Hamas said on Monday it “rejects” allegations that the Palestinian Islamist movement committed “rape” and sexual violence during its deadly Oct. 7 attack in Israel, calling them “lies.”
• Also read: “I saw ten Hamas terrorists beat and rape an Israeli woman before shooting her on October 7.”
• Also read: In Israel, women denounce the international silence on allegations of Hamas sexual crimes
• Also read: Israel-Gaza: UN experts want investigation into war crimes
On October 7, Hamas commandos killed 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities. In addition, 240 people were kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip, of which 137 are still held hostage, according to the Israeli army.
In retaliation, the Israeli army immediately launched bombings in the Gaza Strip – interrupted during a week of ceasefire – that have so far claimed 15,899 lives in Gaza, 70% of them women and Palestinians under the age of 18, according to the Hamas Health Ministry.
Israeli police also say they are investigating possible sexual violence on October 7, including gang rape and body mutilation.
Investigators have so far collected “more than 1,500 shocking and disturbing testimonies,” a police official told Israel’s parliament last week, referring to “girls stripped naked above and below the waist” and testimonies of collective rape, Mutilation and murder of a teenage woman.
She quoted another witness who reported gunshot wounds to the “genitals, abdomen, legs and buttocks (…), breasts cut open or with gunshot wounds” while rescuers examined the body of a woman bleeding from the genitals. .
But Cochav Elkayam Levy, chairman of the October 7 parliamentary commission on crimes against women, clarified in November: “The vast majority of victims of the October 7 rapes and other sexual assaults were murdered and will never be able to testify.”
In its statement, Hamas castigated “Zionist campaigns that spread lies and unfounded accusations to demonize the Palestinian resistance.”
These “lies,” he continues, are the latest in “a series” and refer in particular to “the lie that Al-Chifa Hospital was used for military purposes,” which the Israeli army affirms but which Hamas denies .
UN Women told AFP it was “aware of the concerns” in Israel and had met with Israeli women’s organizations to “listen to their horrific stories about what happened on October 7” and to help them “as much as possible to address gender issues.” to expose atrocities.” , including sexual violence.