Israeli authorities have released videos containing accounts of witnesses who witnessed sex crimes allegedly committed by Hamas. In November, Israel already announced that the investigation was ongoing.
“There was a situation where a person was forced to bend over, and I realized that he was raping her. He changed her position, I remember the movement, and then she was handed over to another person,” the witness said during an interview with authorities.
Another witness reported a man pulling the hair of a naked woman who was bleeding from her back and chest.
In an interview, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said hostages freed by the Islamic extremist group reported crimes of sexual violence, physical and mental abuse, and the hunger and thirst they suffered while in captivity.
Netanyahu called on women’s and human rights organizations to respond to reports of sexual violence committed by Hamas.
“I say to women’s rights organizations and human rights organizations who have heard about Israeli women being raped, about horrific atrocities, about sexual mutilation, where are you. I hope that all civilized leaders, governments, nations will speak out against these atrocities,” the Israeli Prime Minister said, as quoted by Reuters.
US President Joe Biden also called on international organizations to condemn “without exception” the sexual violence reported by the hostages during a fundraiser in Boston.
At a news conference in Geneva, Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, denied trivializing alleged acts of sexual violence committed by Hamas and said he had been waiting nearly a month for permission from Tel Aviv to investigate the allegations.