Sex abuse dossier presented to United Nations
Horrifying details of sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas on Israelis in "Silent Cry" report
Jenni Frazer is a freelance journalist
A devastating first report on the extent of sexual abuse crimes committed by Hamas terrorists on 7 October is being presented to the United Nations — in English, so that there is no room for dismissal or misunderstanding.
The report, written for the Association of Rape Crisis Centres in Israel (ARCCI) by Dr Carmit Klar-Chalamish, together with Noga Berger, gives chilling and graphic details of rapes, sexual abuse, violence and mutilation perpetrated on Israelis in three target areas — the Nova music festival, private homes in the “Gaza envelope” kibbutzim, and IDF bases.
Additionally, the authors say, there is “a high likelihood” that those still held hostage in Gaza — men as well as women— “are still at risk of sexual abuse at any given moment”.
The report says that the Hamas attacks in southern Israel included “violent acts of rape, accompanied by threats with weapons and in some cases targeted towards injured women” .Many of the rapes were carried out by groups of violent terrorists, frequently “in front of an audience — partners and family or friends — in a manner intended to increase the pain and humiliation of all present.”
At the Nova festival, young women and men were “hunted… and according to testimonies were dragged by their hair amid screams”. In most of those cases the victims were killed after, and even during, the rape.
“One survivor [at the Nova festival] 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”.
Such descriptions tally with the accounts of those charged with collecting the bodies and taking them to the Shura army base for identification and eventual burial. These people testified that many of the bodies arrived “partially clothed or unclothed, with heavy bleeding from the pelvic area and mutilation of genital organs”.
Testimony continues to arrive about sexual abuse of both men and women held in Gaza, from those who were released in the first hostage exchange late last year.
A high level of sadistic behaviour is detailed in the report, where the authors say that many of the bodies of sexual crime victims were found “bound and shackled”, with weapons mutilating the intimate body parts of the dead.
The report, called “Silent Cry”, is based on initial findings of all the public and classified information — together with testimonies which cannot yet be made public. Dr Klar-Chalamish says the material “clearly demonstrates that sexual abuse was not an isolated incident or sporadic cases, but rather a clear operational strategy”.
Orit Sulitzeanu, executive director of the AARCI, says that the world’s silence about the sexual nature of the Hamas attacks is “incomprehensible”. But the report makes two things clear: first, that “when most of the victims of sexual assaults are murdered, we have a moral and humanitarian obligation to amplify their silent cry”. On the other hand, the authors say, “no survivor should feel obligated to “serve” the world’s demand for information. The choice of whether to speak, what to disclose when and how, should be theirs.”
The report concludes: “These days, as the scar in our hearts refuses to heal, and the souls of our sisters and brothers cry out to us from the ground, many of those we thought were partners and allies remain silent and therefore deny the horrors. We urge you to amplify their voices and not allow these victims to be silenced”.
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