“Rapists cannot be deemed freedom fighters,” Adv. Nava Ben-Or, a retired district judge and former deputy state attorney, and an expert in the field of sexual abuse of children, told JNS.
Ben-Or is a member of the Dinah Project, an initiative advocating for recognition of and justice for victims of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) on Oct. 7, 2023 and beyond.
Together with professor Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, Att. Col. (res.) Sharon Zagagi-Pinhas and Ita Prince-Gavison, Ben-Or co-authored the Dinah Project report—the most comprehensive account to date of sexual crimes committed by Hamas terrorists, based on first-hand testimonies.
Sexual violence was “widespread and systematic” during and after the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, according to the report, released last week.
Michal Herzog, Israel’s first lady, became emotional in a video posted to X as she discussed the Dinah Project’s report detailing Hamas’s systematic sexual violence against women during the Oct. 7 attacks.
According to the report, victims were found partially or fully naked, with their hands tied—often to structures such as trees or poles. The evidence documented instances of gang rape followed by execution, genital mutilation and public humiliation.
“The vast majority of those who were sexually assaulted were among the 1,166 who were murdered in the attack and therefore silenced forever,” the report states.
Ben-Or told JNS that the evidence was collected to form a comprehensive picture and support the report’s legal argument for attributing responsibility for the crimes.
“We believe that sexual violence offenses must be part of any indictment filed against terrorists detained in Israel, if and when the prosecution decides to move forward,” she said.
The 84-page report draws on testimonies from a Nova music festival rape survivor, 15 released hostages, 17 eyewitnesses or individuals who heard the attacks, 27 rescue personnel and extensive visual documentation, according to the Hebrew-language outlet Ynet.
Sexual violence was documented in at least six locations: the Nova music festival, Route 232, the Nahal Oz military base, Kibbutz Re’im, Kibbutz Nir Oz and Kibbutz Kfar Aza.
According to the report, sexual assaults—including “forced nudity, physical and verbal sexual harassment, sexual assaults, and threats of forced marriage”—also took place during the captivity of more than 250 people abducted by the terrorists and taken to Gaza.
“Humanity thrives by relationships, so if you attack this symbol of life and make it a symbol of death, this is directed against the community to symbolize its end,” said Ben-Or.
She emphasized the need to set aside political or ideological views when addressing the sexual violence committed on Oct. 7.
“While everyone is entitled to their political opinions, those views are irrelevant when it comes to acts of sexual violence. The body of a woman or a man is not a battleground,” she said.
With the release of the report, Ben-Or and her co-authors aim to advance several goals on both domestic and international fronts. They hope the findings will prompt Israel’s State Attorney’s Office to file indictments against Hamas terrorists detained since Oct. 7, specifically including sexual violence charges based on the legal framework outlined in the report.
They also seek to influence international institutions—particularly the United Nations—to recognize and formally categorize Hamas as a terror group that employs sexual violence as a weapon of war, a step the U.N. has so far declined to take.
Ben-Or explained that the difficulties in gathering evidence of sexual violence at the sites of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre are common in any context where such crimes are used as a weapon of war, particularly when terrorists, rather than regular armies bound by international law, are involved.
“In such cases, victims are often either killed or too traumatized to speak out after the attack. They typically cannot identify their attackers, who may have come in large groups. These challenges are universal. As a result, investigators must rely on circumstantial evidence and legal principles like joint responsibility, even when specific attackers cannot be identified,” she said.
“This is the approach we outline in our report, and we hope to persuade international bodies, organizations, and governments to adopt these ideas and establish common protocols to address the issue of mass atrocities,” she added.
