Sexual violence was ‘systematic, integral’ to October 7 terror assault, study finds |
An investigation has found that sexual and gender-based violence perpetrated during the October 7, 2023, massacre and atrocities by Hamas and other terror groups in Israel was systematic, widespread, and a key, calculated component of the brutal terror assault itself.
The investigation, conducted by the Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children, determined in a report that the sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists was deliberately designed not just to brutalize the victims but also to terrorize Israeli society as a whole, using the savagery to torment the entire nation.
“What we have witnessed is deep hatred to humiliate us and terrorize us as a people, as a nation, as women, as vulnerable people who found themselves in captivity and in a prolonged hell,” Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, an international law expert and founding chair of the Civil Commission, told The Times of Israel.
The 300-page study produced by the Civil Commission, an Israeli NGO established to document the October 7 atrocities, detailed 13 types of sexual violence during the attack and against hostages, including rape, gang rape, sexual torture and mutilation, executions linked to sexual violence, postmortem sexual abuse, and sexual assaults carried out in the presence of family members, among other acts.
It is based on 430 formal and informal interviews, testimonies, and meetings with survivors, witnesses, former hostages, experts, and family members.
“The scale, coordination, and repetition of the conduct demonstrate a widespread and systematic attack against civilians in which sexual violence was deliberately used as a method of terror,” the investigation found.
The study, entitled “Silenced No More,” also documented the deliberate manner in which Hamas and other terrorists recorded and disseminated videos and pictures on social media of their violence, including sending images and footage directly to the families of their victims and sharing them online, “with the intent to intimidate, humiliate, and terrorize.”
The acts committed, the Civil Commission concluded, constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocidal acts under international law, and the authors recommended that Israeli authorities prosecute the perpetrators specifically for such acts of sexual and gender-based violence.
The organization said its investigation was “an act of documentation, accountability, and remembrance,” and asserted that its work preserving testimonies, documenting evidence, and analyzing the patterns and legal implications of the crimes was designed “to ensure that the suffering endured by the victims will not be denied, erased, or forgotten.”
The Civil Commission was founded to document the sexual violence committed by Hamas and other armed groups on October 7 and against hostages. Elkayam-Levy headed the study, which was researched and written together with a team of lawyers and other contributors.
Former Canadian justice minister Irwin Cotler served as a........