THE UN ENVOY focusing on sexual violence in conflict has said there are “reasonable grounds” to believe Hamas committed rape, “sexualised torture” and other cruel and inhumane treatment of women during its attack on southern Israel on 7 October.
There are also “reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing”, said Pramila Patten, who visited Israel and the West Bank from 29 January to 14 February with a nine-member team.
In a report, she said the team “found clear and convincing information” that some hostages have been subjected to conflict-related sexual violence including rape and “sexualised torture”.
The report comes nearly five months after the 7 October attacks which left about 1,200 people dead and 250 others taken hostage.
Israel’s offensive 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.
The report said the team’s visit “was neither intended nor mandated to be investigative in nature”.
She said the team was not able to meet any victims of sexual violence, “despite concerted efforts to encourage them to come forward”, but team members held 33 meetings with Israeli institutions and conducted interview with 34 people including survivors and witnesses of the 7 October attacks, released hostages, health providers and others.
The mission team, it was noted, also faced specific challenges in the gathering and verification of incidents of sexual violence. This was due to:
Based on the information it gathered, Patten said, “there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred during the 7 October attacks in multiple locations across Gaza periphery, including rape and gang rape, in at least three locations”.
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”.
Patten said that at the Nova music festival and its surroundings, “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”.
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 could not be verified during their time in Israel.
But 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″.
In other locations, such as Kibbutz Kfar Azza, Patten said that while while circumstantial information may indicate some forms of sexual violence, the mission could not verify reported incidents of rape
Patten said that in Kibbutz Reim, the mission team verified the rape of a woman outside a bomb shelter and heard of other allegations of rape that could not be verified.
In Kibbutz Be’eri, the mission team determined that at least two allegations of sexual violence, which had been widely reported in the media, were unfounded.
These included the graphically publicised case of a pregnant woman whose womb had reportedly been torn open, before she was killed, and her fetus stabbed while still inside her.
In relation to the Nahal Oz military base, the team was not able to verify a reported case of rape, nor did it find a discernible pattern of genital mutilation in either female or male soldiers, though forensic analysis revealed injuries to multiple body parts, including genitalia.
Regarding genital mutilation overall, the mission team was not able to establish a discernible pattern.
Patten has called on the Israeli government to grant access to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel to conduct fully-fledged independent investigations into all alleged violations to complement and deepen the findings emerging from her mission.
She also called on Hamas to “immediately and unconditionally” release all individuals held in captivity and to ensure their protection, including from sexual violence.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, meanwhile, has told a media briefing that Gazans detained by Israeli forces are coming back “completely traumatised” upon release and are reporting abuses while in captivity.
Detainees reported being subjected to a “broad range of ill treatment” including threats of electrocution, being photographed naked, sleep deprivation and having dogs used to intimidate them, Lazzarini said.
“We have seen these people coming back from detention, some of them for a couple of weeks, some of them for a couple of months, and most of them coming back (are) completely traumatised by the ordeal they have gone through,” Lazzarini said.
“A number of people have been … debriefed about their ordeal, and we have indeed (compiled) an internal report about their experiences.”
The Hamas attack on southern Israel resulted in about 1,160 deaths, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed 30,534 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest toll from Gaza health ministry.
Around 250 hostages were taken by militants, 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 31 presumed dead, according to Israel.
Includes reporting by Press Association and © AFP 2024
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