The Israeli police have distributed interrogation material to the media, in which Israeli eyewitnesses tell about mass rape and mutilation.
Warning: The story contains a description of sexual violence that shocks.
On Tuesday evening, the Israeli police distributed interrogation material to the media, which tells about sexual violence perpetrated by the terrorist organization Hamas.
The rapes that took place in connection with the October 7th terrorist attack have already been reported for a long time in the Israeli media. On Tuesday, also the British Broadcasting Company BBC published his own extensive report on the events.
Israel has actively sought to inform both domestic and international media about the crimes committed by Hamas. It is a means of justifying and gaining support for military operations in Gaza.
has not been able to confirm the authenticity of the interrogation materials or other eyewitness statements.
For example, the BBC’s investigation has, however, referred to several independent sources that tell about systematic sexual violence. There are also no indications that the stories are false, although the veracity of some individual stories has been doubted, for example, in the Israeli media.
Gang rape and mutilation
Perhaps the most brutal crimes of the October 7 attack by Hamas took place at the Tribe of Nova festival, where thousands of young people had gathered to celebrate.
According to Israeli authorities, more than 360 festival-goers were killed.
Several people who collected evidence from the festival area and identified the bodies tell the BBC about signs of sexual violence, such as broken hips, bruises and cuts. The ages of the victims ranged from children to senior citizens.
Videos of naked and bloodied women published by Hamas, as well as pictures of bodies taken on the spot, also point to sexual violence.
Israeli officials tell the BBC that most of those who experienced sexual violence died in the attack. Few survivors are in psychiatric care and may never be ready to talk about what happened.
However, several eyewitnesses have told about sexual violence.
The most shocking case is the interrogation video shared by the Israeli police to the media, in which an eyewitness describes in detail the gang rapes and mutilations. has not been able to confirm the veracity of the story.
In other interrogation videos, eyewitnesses also tell about brutal violence directed at intimate areas.
Sexual violence as a means of terror
Israeli lawyer campaigning for women’s rights Ruth Halperin-Kaddari said for the BBC that he considers it clear that the sexual violence used by Hamas has been planned.
Halperin-Kaddari said that she had seen footage from several different places of bodies that had been mutilated and subjected to sexual violence.
– Sexual violence was used as a weapon of war, Halperin-Kaddari tells the BBC.
Legal expert from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Cochav Elkayam Plate on the other hand, compares the sexual violence used by Hamas to the warfare tactics of the terrorist organization ISIS.
– I am shocked by the idea that they knew what to do to women, Elkayam-Levy says to the BBC, referring to the rape and mutilation of women.
The UN investigative team investigating war crimes committed in Israel and Gaza recently said that it plans to investigate sexual crimes allegedly committed by Hamas as well.
However, Israel considers the UN investigation team biased and has not agreed to cooperate with it.
Source: Reuters