A new report that is set to be released this week by the Dinah Project describes first-heard testimonies from 17 people who saw or heard sexual violence on October 7th and among the hostages in Gaza.
By Rachel Avraham
According to a new report that is set to be released this week, new witnesses and victims have come forward to give previously unheard testimony that describes “widespread and systematic” sexual violence that took place during the October 7th massacre.
The report was authored by the Dinah Project, a group of legal experts and feminists that documented sexual crimes perpetrated when thousands of Gazan terrorists crossed into Israel on October 7, 2023, massacring some 1,200 people and kidnapping 251. According to Haaretz, the Dinah Project was co-founded by legal scholar Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, attorney and former chief military prosecutor Col. (res.) Sharon Zagagi-Pinhas and former judge and deputy attorney general, Nava Ben-Or.
Most victims of the sexual violence were “permanently silenced” after the attack, either because they were slain or due to trauma, I24 News noted. According to I24 News, the new report, funded in part by the UK government, sheds light on the phenomenon of rape and sexual violence on that day, compiling first-hand testimonies from 17 people who saw or heard the attacks, therapists who spoke with survivors, 15 hostages who returned from captivity, and one woman who survived an attempted rape at the Nova Music Festival in Re’im.
Zagagi-Pinhas told the Times that they had found patterns – victims found dead, stripped and mutilated, including being shot in the genitalia, and tied to trees – in several different areas. “The fact that the same things happened in three to six locations can’t be coincidence, but proof this was premeditated,” she said. “Many of the witnesses we spoke to talk of the victims being shot and them still trying to rape a dead body.”
“Sexual violence continued in captivity, with many returnees reporting forced nudity, physical and verbal sexual harassment, sexual assaults, and threats of forced marriage,” the report said. As of now, Haaretz reported that only two released hostages have publicly discussed sexual abuse during captivity: Amit Soussana and Ilana Gritzewsky.
“Sexual violence need not mean rape – also forced nudity, forcing some of the hostages to strip and shower while being watched or trying to force them into marriage,” said attorney and Colonel (Res.) Sharon Zagagi-Pinhas, the former chief prosecutor for the military, to I24 News.
Haaretz noted that the report aimed to dispel “misinformation and global silence” and set the record straight: “Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon of war.” According to Haaretz, they pinpointed acts of abuse at the Nova music festival near Re’im; Route 232; the kibbutzim of Re’im, Nir Oz and Kfar Aza; and the Nahal Oz military base.
According to the Jerusalem Post, the researchers note that the international standard of “believing the victims” was not applied in this case. “Women all over the world chose to remain silent, and this is a profound moral failure,” said Halperin-Kaddari.
The report seeks to establish a new legal framework for handling mass atrocity cases where most victims are no longer alive, and a specific perpetrator cannot be identified, the Jerusalem Post added. “The need to prove who harmed whom is irrelevant here,” emphasized retired Judge Nava Ben-Or. “The fact that sexual violence occurred as an integral part of the massacre requires the world to see this as the collective responsibility of Hamas.”
