The Palestinian group has repeatedly denied allegations that its fighters committed acts of sexual violence during the October 7 attack.
A team of United Nations experts said there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that sexual violence, including rape and gang rape, took place during the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 october.
Led by the UN special envoy for sexual violence, Pramila Patten, the team visited Israel between January 29 and February 14 and released a report on Monday containing its findings.
The Palestinian group Hamas, which governs Gaza, has repeatedly denied allegations that its fighters committed sexual violence during the attacks.
“Credible circumstantial information, which may indicate certain forms of sexual violence, including genital mutilation, sexualized torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, was also collected,” reads the 24-page report of the UN.
“The mission team found clear and convincing information that some hostages taken to Gaza were subjected to various forms of conflict-related sexual violence and has reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may continue,” it said. also the report.
The report comes nearly five months after the October 7 attacks, which killed at least 1,139 people, according to an Tel Aviv Tribune tally based on official Israeli figures. Around 250 other people were taken hostage in the attack.
Israel’s war on Gaza has since devastated the besieged territory, killing more than 30,500 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, and displacing more than 80 percent of the population. The UN says a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents face starvation.
Patten said his team had been unable to meet with victims of sexual violence “despite concerted efforts to encourage them to come forward.”
However, they held 33 meetings with Israeli institutions and conducted interviews with 34 people, including survivors and witnesses of that day’s attacks, released prisoners and health care providers.
Patten said the team discovered “that several fully naked or partially naked bodies, from the waist down, had been found – mostly women – with their hands tied and shot repeatedly, often in the head.” .
Although circumstantial, she said it could be “an indication of some forms of sexual violence.”
On Route 232 – the road leading out of the Nova music festival, which was part of the attacks and located on land neighboring Gaza – “credible reports based on eyewitness accounts describe an incident of rape of two women by elements armed,” Patten said. .
Patten said that at Kibbutz Re’im, the team verified the rape of a woman in front of an air raid shelter.
At Kibbutz Be’eri, Patten said, his team “was able to determine that at least two allegations of sexual violence widely repeated in the media were unfounded due to either new, outdated information or inconsistencies in the facts collected.”
The other reported rapes could not be verified during the team’s stay in Israel.
Experts said a “thorough investigation” would be needed to establish more details about the scale of sexual violence that may have occurred that day.
The UN team said it also received information from civil society sources and direct interviews about “sexual violence against Palestinian men and women in (Israeli) places of detention, during searches in houses and at checkpoints” after October 7.
The U.N. envoy raised the allegations with Israel’s Justice Ministry and military attorney general, who said no complaints of sexual violence against members of the Israeli military had been received.