Article by Rotem Segev, Deputy Head of Mission
On October 7 Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel from the Gaza Strip and launched an unprecedented attack against mainly Israeli civilians. They engaged in a pattern of systemic gender and sexual-based violence, targeting primarily young women at a music festival, women living in the adjacent villages and young women soldiers in the nearby military base.
On March 4th, 2024 the UN Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (SRSG-SVC) released a report - the first from the U.N.- acknowledging the atrocities committed by Hamas against women and girls on Oct. 7. The report indicates three crucial facts:
First, it asserts there are “reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence, including rape and gang rape, took place at several sites around the Gaza periphery during the October 7, 2023 attacks.”
Second, it presents “credible circumstantial evidence of sexual violence manifestations, such as genital mutilation, sexualized torture, or cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.”
Third, it reveals that “the investigation unearthed incontrovertible evidence that some hostages taken to Gaza endured various forms of conflict-related sexual violence, with a strong likelihood of ongoing abuses.”
Five months after the barbaric assault, the UN has finally confirmed that Israeli women were subjected to extensive sexual violence on Oct. 7.
But why is it so hard for the world to believe it?
Why is there refusal to believe that Hamas, who butchered infants in their beds, burned people alive, took elderly women as hostages and slaughtered entire families in their homes, why is it so difficult to believe that they would be capable of these acts?
There are allegations that no such thing happened. It’s shocking to see, especially when it comes to gender-based violence, how determined people are to frame Israel as an oppressor, even when Israel is the victim.
Israeli girls and women –ranging from young children to elderly people – were subjected to gang-rapes and humiliating sexual assaults. Most women who were raped were also murdered; some were abducted; rape survivors are too traumatized to speak out. Hostages who were released have reported on sexual violence that they and other captives endured while being held in Gaza.
We feel compelled to ask: why is this situation any different to when other women face similar violence? Why people don't speak out, when Israeli women are subjected to gender-based violence, like they do in other cases? The silence around the reports of sexual violence on 7 October and the disregarding of the victims’ accounts are indicative of deeper biases and unconscious prejudices that need to be collectively addressed.
There is a vast moral difference between the targeted and intended torture, rape, murder and kidnapping of Israeli civilians and the deaths of Palestinian civilians during the military actions undertaken in order to eradicate Hamas from Gaza. One can and should mourn the loss of civilians, no matter who they are, but to equivalate the actions of those who purposely committed atrocities against civilians with those who reacted to them, is to dismiss and dishonor the victims and the survivors of such crimes.
It is not enough to merely recognize the acts of barbarity committed against Israeli women on October 7; there must be a concerted effort to address them and hold those responsible accountable. Hamas’s use of sexual violence as a tactic of war should be forcefully condemned.
The deployment of rape, sexual mutilation and gender-based violence as tools of war should not be tolerated - no matter where or by whom. Without equivocation, without exception.
There is no “but” when it comes to gender-based violence against women, children and men. This is something which we must all agree on. Regardless of one’s political stance, wartime sexual violence is impermissible. This is not a matter of taking sides in the conflict. Regardless of one’s political views or sympathies, wartime sexual violence constitutes a human rights violation.
As a diplomat and a woman, I feel that the voices of these women must be heard and believed. Any woman’s experience of gender-based violence should not be sidelined or discredited. It is our obligation to speak up for those who will forever remain silent.
It’s a matter of urgent necessity.