report points to “systematic” sexual violence during October 7 terrorist attacks

The report from the Association of Rape Support Centers in Israel (Arcci), which oversees centers combating sexual violence across the country,

The Association of Rape Support Centers in Israel (Arcci), which oversees centers combating sexual violence across the country, published a report on Wednesday February 21 on the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel, on October 7. Highlighting “similarities” in the attacks against the Nova music festival, on kibbutzim, military bases, as well as on people who were taken hostage, the report mentions in particular “rapes, many of them in meetings, at gunpoint”.

Sexual violence was perpetrated there “systematically and deliberately against Israeli civilians”notes this study which is based on testimonies and interviews from witnesses, but not from victims.

The lack of direct and public accounts from survivors and the absence of forensic expertise has not yet made it possible to draw a clear picture of these abuses and their scale.

Testimonies of freed soldiers and hostages

He thus quotes a survivor of the attack on the Nova festival who describes “an apocalypse of corpses, of naked girls, sometimes on the upper body, sometimes on the bottom”. In Kibbutz Beeri, where 90 residents were killed, rescuers said they found “bodies showing signs of sexual attack”. Sexual assaults were also recorded in the attacked military bases, adds the report, which notably cites a soldier deployed on one of them, who said he saw at least ten bodies of female soldiers clearly bearing traces of sexual violence.

Freed hostages, like Chen and Agam Goldstein, released after 51 days of detention, said they encountered “at least three female hostages sexually assaulted during their captivity”.

Israeli officials have accused Hamas of increasing sexual assaults, including rape and genital mutilation, during the October 7 attacks, something the Palestinian movement has always denied.