Israeli activist and women’s rights lawyer Ruth Halperin-Kaddari said Hamas had a premeditated plan to use sexual violence as a weapon of war.
She said she had seen footage of women in several locations whose condition indicated they had been “without a doubt” raped. Israel is investigating evidence of sexual crimes during the October 7 attacks.
The extent of sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas during the October attacks is not yet clear, but Israeli police say they have so far collected more than 1,500 statements from witnesses and doctors. Pictures and live footage broadcast by the militants indicated the gruesome nature of the attack on the Supernova festival.
The police are investigating a number of cases of violence, from gang rape to sexual mutilation of murdered victims.
“I have seen numerous first-hand accounts, for example one survivor who hid in the bushes and saw a woman next to her being raped by several men,” Professor Halperin-Kaddari told the BBC.
She said she also spoke with the doctor who treated the woman who lost a life-threatening amount of blood after she reported being raped by four men.
“This leaves no doubt that such a concentration of cases in a relatively short period of time (less than a day) in numerous locations could not be if there was no plan, premeditation, to use sexual violence as a weapon of war,” she said.
Hamas denies these crimes. In a post on Telegram, it was stated that such claims are lies by Israel to distort the humane way in which Hamas treated Israeli hostages.
