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Violence that included sexual atrocities committed during the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks in Israel amounts to war crimes and may also be crimes against humanity, two United Nations human rights experts said Monday, after months of accusations. frustrated by Israel and women’s groups. that the UN was ignoring the rape and sexual mutilation of women during the October 7 invasion.
Alice Jill Edwards, special rapporteur on torture, and Morris Tidball-Binz, special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said the mounting evidence of sexual violence in the day’s wide range of “brutal attacks” was “particularly heartbreaking.” . pointing out accusations of sexual assault, gang rape, mutilation and shots to the genital areas.
In a sentenceThey called for “full accountability for the multitude of alleged crimes” and urged all parties to agree to a ceasefire, respect international law and investigate any crimes alleged to have occurred during the fighting.
“These acts constitute serious violations of international law, equivalent to war crimes that, given the number of victims and the extensive premeditation and planning of the attacks, can also be classified as crimes against humanity,” they said. “There are no circumstances that justify its perpetration.”
Israeli officials say around 1,200 people were killed and more than 240 taken hostage on October 7. Investigators from Israel’s main national police unit, Lahav 433, have been gathering evidence of cases of sexual violence but have not specified a number. Hamas has denied accusations of sexual violence.
Reacting to the experts’ statement on Monday, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US ambassador to the UN, said on social media: “Heartbreaking. “Hamas’ horrendous acts of sexual violence must be immediately and unequivocally condemned.”
Accounts of sexual violence from October 7 were shared at a presentation at UN headquarters in New York in early December. “Silence is complicity,” said Sheryl Sandberg, a former Meta executive who helped organize the presentation. Hundreds of protesters outside accused the United Nations of applying a double standard on sexual violence, which the UN has recognized in many other conflicts. Some chanted: “Me too, unless you’re Jewish.”
The New York Times published a two-month investigation in late December and concluded that the attacks against the women were part of a pattern of gender-based violence on October 7. The Times identified at least seven locations where Israeli women and girls appeared to have been sexually assaulted or mutilated.
Journalists interviewed witnesses who described seeing women raped and murdered along a highway, reviewed photographs showing a woman’s corpse with dozens of nails stuck in her thighs and groin, and spoke to volunteer doctors and Israeli soldiers who They found at least 24 bodies of women and girls in at least six houses, some mutilated, others tied and many naked and alone.