Warning: This article is a summary of the New York Times' lengthy investigation and contains details not suitable for sensitive audiences
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Sexual violence And Mutilations in the kibbutzim and among the participants of the Rave party on the border of Gaza Strip. It is the discovery of New York Times in a two-month journalistic investigation in which the team at the renowned American newspaper uncovered disturbing details about the October 7 attacks Hamas South of Israel. The investigation found at least seven locations where Israeli women and girls appeared to have been sexually assaulted or mutilated. Witnessesmedical staff, soldiers and rape counselors are included 150 people interviewed from the New York Times, which provided a complete picture of the spread gender-based violence.
The terror spread to raves, military bases along the Gaza border and kibbutzim. Witnesses described explicit scenes of women who were raped and killed at several locations along Route 232, the highway where the body lay Gal Abdush, one of the victims, disappeared from the rave. A viral video shot by a woman searching for her missing friend showed Abdush lying partially clothed with her on the street burnt face unrecognizable. Israeli police officers believe, based on video evidence, that she was raped. According to the NYT, volunteer doctors and soldiers have reported discovering more than 30 corpses of women and girls in a similar condition to Gal Abdush: legs spread, ripped clothes and signs of genital abuse.
The article also reports that the newspaper has seen photos And Video disturbing, including the body of a woman Nails stuck in the thighs and groin. Another video provided by the Israeli army showed two soldiers died at a base near Gaza, apparently directly in the genital area. Hamas has denied allegations of sexual violence, sparking outrage among Israeli activists. The Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres And A woman They were criticized for not immediately acknowledging the allegations, the NYT recalls.
An important witness, namely Sapirprovided an explicit statement and described that brutalization of women by armed men. He recalled witnessing the rape and murder of at least five women. Sapir's story was supported by photos of him Hideaway and his wounds. About 15 meters from his hiding place, he said, he saw motorcycles, cars and trucks approaching. He said he saw it “about 100 men”, most of them in military uniforms and combat boots, some in dark suits, got in and out of vehicles. He said the men gathered along the road and passed each other Assault riflesGrenades, small Rockets and seriously injured women, the NYT report said. “It was like a rallying point,” he said. The first victim Sapir said he saw was a young woman with copper-colored hair blood dripping down her back, her pants pulled down to her knees. A man pulled her hair and forced her to bend over. Another raped her, Sapir said, and every time she gasped for air, he thrust into her Knife rear.
He said he then saw another woman “torn to pieces”. While a terrorist She was raped, she said, and someone else pulled her out cutter and cut off her breast. “One kept raping her, the other threw her breast to someone else, and they got us played“They threw him and dropped him on the street,” Sapir said, according to the New York Times. The witness added that men have them cut him in the face and that then the woman disappeared from view. Around the same time, he said, he saw three other women being raped and carried away by terrorists severed heads from three other women. Sapir provided photos of her hiding place and her injuries. Police officials confirmed her statement and released a video of her with her face covered, recounting some of what she saw. Another witness, Raz CohenAccording to the NYT report, a young Israeli who attended the rave and had recently worked in the Democratic Republic of Congo training Congolese soldiers said he hid in a dry riverbed, which gave him some protection from the attackers who were attacking him He flew around and shot everyone he found, he said in an hour-and-a-half interview in a Tel Aviv restaurant.
Maybe 40 meters in front of him, he remembered, a white van it stopped and its doors opened. He said he then saw five men in plain clothes, all with knives and one with a hammer, dragging a woman across the floor. She was young, naked and screaming. “They all rally around her,” Cohen said. “She's standing. They start raping her. I saw the men standing there Semicircle around them. She screams. I still remember his voice, he screams without words. “Then one of them raised a knife,” he said, “and they just slaughtered them.” Another report cited in the NYT report is that of Shoam Gueta, which recounted horrific scenes of rape and massacres of women. Volunteer paramedics described finding bodies with signs of sexual violence at the rave site and kibbutzim, and regretted that they were unable to document more because of the events religious rules and the need to respect the dead.
There police Recognizing the difficulties during the chaotic events of October 7, Israel announced that it was not initially focusing on gathering forensic evidence on women's bodies. Chaos, pain and religious obligations led to this hasty burials, with many corpses remaining unexamined. The lack of Autopsies and crime scene investigations have left families searching for answers. The investigation arrived Obstacles in collecting forensic evidence, typical of cases of widespread sexual violence in conflict. Adil Haque, a law professor at Rutgers University and an expert on war crimes, explained the difficulties and emphasized that security takes precedence in armed conflictsInvestigation of criminal cases. “Armed conflicts are very chaotic,” he said, adding that cases of sex crimes are often prosecuted years later based on victim and witness statements. “The eyewitness may not even know the name of the victim,” he added. “But if he can testify by saying, 'I saw a woman being raped by this armed group,' that might be enough,” according to the NYT.