Warning: The below report includes graphic sexual content that may be disturbing to readers.
The first official report documenting Hamas’ widespread sexual atrocities released on Wednesday claims the terror group’s use of sadistic humiliation, genital mutilation, and gang rape is part of its operational strategy both during and after its October 7 massacre.
The report, submitted to the United Nations by the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, leaves “no room for denial or disregard,” according to the organization’s CEO Orit Sulitzeanu.
“The terrorist organization Hamas chose to harm Israel strategically in two clear ways – kidnapping citizens and committing sadistic sexual crimes,” Sulitzeanu said in a press release. “Silence will be remembered as a historical stain on those who chose to remain silent and deny the sexual crimes committed by Hamas.”
The report includes testimonies from survivors and first responders who encountered corpses with signs of sexual assault, and concludes that sexual violence took place in all areas of the October 7 massacre, including the Nova festival, villages, and military bases. It adds that hostages taken were also subject to sexual violence while in captivity.
Quantitative information is not given about the assaults because most of the victims were killed, making the extent of the atrocities difficult to know, the release states.
At the Nova festival, the report states a woman who was seen in a viral video with a burned face, torn dress, and no underwear was raped, according to police investigators. The woman who took the video reported she saw a cut wound on the victim’s legs which she believes was to cut off her underwear. Several more survivors gave eye-witness testimony of women being gang raped, beaten, and then killed at the festival.
“One survivor who wandered the area after the massacre described it as an ‘apocalypse of bodies, girls without clothes, some missing their upper, some their lower parts,’” the report states. “These descriptions align with accounts from personnel that treated and removed the bodies, who testified about many bodies arriving partially clothed or unclothed, heavy bleeding from the pelvic area, and mutilation of genital organs.”
Another survivor named Sapir said she saw five different cases of rape, bodies being mutilated and a large group of terrorists “passing injured women between them.” In one case she said she saw an injured woman being raped by a terrorist while another pulled her hair. Each time the woman resisted, she was stabbed in the back, according to the report.
Sapir also said she saw a woman’s breast being amputated with a box cutter by terrorists who “passed it between them like a toy.”
Rami Davidian told the investigators that women’s bodies were tied to trees with some that had iron rods inserted into their sexual organs.
Yoni Saadon, testified to witnessing a woman getting raped who screamed, ‘‘Stop it – already I’m going to die anyway from what you are doing, just kill me!’ before she was shot in the head and killed.
One survivor said he saw girls “whose pelvises were simply broken from being raped so much.”
Yoni Saadon who also survived the massacre at the festival said he witnessed eight to ten terrorists rape the same person.
Another survivor told police that girls were burned after being raped.
Signs of sexual assault were also found in the homes within several villages including indications that spouses and family members were forced to witness the violence, according to the report.
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ZAKA volunteers who worked in Kibbutz Be’eri gave testimony to bodies they found of women and girls who were stripped of underwear, had signs of semen, and a case with a knife found inserted into a genital organ.
“Chaim Otmazgin, commander of the special units in ZAKA and an officer in the National Rescue and Fire Command, describes another kibbutz where he saw two naked bodies of women with objects penetrating their bodies,” the report states.
One of the bodies was stabbed with a serrated knife “that was used to remove the woman’s internal organs leaving them between her legs,” the report adds.
Otmazgin said he saw another case where a mother’s body was found handcuffed behind her back while her daughter’s body was found in the next room with her pants and underwear down.
Nira Shpak, a resident of Kfar Aza who took upon herself the task of identifying the bodies of the 60 killed in the kibbutz, recounted several bodies found with exposed intimate organs, sometimes with their clothes seemingly torn apart.”
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ZAKA volunteer Itzik Itach said he saw a couple tied together with signs of rape on the woman’s body.
“Nachman Dyksztejna, another volunteer, described the bodies of two women found tied by their hands and feet to a bed, one having been sexually abused and found with a knife in her genitals,” the report states.
IDF paramedics reportedly found the bodies of two girls, one of which had her pants down and remains of semen on her back.
An emergency security team member of Kibbutz Re’im, Noam Mark, said he found three naked bodies of female Nova festival attendees with signs of “clear signs of severe sexual violence.” Mark provided testimony and a video supporting his claims to police, according to the report.
Men’s bodies were also reportedly found with signs of sexual abuse and mutilated genitals, according to the report.
“There were a lot of gun wounds there. Shooting was targeted at sexual organs,” a paramedic testified. “We saw that a lot. They had a thing with sexual organs.”
On an IDF base, Lieutenant Tamar Bar Shimo said she was threatened with a weapon by a terrorist to remove her uniform until another terrorist intervened, the report states.
“Shari Mendes, a volunteer who attended to women’s bodies at the “Shura” camp, reported seeing four bodies of female soldiers with signs of sexual violence, some with extensive bleeding in the pelvic area,” according to the report. “Maayan, a dentist and military officer who also worked at the camp, said she saw at least 10 bodies of female soldiers with clear signs of sexual violence.”
The report adds that The New York Times was shown a video taken by terrorists of two soldiers who were shot in their genitals.
While hostages, both men and women were sexually assaulted and others still in captivity may still be facing sexual violence, according to the report.
“Chen and Agam Goldstein, a mother and her teenage daughter who were kidnapped from their home in Kfar Aza and released after 51 days in captivity, noted that they encountered at least 3 female hostages [who] suffered sexual assault during captivity,” the report states.
Another former hostage, Aviva Sigal “spoke about sexual assaults on young women, including a case where she saw a young woman immediately after being assaulted when taken to the bathroom,” according to the report.