.N. companies have that mandate, she stated — however to “give voices” to victims and survivors and discover methods to supply them assist, together with justice and accountability.
The U.N. staff included technical consultants who may interpret forensic proof, analyze open-source digital info and conduct interviews with victims and witnesses of sexual violence, the report stated.
Ms. Patten stated one problem the U.N. consultants had confronted was sifting by the paucity of dependable info, and inaccurate accounts from untrained folks.
“On one hand,” she stated, “we have the fog of war that often silences grounds of sexual violence. But we have also seen in the history of war instances where sexual violence can be weaponized”
