Hamas used sexual violence as a part of ‘genocidal technique’, Israeli consultants say

[ad_1] <img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/cf11/live/740add60-5b91-11f0-b5c5-012c5796682d.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/cf11/live/740add60-5b91-11f0-b5c5-012c5796682d.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/cf11/live/740add60-5b91-11f0-b5c5-012c5796682d.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/cf11/live/740add60-5b91-11f0-b5c5-012c5796682d.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/cf11/live/740add60-5b91-11f0-b5c5-012c5796682d.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/cf11/live/740add60-5b91-11f0-b5c5-012c5796682d.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/cf11/live/740add60-5b91-11f0-b5c5-012c5796682d.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/cf11/live/740add60-5b91-11f0-b5c5-012c5796682d.jpg.webp" loading="eager" alt="EPA File photo showing people visiting the memorial site for the victims of the 7 October 2023 attack on the Nova music festival, near Kibbutz Re'im, southern Israel (6 October 2024)" class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> EPA Most of the reported circumstances of sexual violence on 7 October 2023 occurred on the Nova music competition

Hamas used sexual violence as "a part of a deliberate genocidal technique" throughout the 7 October 2023 assault on Israel, an all-women group of Israeli authorized and gender consultants allege in a brand new report calling for justice.

The Dinah Venture says the report relies on a evaluation of proof together with first-hand testimony from a survivor of an tried rape and 15 former hostages held in Gaza, in addition to accounts from witnesses to sexual assaults.

It lays out what the group describes as "a authorized blueprint for prosecuting these crimes, even when direct attribution to particular person perpetrators is unattainable".

Hamas has denied its forces dedicated sexual violence towards girls or mistreated feminine hostages.

Nonetheless, a UN mission concluded in March 2024 that there have been "cheap grounds" to imagine that conflict-related sexual violence occurred throughout the 7 October assault in a number of places, together with rape and gang rape, and that there was "convincing data" that hostages had been subjected to sexual violence, together with rape and sexualised torture.

And earlier than they had been assassinated by Israel, three prime Hamas leaders had been additionally accused by the Worldwide Legal Courtroom's prosecutor of the crimes towards humanity of rape and different types of sexual violence, along with homicide, extermination and torture.

On 7 October, a whole bunch of members of Hamas and allied Palestinian armed teams attacked southern Israel, the place they killed about 1,200 individuals and took 251 others hostage.

Israel responded by launching a navy marketing campaign in Gaza, throughout which greater than 57,500 individuals have been killed, in accordance with the territory's Hamas-run well being ministry.

Warning: Comprises graphic descriptions of rape and sexual violence

The Dinah Venture was launched after 7 October to pursue justice for victims of sexual violence. It was based by authorized scholar Ruth Halperin-Kaddar, lawyer and former chief navy prosecutor Sharon Zagagi-Pinhas, and former decide and deputy lawyer normal Nava Ben-Or.

It says that the report, which was printed on Tuesday, "establishes that Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon, as a part of a genocidal scheme and with the purpose of terrorizing and dehumanizing Israeli society".

It additionally "creates a pathway to justice for victims of the 7 October assault and doubtlessly for victims in different battle zones", in accordance with the group.

The authors say they reviewed a big quantity of sources, starting from social media posts to recorded testimony, in addition to forensic proof and visible and audio proof.

The report - which doesn't determine the victims however cites experiences that do title a few of them - says a feminine survivor of the assault on the Nova music competition on 7 October instructed members of the Dinah Venture that she was subjected to an tried rape and sexual assault.

In keeping with the report, one of many 15 former hostages mentioned she was compelled to carry out a sexual act, which was preceded by sexual abuse and verbal and bodily sexual harassment. She additionally mentioned she endured compelled nudity - an expertise which was reported by six different hostages as properly.

Virtually all the hostages reported verbal and a few bodily harassment, together with "undesirable bodily contact in non-public components", the report says, whereas six mentioned in addition they confronted threats of compelled marriage.

Two males among the many hostages mentioned they had been subjected to compelled nudity and bodily abuse when bare, with one additionally recounting the shaving of all his physique hair, in accordance with the report.

The Dinah Venture says the accounts from individuals who noticed or heard incidents of sexual violence confirmed that such crimes had been "widespread and systematic" on 7 October.

In keeping with the report, 5 witnesses reported not less than 4 separate circumstances of gang rape; seven reported not less than eight different separate circumstances of rape or extreme sexual assaults, a few of them in captivity; 5 reported not less than three separate circumstances of sexual assaults, some in captivity; and three reported three separate circumstances of mutilation.

9 of these circumstances associated to the Nova music competition, two to the Nahal Oz navy base, one to the Route 232 highway, and 4 to incidents occurring in captivity in Gaza, the report says.

Twenty-seven first responders in the meantime described dozens of circumstances which confirmed "clear indicators of sexual violence throughout six places", the report says - the Nova competition, Route 232, and the kibbutzim of Be'eri, Alumim, Nahal Oz and Re'im.

The report additionally says that "most victims had been completely silenced", as a result of they had been both killed on 7 October or left too traumatised to speak.

In response, the authors present what they describe because the "first world authorized blueprint explaining methods to prosecute sexual violence as a weapon of struggle - even when proof is messy, survivors are gone, and particular person perpetrators cannot be tied to particular person acts".

That features an evidentiary framework to classify data primarily based on its proximity to incidents and its evidentiary worth, and a authorized framework for establishing felony duty for atrocities dedicated throughout mass assaults, even when a person didn't personally commit every particular act or weren't conscious of its fee by another person.

The report concludes by saying that justice is "important not just for particular person victims however for affirming broader ideas: that sexual violence in battle is a critical violation of worldwide legislation, that perpetrators will likely be held accountable, and that the worldwide neighborhood is not going to permit such crimes to be dedicated with impunity".