'Sexual violence continued in captivity, with many returnees reporting forced nudity, physical and verbal sexual harassment, sexual assaults and threats of forced marriage'
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| The site of the Nova music festival where revelers were killed and kidnapped on October 7 during the cross-border attack by Hamas militants is seen near Kibbitz Reim, southern Israel, October 12, 2023AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg) |
New witnesses and survivors described the "widespread and systematic" sexual violence during the October 7 massacre, according to a report by the Dinah Project set to be published on Tuesday.
Rapes occurred in at least six different sites, the UK's The Times said, citing the Dinah Project, a group of legal experts and feminists that documented sexual crimes perpetrated when thousands of Gazan terrorists crossed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping about 250.
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| People visit the memorial for October 7 victims at the Nova music festival near Re'im, southern Israel Menahem Kahana / AFP |
Most victims of the sexual violence were "permanently silenced" after the attack, either because they were slain or due to trauma.
The new report, funded in part by the UK government, sheds light on the phenomenon of rape and sexual violence on that day, compiling first-hand testimonies from 17 people who saw or heard the attacks, therapists who spoke with survivors, 15 hostages who returned from captivity, and one woman who survived an attempted rape at the Nova Music Festival in Re'im.
The five other sites of documented sexual violence are in the kibbutzim Nir Oz, Kfar Aza, and Re'im, as well as Route 232 and the IDF's Nahal Oz base. Hostages taken with the terrorists back into the Gaza Strip were also abused.
"Sexual violence continued in captivity, with many returnees reporting forced nudity, physical and verbal sexual harassment, sexual assaults, and threats of forced marriage," the report said.
Apathy & denial
The Dinah Project has slammed the lackluster response from UN Women and other women's organizations around the world, with some critics of Israel claiming that it is peddling in false claims.
Of those cited in the report, only Amit Soussana, a lawyer held for 55 days, has gone on record publicly. Two of the survivors in the report were male.
"Sexual violence need not mean rape – also forced nudity, forcing some of the hostages to strip and shower while being watched or trying to force them into marriage," said attorney and Colonel (Res.) Sharon Zagagi-Pinhas, the former chief prosecutor for the military.
Others cited took 17 months to speak, therapists saying that there are more who are still unable to speak due to the trauma.
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| Palestinians take control of an Israeli Merkava battle tank after crossing the border fence with Israel from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.SAID KHATIB / AFP |
"We found patterns of evidence," Zagagi-Pinhas said. "Women found dead, naked and mutilated – with gunshots in their genitalia – and tied to trees. The fact that the same things happened in three to six locations can’t be coincidence but proof this was premeditated."
"Many of the witnesses we spoke to talk of the victims being shot and them still trying to rape a dead body," she said, citing more than two dozen first responders
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