New York: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an investigation into allegations of sexual violence committed by Hamas during the October 7 attack on Israel, The Times of Israel reported.
Guterres wrote on the Anywhere.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry last week criticized women’s rights group UN Women for taking 50 days to comment on evidence of sexual violence during the Hamas offensive, but later expressed “warning” on the matter. He issued a brief statement, then removed the post. , according to The Times of Israel.
On Instagram, UN Women posted a condemnation of Hamas and deleted it shortly after, replacing it with a call for the release of all hostages in Gaza. Recently, it was reported that Israeli police were using forensic evidence, videos, testimony from witnesses, and suspects to document cases of sexual violence committed by Hamas as part of the October 7 attacks on Israel, according to CNN. Using inquiry.
Witnesses say that women and girls caught in the violence were sexually assaulted, as well as physically tortured and killed. Police Superintendent Dudy Katz said authorities had collected more than 1,000 statements and more than 60,000 video clips related to the attacks, including accounts from people who reported seeing women being raped.
He said investigators did not have direct testimony and it was unclear whether any rape victims survived. About 1,200 Israelis were killed and more wounded that day in villages and farms near Gaza when Hamas militants attacked across the border in coordinated attacks, taking more than 240 hostages and beginning the current war. Police Commissioner Shabtai Yaakov said the investigation could potentially lead to prosecution, but for now, documentation is the primary mission.
Kochav Elkayim-Levi, a human rights law expert at Hebrew University who has formed a civil commission with colleagues to document evidence of atrocities, fears that as the war devastates Gaza and the lives of thousands of Palestinians, the world Looks ready to focus on violence. Against Israeli women and girls.
“We will never know what happened to him,” Elkayim-Levy told CNN. “We know that the majority of women who were raped and sexually assaulted were also murdered.”
He pointed to a UN statement just a week after the terrorist attacks that did not mention sexual violence. She said of the United Nations, “This is much worse than just silence or disrespect for us Israeli women and our children and our people. When they are failing to acknowledge us, to acknowledge what happened here. They are failing humanity.”
