By SAM MEDNICK (Associated Press)
JERUSALEM (AP) — A person hiding in a pit through the Oct. 7 Hamas assault on an out of doors music pageant in Israel mentioned he heard somebody close by screaming she was being raped. Elsewhere within the space, a fight paramedic noticed the physique of a younger girl along with her legs open, her pants pulled down, and what regarded like semen on her decrease again. An military reservist who was tasked with figuring out these killed mentioned a few of the ladies have been discovered carrying solely bloodied underwear.
Such accounts given to The Associated Press, together with first assessments by an Israeli rights group, present that sexual assault was a part of an atrocities-filled rampage by Hamas and different Gaza fighters who killed about 1,200 individuals, most of them civilians, and took greater than 240 hostages that day.
While investigators are nonetheless attempting to find out the scope of the sexual assaults, Israel’s authorities is accusing the worldwide group, significantly the United Nations, of ignoring the ache of Israeli victims.
“I say to the women’s rights organizations, to the human rights organizations, you’ve heard of the rape of Israeli women, horrible atrocities, sexual mutilation — where the hell are you?” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu advised a information convention Tuesday, switching to English to emphasise the purpose.
U.S. President Joe Biden known as the stories of sexual violence “appalling” and urged the world to sentence “horrific accounts of unimaginable cruelty.”
Hamas has been designated as a terrorist group by the U.S., Canada and the European Union.
Two months after the Hamas assaults on the music pageant, farming communities and military posts in southern Israel, police are nonetheless struggling to place collectively the items.
In the instant aftermath of the assaults, precedence was given to figuring out our bodies, to not preserving proof. Police say they’re combing by means of 60,000 movies seized from the physique cameras of Hamas attackers, from social media and from safety cameras in addition to 1,000 testimonies to convey the perpetrators to justice. It has been tough discovering rape survivors, with many victims killed by their attackers.
The group Physicians for Human Rights in Israel, which has a report of advocating for Palestinian civilians in Gaza struggling underneath Israel’s longtime blockade of the territory, revealed an preliminary evaluation in November.
“What we know for sure is that it was more than just one case and it was widespread, in that this happened in more than one location and more than a handful of times,” Hadas Ziv, coverage and ethics director for the group, mentioned Tuesday. “What we don’t know and what the police are investigating is whether it was ordered to be done and whether it was systematic.”
Hamas has rejected allegations that its gunmen dedicated sexual assault.
Ron Freger fled the music pageant when Hamas attacked and mentioned he heard a lady screaming for assist. “I was lying in a pit (and) I heard (a girl) yelling: ‘They’re raping me, they’re raping me!’” he advised the AP.
Several minutes later, he heard gunshots shut by and he or she fell silent, he mentioned. “The feeling in that moment is one of complete powerlessness. I’m lying in this hole and I have no ability to do anything. I have no weapon, I have nothing, I’m surrounded by other people who are hiding with me and we’re completely powerless,” mentioned the 23-year-old from the northern Israeli city of Netanya.
Last month, Israel’s police chief offered to the worldwide information media videotaped testimony of a rape witness on the music pageant. Her face blurred, she mentioned she watched a lady being gang-raped as she lay on the bottom. The males then stood her up as blood trickled from her again, yanked her hair and sliced her breast, taking part in with it as they assaulted her. The final man shot her within the head whereas he was nonetheless inside her. The girl within the video described watching as she pretended to be lifeless.
“I couldn’t understand what I saw,” she mentioned.
A fight medic advised the AP that he got here throughout half a dozen our bodies of ladies and men with attainable indicators of sexual assault when he reached one of many attacked communities.
One woman had been shot within the head and was mendacity on the ground, her legs open and pants pulled down, with what regarded like semen on her decrease again, mentioned the medic who spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of his unit was categorized. Other our bodies had mass bleeding across the groin with limbs at distorted angles, he mentioned.
At the Shura army base the place victims are being recognized, Shari Mendes, a member of the military reserve unit that offers with the identification and spiritual burial preparation of feminine troopers, mentioned a few of the ladies’s our bodies got here in with little clothes, similar to elements of their pajamas. Some solely had bloodied underwear.
Based on open-source data and interviews, the Physicians for Human Rights in Israel report paperwork incidents on the music pageant, properties across the Gaza Strip and an Israeli army base, all attacked by Hamas.
“It is becoming more apparent that the violence perpetrated against women, men and children also included widespread sexual and gender-based crimes,” it says.
Before this battle, Hamas, an Islamic terrorist group sworn to Israel’s destruction, wasn’t recognized to make use of rape as a weapon, mentioned Colin P. Clarke, director of analysis at The Soufan Group, a world intelligence and safety consulting agency. Its ways included suicide bombings and taking pictures assaults on Israeli troopers and civilians.
A rustic like Israel ought to have the means to do rigorous testing to substantiate if individuals have been sexually assaulted in a extra systematic approach, mentioned Nidhi Kapur, a specialist on sexual abuse in conditions of armed battle.
“Forensic testing should have been a priority to build a full picture of the attack,” mentioned Kapur, who has labored within the area. “In a conflict you first take care of the survivors, you don’t count bodies.”
On Tuesday, Netanyahu and members of his battle cupboard held a tense and emotional assembly with not too long ago launched hostages and relations of hostages nonetheless held in Gaza. Some of the not too long ago launched hostages shared testimonies of sexual abuse throughout their time in Gaza, contributors mentioned.
Separately, a physician who handled a few of the 110 launched hostages advised the AP that no less than 10 women and men amongst these freed have been sexually assaulted or abused, however didn’t present additional particulars. He spoke on situation of anonymity to guard the hostages’ identities.
According to the Israeli army, 138 hostages, together with 15 ladies, are nonetheless held by Hamas and different teams in Gaza. Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, a army spokesman, mentioned the military is “absolutely” involved about sexual violence towards feminine hostages.
On Monday, Israel hosted a particular occasion on the United Nations, the place former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and high expertise govt Sheryl Sandberg have been amongst those that criticized what they known as a world failure to help ladies who have been sexually assaulted and in some instances killed.
But some teams say Israel isn’t making it simple to research.
The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights mentioned it requested entry to Israel and the Palestinian territories to permit it to gather data from the occasions that befell on Oct. 7 and eight, and since then, however Israel has not responded to its requests, mentioned Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the U.N. Human Rights Office.
Israel says the workplace has preexisting biases towards Israel and it’ll not cooperate with the physique. Israeli officers mentioned they might contemplate all choices for impartial worldwide mechanisms to research.
Rights specialists say the United Nations is finest positioned to conduct a good, credible and neutral investigation.
“These accounts are horrifying and deserve an urgent, thorough, and credible investigation,” mentioned Heather Barr, affiliate director for the ladies’s rights division at Human Rights Watch.
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Associated Press reporters Melanie Lidman, Julia Frankel and Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem; and Edith M. Lederer on the United Nations contributed to this report.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”