Israel pieces together ‘puzzle’ of Hamas sexual violence
JERUSALEM (AFP) – More than 10 weeks after the bloody Hamas attack on Israel, accounts of sexual violence are on the rise.
But the scarcity of survivor testimonies and the lack of forensic evidence make it difficult to assess their scale.
“Hamas used rape and sexual violence as weapons of war,” Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan said in early December, as Israel accused international bodies of an inadequate response.
In recent weeks, officials have reiterated allegations that the militants who crossed over from the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7 committed violent gang rape, genital mutilation, and engaged in sexual acts with children and corpses.
In the days after Oct. 7, hundreds of bodies arrived at the Shura military base in central Israel, some so burned and disfigured that delicate work was required for examination.
AFP spoke to one of the reservists tasked with identifying and washing the bodies of female soldiers after the attack.
“Many young women arrived in bloody shrouded rags with just their underwear, and the underwear was often very bloody. Our team commander saw several soldiers who were shot on their... intimate parts,” Shari, whose full name is being withheld at the army’s request, said.
Another Zaka volunteer, Simcha Greeneman, said in one kibbutz he had discovered a dead woman with sharp objects in her vagina, including nails.
French legal expert Celine Bardet, founder of the nongovernmental organization We Are Not Weapons of War, which advocates against conflict-related sexual violence, said it was a clear example of sexual violence.