in Israel, the slow and unbearable investigation into the sexual violence committed on October 7

“It was so painful that I lost consciousness.” Esther, a survivor of Hamas attacks in Israel, is one of the first victims to testify about the sexual violence committed on October 7 by the terrorists. In an article from Parisian published Sunday November 26,he young woman describes being raped and beaten in front of her boyfriend, forced to watch, with a knife to his throat. “They stopped when they thought I was dead”, continues Esther, who speaks under an assumed name. Mutilated by her executioners, she suffered paralysis in one leg.

Nearly two months after the attacks that left more than 1,200 dead in Israel, sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas is slowly beginning to be revealed. “It’s a kind of puzzle in which we find the pieces little by little: we discover them in particular through the testimonies of the first responders at the scene of the attacks”explains Orit Sulitzeanu, director of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel (ARCCI).

Of the “dozens” volunteers from the Jewish NGO Zaka, the first to arrive at the scene of several massacres, reported finding bodies of naked women and men, without underwear, according to the Israeli daily Haaretz. They also reported signs of sexual violence on the remains. Monday, November 27, one of them testified before the Israeli Parliament, reports Orit Sulitzeanu, present at the hearing.

“He said he discovered the bodies of several women in a house in one of the affected kibbutzim. One of them, a teenage girl, was naked. He said to himself: ‘Why would anyone undress her? , if not to rape her?'”

Orit Sulitzeanu, director of ARCCI

at franceinfo

Other first responders at the scene of the attacks tell the same grisly stories. A military paramedic told the Washington Post having discovered the bodies of two teenage girls in the kibbutz of Be’eri. The first, lying on the bed, had “bare legs and bruises”. The other, lying on her stomach, on the ground, “had his legs spread and his pants down to his knees.” “There was a liquid on her back that looked like semen. She had been shot in the back of the head.”describes the rescuer.

Evidence of “sexual torture”

The abuse suffered by the victims was also noted by the forensic teams responsible for identifying the bodies. A doctor cited by AFP declares having seen “women burned with hands and feet hindered”as well as the impacts of “Shots on private parts”. Another employee of the identification center of the Shura military morgue, in charge of mortuary toilets, describes “underwear full of blood”as well as “pelvises (…) and broken pelvises”.

“We have several elements which indicate torture of a sexual nature and mutilation of the genitals”, confirms Professor Yifat Bitton, jurist specializing in gender-based violence and member of the civilian commission on Hamas crimes committed on October 7 against women and children. Made up of around forty experts, this non-governmental group was created a week after the attacks for “document this violence” And “advise the authorities responsible for investigating these crimes”, explains Yifat Bitton. He has already collected several direct or indirect testimonies which “corroborate the media accounts.” They reveal “sexual violence against women of all ages, particularly adolescent girls and youth”.

A desire to “defile” the victims

However, it was not until November 14 that the Israeli police announced the opening of a specific investigation into the sexual crimes committed during the attacks. She presented to the press a series of documents which attest to this violence, sometimes inflicted after the victims’ deaths: photos of the bodies, but also images captured by video surveillance cameras or filmed by Hamas terrorists. “In some, we see a young soldier being taken by force into the back of a vehicle, her pants stained with blood on the crotch”, cites for example Yifat Bitton. According to THE ParisianIsraeli police also rely on interrogations of terrorists, some of whom claimed to have received orders to “violate and defile” women.

In parallel with the investigations by the Israeli police and the work of the civilian commission, Amnesty International confirmed to franceinfo that it is carrying out an in-depth investigation into the crimes perpetrated on October 7, which will focus in particular on sexual violence. The NGO had already published a first report, a few days after the attacks, denouncing “human rights violations”. As the International Committee of the Red Cross points out, rape is one of the war crimes condemned by international law.

Corpses that “speak for themselves”

However, some evidence of this sexual violence could not be found. “The military and law enforcement officers who intervened first treated the scene of the attacks like a battlefield, not a crime scene”, notes Yifat Bitton. In several cases, fighting against Hamas attackers continued well after the attacks, complicating the collection of evidence, notes Haaretz. Not to mention that some remains were quickly removed by the Orthodox Jewish NGO Zaka, whose mission is to preserve the integrity of the bodies according to religious rites.

“In Israel, bodies must be buried as soon as possible after death, in accordance with religious traditions. First responders saw signs of sexual violence, but they did not take the time to note all the clues. “

Orit Sulitzeanu, director of ARCCI

at franceinfo

The forensic teams were also not “not ready to handle the arrival of hundreds of bodies in a few hours in the morgues”believes Orit Sulitzeanu. “The priority was not to take samples for rape, but to identify the victims and inform their loved ones”, she continues. The state of degradation of certain bodies, burned or discovered several hours after the attacks, also prevented these examinations from being carried out, according to Haaretz.

“As always in cases of sexual violence, some observers are calling for proof. But there are some: the bodies in the morgues speak for themselves, as do the testimonies of those who found these victims.”Judge Yifat Bitton. “Not having samples does not mean that we do not have proof that this sexual violence was systematic and prepared in advance,” says the lawyer.

“Everything we discover shows that these rapes and mutilations were used by Hamas as a weapon of war.”

Yifat Bitton, lawyer specializing in gender-based violence

at franceinfo

An investigation which is “only at the beginning”

Very rare stories from survivors and witnesses also emerge. There godmother of Esther, who, like her, participated in the Tribe of Nova festival on October 7, was also a victim of sexual violence, which continued after her death. “They didn’t rape her in the traditional way, let’s sayexplains the survivor to Parisian. Maybe because she was much younger than the average rave person.”

Another young survivor testified to Israeli police about sexual violence committed during the festival, reports Point, who viewed the footage of his hearing. In hiding, she witnessed the gang rape of a woman by several terrorists.

“They were passing her from one man to another. She was alive, had blood on her back, I remember them pulling her long brown hair.”

A survivor of the attack at the Tribe of Nova festival

during a police interview

One of the attackers “shot him in the head while he was still inside her”continues the survivor in the video viewed by Point. “Another cut off her breasts and played with them. The first one still hadn’t pulled up his pants.” Orit Sulitzeanu’s association is aware of other stories from survivors or direct witnesses of sexual violence committed by Hamas. “There are very few: many of the victims and witnesses did not survive, and those who are still alive cannot talk about it”she specifies.

The director of ARCCI recalls that only a minority of sexual crimes are reported to the authorities. An even more important phenomenon in the event of violence committed in the context of an armed conflict. “To the shame and trauma that victims of rape frequently evoke, we add here the guilt of the survivor and the shock caused by the massacres which these women witnessed”, underlines Orit Sulitzeanu. According to her, it will therefore be necessary “months”even “years”so that the day can be shed on the abuses committed. “We are only at the beginning of this investigationinsists Orit Sulitzeanu. The extent of what happened on October 7 remains to be measured, and we will probably never know everything about the sexual violence committed by Hamas.”