Israeli researchers released a report on Tuesday detailing sexual assault allegations against Palestinian Hamas fighters who attacked Israeli communities on October 7th, 2023, and offering a “legal blueprint” for potential prosecutions.
The Bar-Ilan University report cites at least 17 witnesses testifying to at least 15 separate cases of sexual assault, including gang rape and mutilation of sexual organs. It cites numerous instances of bodies found partially or fully naked, some handcuffed to poles or trees, and bodies with gunshots to the genitalia and other genital mutilation.
Accounts of sexual assault committed by Hamas militants on October 7th have been documented widely. Several hostages released from Hamas captivity said they witnessed and experienced acts of assault, including forced penetration, by their captors.
Hamas has consistently denied allegations of sexual assault. Hamas official Bassem Naim said the report was “not worth commenting” on.
Reuters could not independently verify the evidence referenced in the report.
The document, authored by three experts in law and gender, lays out a legal framework for prosecution of those responsible, even when “direct attribution to individuals is impossible”. The report draws from forensic and visual evidence, witness testimony and audio recordings.
In March, United Nations experts said in a report that Israel had used sexual violence as a war strategy in Gaza, allegations Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu rejected as biased and anti-Semitic.
The authors of the Bar-Ilan University document presented the report to Israel’s first lady Michal Herzog on Tuesday.
They said they aimed to prompt domestic and international legal action by identifying legal doctrines that can be used to “unlock actual court cases” by showing how they fit into international mechanisms.
“Our aim is to be able to convince the [United Nations] secretary-general to include Hamas in the blacklist of those entities of those countries ... that condone the use of sexual violence as a tool of war,” Prof Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, founding member of the university’s Dinah Project, said.
There was no immediate comment from the office of Mr Netanyahu on the Bar-Ilan University report.
A UN commission of inquiry into sexual assault on October 7th found that Israeli women were subjected “to gender-based violence such as physical, sexual and psychological violence, including threats of such acts, coercion and arbitrary deprivation of liberty”.
The UN said Israeli officials refused to co-operate with its investigation and “that the information gathered by the mission team was in a large part sourced from Israeli national institutions”.
Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva said in April last year that victims of the October 7th attacks would never get justice from the UN commission and its members, adding that the commission had a track record of anti-Semitic, anti-Israel statements.
The Gaza war erupted when Hamas attacked southern Israel in October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli figures. Some 50 hostages remain in Gaza, with 20 believed to be alive.
Israel’s retaliatory war in Gaza has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave’s health ministry. Most of Gaza’s population has been displaced by the war and nearly half a million people are facing famine within months, according to UN estimates.
Progress towards a ceasefire in Gaza at peace talks ongoing in Qatar has been slow, officials from that country said on Tuesday.
The new round of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas began on Sunday, after both sides accepted a broad US-sponsored outline of a deal for an initial 60-day ceasefire that could lead to a permanent end to the 21-month conflict.
“I don’t think that I can give any timeline at the moment, but I can say right now that we will need time for this,” Majed al-Ansari, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said on Tuesday, the third day of negotiations in Doha. – Reuters/Guardian
