There are ‘reasonable grounds’ to believe Hamas committed rape, ‘sexualized torture,’ and other cruel and inhumane treatment of women during its surprise attack in southern Israel on October 7, a report from the United Nations has concluded.
There are also ‘reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing,’ said Pramila Patten, the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, who visited Israel and the West Bank from January 29 to February 14 with a nine-member technical team.
Based on first-hand accounts of released hostages, she said the team ‘found clear and convincing information’ that some women and children during their captivity were subjected to the same conflict-related sexual violence including rape and ‘sexualized torture’.
The report comes nearly five months after the October 7 attacks, which saw around 1,200 deaths and some 250 others taken hostage.
Israel’s war against Hamas has since laid waste to the Gaza Strip, killing more than 30,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The UN says a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million people face starvation.
Hamas has rejected earlier allegations that its fighters committed sexual assault.
At the Nova music festival and nearby, UN envoy Pramila Patten said, ‘there are reasonable grounds to believe that multiple incidents of sexual violence took place with victims being subjected to rape and/or gang rape and then killed or killed while being raped’. Pictured: Destroyed and damaged cars are left on the side of the road at the site of the Nova festival
The report comes nearly five months after the October 7 attacks, which left about 1,200 people dead and some 250 others taken hostage. Pictured: IDF troops patrol Kibbutz Be’eri on October 11
Pramila Patten, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, briefs reporters at UN Headquarters
Patten stressed at a press conference launching the report that the team’s visit was not to investigate allegations of sexual violence but to gather, analyze and verify information for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ annual report on sexual violence in conflict and for the UN Security Council.
Her key recommendation is to encourage Israel to grant access to the UN human rights chief and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Palestinian territories and Israel ‘to carry out full-fledged investigations into the alleged violations’ – and she expressed hope that the Security Council would do this.
Patten said the team was not able to meet with any victims of sexual violence ‘despite concerted efforts to encourage them to come forward’.
While the number of victims remains unknown, she said, ‘a small number of those who are undergoing treatment are reportedly experiencing severe mental distress and trauma’.
However, team members held 33 meetings with Israeli institutions and conducted interviews with 34 people including survivors and witnesses of the October 7 attacks, released hostages, health providers and others.
Based on the information it gathered, Patten said, ‘there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred during the October 7 attacks in multiple locations across Gaza periphery, including rape and gang rape, in at least three locations’.
She said that across various locations the team found ‘that several fully naked or partially naked bodies from the waist down were recovered – mostly women – with hands tied and shot multiple times, often in the head’.
While this is circumstantial, she said the pattern of undressing and restraining victims ‘may be indicative of some forms of sexual violence’.
At the Nova music festival and its surroundings, Patten said, ‘there are reasonable grounds to believe that multiple incidents of sexual violence took place with victims being subjected to rape and/or gang rape and then killed or killed while being raped’.
Based on first-hand accounts of released hostages, Patten said the team ‘found clear and convincing information’ that some women and children during their captivity were subjected to the same conflict-related sexual violence including rape and ‘sexualized torture’. Pictured: An Israeli soldier walks through items left by fleeing festivalgoers at the site of the Nova music festival
Festivalgoers are seen fleeing the site of the Nova music festival on October 7
A queue of cars leading away from the Nova music festival on October 7
‘There are further accounts of individuals who witnessed at least two incidents of rape of corpses of women,’ Patten said.
‘Other credible sources at the Nova music festival site described seeing multiple murdered individuals, mostly women, whose bodies were found naked from the waist down, some totally naked,’ she added, with some shot in the head, some tied to trees or poles with their hands bound.
On Road 232 – the road to leave the festival – ‘credible information based on witness accounts describe an incident of the rape of two women by armed elements,’ Patten said. Other reported rapes and gang rapes couldn’t be verified and require investigation.
‘Along this road, several bodies were found with genital injuries, along with injuries to other body parts,’ she said.
‘Discernible patterns of genital mutilation could not be verified at this time but warrant future investigation.’
She said ‘the mission team also found a pattern of bound naked or partially naked bodies from the waist down, in some cases tied to structures including trees and poles, along Road 232’.
People fleeing the Nova music festival also attempted to escape south and sought shelter in and around Kibbutz Reim where Patten said there are ‘reasonable grounds’ to believe sexual violence occurred.
The mission team verified the rape of a woman outside a bomb shelter and heard of other allegations of rape that could not yet be verified.
Patten said that at Kibbutz Be’eri her team ‘was able to determine that at least two allegations of sexual violence widely repeated in the media, were unfounded due to either new superseding information or inconsistency in the facts gathered’.
A Hamas gunman is seen outside Kibbutz Be’eri during the October 7 attack
Several Hamas gunmen are seen in Israel during the October 7 attack
This image from video provided by South First Responders shows charred and damaged cars along a desert road after an attack by Hamas terrorists at the Nova music festival, near Kibbutz Re’im in southern Israel, on Saturday, October 7, 2023
These included a highly publicized allegation that a pregnant woman’s womb was reportedly ripped open before being killed with her foetus stabbed inside her, Patten said.
Another was ‘the interpretation initially made of the body of a girl found separated from the rest of her family, naked from the waist down,’ she added.
‘It was determined by the mission team that the crime scene had been altered by a bomb squad and the bodies moved, explaining the separation of the body of the girl from the rest of her family.’
Patten said further investigation is needed of allegations, including of bodies found naked and in one case gagged, at Kibbutz Be’eri to determine if sexual violence occurred.
At Kibbutz Kfar Aza, Patten said, verification of sexual violence was not possible. But she said ‘available circumstantial information – notably the recurring pattern of female victims found undressed, bound, and shot – indicates that sexual violence, including potential sexualized torture, or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, may have occurred’.
Patten stressed that ‘the true prevalence of sexual violence during the October 7 attacks and their aftermath may take months or years to emerge and may never be fully known’.
She said the team, which also visited the West Bank, received information from institutional and civil society sources as well as through interviews ‘about some forms of sexual violence against Palestinian men and women in detention settings, during house raids and at checkpoints’.
Members of Army rescue and ZAKA crews search for bodies and body parts after the Hamas and Palestinians terrorists attack on Kibbutz Be’eri, on October 22, 2023
A woman holds a flag and a poster with pictures of revellers killed on October 7, 2023 at the Nova music festival by Hamas terrorists
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on Monday that hundreds of Palestinians detained by Israel after October 7 attacks have reported a broad range of ill-treatment from having pictures taken of them naked to being threatened with electrocution.
Phillipe Lazzarini told a news conference his agency, known as UNRWA, had put together an unpublished internal report based on information from detainees returning to Gaza ‘completely traumatized by the ordeal’.
He said some had been detained for a couple of weeks, some for several months.
‘We heard stories of people not only having been systematically humiliated,’ the UNRWA commissioner general said. ‘People have been being obliged to be pictured naked.’
Lior Haiat, a spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry, said: ‘Israel welcomes the definitive recognition that Hamas committed sexual crimes by an official UN representative in the important report issued by the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Ms. Pramila Patten.
‘For the first time, a UN official has specifically acknowledged the sexual crimes committed by Hamas and other terrorist organizations on 7 October.
‘The UN also recognizes that the crimes were committed simultaneously in different locations and point to a pattern of rape, torture and sexual abuse.
‘The report also acknowledges the existence of ongoing sexual crimes against the Israeli women and men being held hostage by Hamas and calls for the immediate release of the hostages.’
He added: ‘Israel rejects the report’s call to investigate Palestinian claims regarding “sexual violence by Israeli elements”.
‘That is a derisive and deliberate Palestinian manoeuvre aimed at creating an intolerable equivalence between the horrific crimes that were committed, and continue to be committed, by Hamas and malicious and baseless claims made against Israel and Israelis.’