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A UN report has found “reasonable grounds to believe” that Hamas committed rape and sexual violence against Israelis during its October 7 attacks.
Pramila Patten, the UN’s special envoy on sexual violence, said in a report released on Monday that there were also grounds to believe “rape and sexualised torture” was committed against hostages taken during the raid and may be ongoing against some of those still being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The report’s conclusions came after a two-and-a-half week visit by Patten and her team to Israel in January and February to gather information, and follow months of accusations by Israeli officials that the international community has turned a blind eye to allegations of sexual violence by Hamas.
The team met Israeli officials, visited morgues and medical sites, reviewed more than 5,000 photos and 50 hours of footage of the October 7 attacks and conducted interviews with survivors, freed hostages, first responders, family members and others. They also visited four locations where Hamas militants were reported to have committed acts of sexual violence.
However, the report noted that “despite concerted efforts encouraging them to come forward”, the team had not been able to meet “any survivor/victim of sexual violence from 7 October”.
“Based on the information gathered by the mission team from multiple and independent sources, there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred during the 7 October attacks in multiple locations across Gaza periphery, including rape and gang rape, in at least three locations,” the report said.
“Across the various locations of the 7 October attacks, the mission team found that several fully naked or partially naked bodies from the waist down were recovered — mostly women — with hands tied and shot multiple times, often in the head. Although circumstantial, such a pattern of undressing and restraining of victims may be indicative of some forms of sexual violence.”
Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz on Monday reiterated the country’s criticisms of the UN’s approach to allegations of sexual violence by Hamas, writing on X that he had recalled Israel’s ambassador to the UN for immediate consultations “in relation to the attempt to silence the serious UN report on the mass rapes committed by Hamas and its helpers on October 7”.
A spokesman for the foreign ministry said that following the publication of the report, Israel was calling for an “immediate” meeting of the UN Security Council to be held with the aim of declaring Hamas a terrorist organisation, and imposing international sanctions on it.
Patten’s team also found “clear and convincing information that some [hostages] have been subjected to various forms of conflict-related sexual violence including rape and sexualised torture and . . . has reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing”, the report said.
Some allegations of sexual violence that have appeared in the media, such as at the Nahal Oz and Kfar Aza kibbutzim, could not be independently verified by the mission team, the report said.
The report issued a number of recommendations, including that Hamas and other groups “immediately and unconditionally release all individuals held in captivity and to ensure their protection including from sexual violence, in line with international law”. It also pressed all parties to adopt a humanitarian ceasefire.
The team also visited the occupied West Bank, where officials and civil society representatives alleged that Israeli security forces and settlers have committed sexual violence against Palestinians in detention, during house raids and at checkpoints.
Interviewees, among them four recently released detainees, “raised concerns about cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of Palestinians in detention, including the increased use of various forms of sexual violence, namely invasive body searches; threats of rape; and prolonged forced nudity”.
The spokesman for Israel’s foreign ministry rejected the allegations as “baseless”.