The UN has found “reasonable grounds” to conclude that Hamas committed sexual violence during its Oct. 7 assault on Israel, and said there are indications such violence continues to be carried out against those being held hostage by the group.
A UN team that investigated the allegations against Hamas, which is designated a terrorist group by the US and the EU, received what it called “clear and convincing information” that women and children held in captivity were subjected to rape, torture and inhumane treatment.
The team reviewed more than 5,000 photos and 50 hours of footage of the attacks, as well as conducting interviews with dozens of Israeli officials.
Photo: Reuters
It said the true prevalence of sexual violence during the attack and afterward “may take months or years to emerge and may never be fully known.”
“Across the various locations of the 7 October attacks, the mission team found that several fully naked or partially naked bodies from the waist down were recovered — mostly women — with hands tied and shot multiple times, often in the head,” said the report on Monday led by Pramila Patten, the UN’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict. “Although circumstantial, such a pattern of undressing and restraining of victims may be indicative of some forms of sexual violence.”
Regarding hostages, the mission team said it “found clear and convincing information that some have been subjected to various forms of conflict-related sexual violence including rape and sexualized torture. It also has reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing.”
Responding to the report, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Israel Katz recalled his country’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, for consultations on why the findings did not immediately result in UN Security Council action.
“Despite the authority granted to him, the UN Secretary General did not order the convening of the Security Council in view of the findings, in order to declare the Hamas organization a terrorist organization and impose sanctions on its supporters,” Katz said on social media platform X.
Negotiations for a ceasefire in exchange for the release of some of the hostages have bogged down, putting a damper on hopes for an imminent deal.
The war erupted when Hamas, which is backed by Iran, rampaged through southern Israeli communities, killing about 1,200 people and capturing 250. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip by Israel’s retaliatory air and ground assault, the Hamas-run health ministry said.
Patten and her team of technical experts visited Israel and the West Bank for two weeks starting on Jan. 29. The UN mission did not request to visit the Gaza Strip, where several other UN entities operate, but did receive information alleging forms of sexual violence against Palestinians by Israel “in detention settings, during house raids and at checkpoints,” the report said.
It said it has not verified those claims.
A separate report by the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel last month found that the sexual violence committed by Hamas was systematic and deliberate, and not a “malfunction” or an isolated incident.
Hamas’ practices were “designed to destroy and inflict sadistic terror,” author Carmit Klar-Chalamish wrote in the report. “The manner in which these assaults were carried out aimed to reinforce their impact on the victims and their communities.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home