Newspaper Investigation Confirms Brutal Abuse

A two-month investigation by The New York Times has uncovered painful new details about attacks against Israeli women by Hamas terrorists during their assault upon southern Israel on 7th October 2023. Those details confirm that they were not isolated incidents but part of a broad pattern of violence - something Israelis have been saying for weeks - that everywhere Hamas terrorists struck they brutalised women.

The newspaper’s investigation covered a range of evidence including video footage, photographs, GPS data from mobile phones and more than 150 interviews with people including witnesses, medical personnel, soldiers and rape counsellors. The team of reporters identified at least seven locations where Israeli women and girls appear to have been sexually assaulted or mutilated.

Hamas has denied Israel’s accusations of sexual violence and many of the terrorist group’s supporters have accused the Israelis of making false claims - not having any firm evidence. This has angered the Israelis in the face of what they see as clear evidence. The failure of United Nations Secretary General António Guterres and the UN Women agency to acknowledge the evidence until weeks after the attacks has been particularly frustrating.

Part of the problem is that much evidence was lost as a result of the total number of people killed in the attack and the Israeli culture that requires prompt burial of their dead. First responders were so shocked by the scale of the attack that collecting evidence was not a priority. Instead they focused on repelling Hamas and identifying the dead. Additionally, few survivors have spoken publicly about their experiences - perhaps not wanting to aggravate the situation of the remaining female hostages.

Yet even after The New York Times published the results of its investigation, there remain many questions as to why so many women’s advocacy groups remain silent about what happened on 7th October.