On Monday, a U.N. mission investigating allegations that Hamas sexually assaulted and raped women during the October 7 terror strikes in Israel said that it had obtained “clear and convincing information” indicating that such abuses had taken place and might still be occurring in captivity. The secretary-general’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Pramila Patten, told reporters, “We found clear and convincing information that sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, has been committed against captives.” She continued, “We also have good reason to think that this kind of violence against people who are being held captive might be continuing.”
The nine-person team of technical professionals spent January 29–February 14 in Israel. They had meetings with representatives from a variety of Israeli ministries, a military facility, and the National Center of Forensic Medicine. They also visited four sites where reports of sexual assault were made on October 7, one of which being the Nova music festival, where numerous youths were murdered or kidnapped. The specialists also looked through over 5,000 photos and around 50 hours of video from the attacks, most of which came from GoPro cameras owned by Hamas militants. Nevertheless, Patten claimed that despite their best efforts, they were unable to meet with any of the victims of sexual assault.
“I called on survivors to come forward on the first day, but we found out that some of them were receiving very specialized trauma treatment and were not ready to come forward,” the victim stated. According to Patten, the Israeli government fully cooperated with the team, and they concluded that the data they were given was “authentic and unmanipulated.” The purpose was to “gather, analyze and verify allegations of conflict-related sexual violence” during October 7 and its aftermath; it was not meant to be an inquiry to acquire evidence.
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