Damage is seen inside a house at Kibbutz Be’eri. Photo by Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images
By Louis Keene
February 21, 2024
Editor’s note: This article contains specific descriptions of sexual violence.
A new report from the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel adds new evidence to the finding that Hamas used sexual violence as a weapon of war in its Oct. 7 attacks.
The ARCCI, an umbrella organization of nine rape response centers located across Israel, combined survivor testimony from its centers and interviews with Israeli search and rescue teams with accounts previously published elsewhere — such as a Dec. 28 article in The New York Times — to produce 39 pages that are devastating in breadth and shocking in their specifics.
The report, which claims to be the first “official research” into Hamas’ use of sexual assault since Oct. 7, comes as United Nations investigators review the charges for possible designation as crimes against humanity. Hamas has categorically denied claims of sexual violence on Oct. 7.
Among the report’s new descriptions of the attacks are naked victims found at a kibbutz with objects penetrating their bodies, bodies found with their clothes torn off and genitals exposed, and the sexual assault of female IDF soldiers.
Both male and female victims found by search teams showed evidence of being assaulted, according to the report. Genital mutilation was found at multiple locations.
The report also asserts that sexual assault has occurred against male and female hostages, more than 200 of whom were taken captive on Oct. 7.
Reports of rape on Oct. 7 became a flashpoint in international discourse in the days following Hamas’ rampage through southern Israel — an attack that claimed some 1,100 Israeli lives — with some critics of Israel denying that they took place. That the militants’ sexual violence was not instantly condemned by human rights groups and women’s groups contributed to some Jewish people’s sense of “global silence.”
Some reports of sexual assault have been difficult to substantiate beyond oral testimony because so many of the victims were killed during the attack, and because the victims were buried quickly — some the very next day — in accordance with Jewish burial customs. A senior spokesperson for the Israeli national police told the Times that zero autopsies were performed.
“The terrorist organization Hamas chose to harm Israel strategically in two clear ways — kidnapping citizens and committing sadistic sexual crimes,” Orit Sulitzeanu, the organization’s CEO, said in a statement. “Silence is no longer an option. We expect international organizations to take a clear stance; we cannot stand on the sidelines.”
