Study finds systematic October 7 sexual violence

(THE TIMES OF ISRAEL) An investigation has found that sexual and gender-based violence perpetrated during the October 7, 2023, massacre and atrocities by Hamas and other terror groups in Israel was systematic, widespread, and a key, calculated component of the brutal terror assault.

The investigation, conducted by the Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children, determined in a report that the sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists was deliberately designed not just to brutalise the victims but also to terrorize Israeli society as a whole, using the savagery to torment the entire nation.

“What we have witnessed is deep hatred to humiliate us and terrorize us as a people, as a nation, as women, as vulnerable people who found themselves in captivity and in a prolonged hell,” Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, an international law expert and founding chair of the Civil Commission, told The Times of Israel.

The 300-page study produced by the Civil Commission, an Israeli NGO established to document the October 7 atrocities, detailed 13 types of sexual violence during the attack and against hostages, including rape, gang rape, sexual torture and mutilation, executions linked to sexual violence, postmortem sexual abuse, and sexual assaults carried out in the presence of family members, among other acts.

It is based on 430 formal and informal interviews, testimonies, and meetings with survivors, witnesses, former hostages, experts, and family members.