UN gets ‘clear and convincing information’ on sexual violence against hostages in Gaza | International

The UN team led by the Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, obtained “clear and convincing information” during its 17-day visit to Israel that some hostages in the Gaza Strip had suffered various forms of sexual violence . Palestinian militias captured more than 240 people in the Oct. 7 attack and handed over about half of them in a November exchange. In its conclusions, presented on Monday in New York, the United Nations mission also states that it has “reason to believe” that during that attack, organized by Hamas and which caused around 1,200 deaths, acts of sexual violence also occurred in at least three countries. places around Gaza, “including in the form of rape and gang rape.” Patten’s team was in contact with “multiple independent sources” in preparing this report. There is also “credible circumstantial information” indicating other forms of sexual violence, such as sexualized torture or genital mutilation. The release of the report has generated a new incident with the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres. Israel accuses him of “trying to silence him” and has recalled its UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, for consultations.

The main theater of the acts of sexual violence would have been the Nova festival, where hundreds of young people were still dancing when they heard the first rockets and which turned into a massacre: a third of the dead civilians and dozens of hostages came from there. The team has reason to believe that “numerous incidents of sexual violence occurred on the esplanade where the event took place and in the surrounding area, with victims being raped or gang-raped and then killed, or killed during the rape ”.

The report includes, for example, a description of the discovery of five bodies, mostly women, “naked from the waist down (and some completely naked) with their hands tied behind their backs, and many shot in the head.” It also gathers “credible testimony-based information” of a rape of two women by armed men on the same highway where the investigation found “a pattern of naked bodies, completely or from the waist down, in some cases” tied to trees . or poles.” He also notes the rape of a woman next to a shelter in Reim, one of the kibbutzim (farming communities) attacked. He discards, as not very credible, other cases that the media reflected at the time.

Israel has been defending for months that there were no isolated cases of sexual violence on October 7, but rather a pattern that was part of the plans of Hamas militants. In the document on the attack, the Islamist movement denies having participated in a single case of sexual violence, as it is contrary to the precepts of Islam. The UN team does not comment on this in its findings. He stresses that he cannot determine in a 17-day visit how many cases there were in total, nor attribute them specifically. It’s something, he adds, that will require a thorough investigation that will likely last years. Systematically, there is always more sexual violence than we know.

Limited access research

The report contains numerous references to the difficulties of their work. The main one, “limited numbers and access” for survivors of sexual violence. Indeed, Patten’s team was unable to directly interview any of the victims of the October 7 attack, “despite concerted efforts encouraging them to do so.” Patten said the small number left alive are receiving “specialized trauma treatment” and cannot speak about what happened.

Other challenges have more to do with the chaos that caused the bloodiest day in Israel’s 75-year history, in which security forces took hours to arrive and several days to deem the attacked area safe. The report cites among these “limited forensic evidence due to the large number of victims and the dispersion of crime scenes in a context of persistent hostilities; the loss of potentially valid evidence due to the intervention of emergency volunteers without adequate preparation, the priority of rescue operations and the recovery, identification and burial of the dead according to religious practices, before the collection of forensic evidence”.

The mission visited the country between January 29 and February 14, at a time of growing hostility in Israel towards the United Nations and UN Women, an entity accused of ignoring sexual violence due to anti-Israel bias and which was the subject of a campaign with the slogan “MeToo unless you’re Jewish“(Me toounless you are Jewish).

Israeli authorities therefore welcomed the report’s findings as confirmation, which arrived months late, even though it does not directly point to Hamas or confirm that the sexual violence was systematic. “It is of enormous importance,” President Isaac Herzog said in a statement Tuesday. “It substantiates with moral clarity and integrity the systematic, premeditated and ongoing sexual crimes committed by Hamas terrorists against Israeli women.”

The publication of the document also generated a new incident with the Secretary General of the United Nations. Israel, as reported by its Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, called its ambassador to the United Nations for consultations, accusing Guterres of “trying to silence” the “serious United Nations report on mass violations committed by Hamas and by his allies” on October 7. ”; for failing to convene the United Nations Security Council to “declare Hamas a terrorist organization and impose sanctions on those who support it.” “The shame of the silence of the UN, which does not hold a single session on the subject, cries to the heavens,” Katz said.

Follow all international information on Facebook AND Xor inside our weekly newsletter.

_