Everywhere Hamas terrorists struck on Oct. 7—at the rave near Kibbutz Re’im, at the military bases along the Gaza border, and at kibbutz after kibbutz—they brutalized women, The New York Times admitted on Thursday, citing Israeli officials.
An extensive, two-month Times investigation determined these assaults on women were not random, isolated incidents but rather part of a greater pattern of Hamas-perpetrated gender-based violence. For months, Israeli activists strongly condemned U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres along with the UN Women agency for failing to acknowledge allegations of abuse until weeks post-attack.
New York Times journalists pinpointed no fewer than seven sites where available evidence suggests Israeli women and girls endured sexual violation or mutilation. Israel Hayom journalists relayed many profoundly disturbing victim testimonies and visual documentation of these war crimes.
One photo captured a female corpse defiled by dozens of nails pierced through her thighs and genital area. Israeli military footage displayed two deceased female IDF soldiers who underwent apparent fatal gunshots directly to their vaginas. A witness informed colleagues that one Hamas fighter raped an Israeli woman as another severed the victim’s breast.
Earlier this month, government representatives told the Knesset Health Committee that immediately after Hamas’s Oct. 7 invasion of the northwestern Negev, Israel’s Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs allocated four million shekels ($1.1 million) to treat women whom the terrorists sexually assaulted.
The announcement was made as lawmakers were told there aren’t enough therapists to help the victims.
“The attack revealed the depths of evil and satanism of the Hamas terrorists, which shock and horrify anyone who is exposed to them. It is our duty to make sure that the survivors are provided adequate and exhaustive care, and appropriate accompaniment for victims of sexual abuse,” said committee chairman MK Yonatan Mashriki.
Dr. Zohar Sahar, director of the Health Ministry’s Department for the Treatment of Sexual Assault, told the lawmakers that all government ministries are working in coordination and pooling resources to treat the victims.
Israel is investigating many accounts of rapes and sexual abuse that occurred during the massacre.
Also, at least 10 of the hostages released during a temporary ceasefire last month were sexually assaulted or abused, a doctor who treated some of the 110 persons released from captivity told the Associated Press.
The full scope of the rapes may never be known because many of the victims and witnesses were murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7.
Originally published by Israel Hayom.
