In the wake of global silence and denial of Hamas’ sexual violence against Israeli women, efforts are being made across multiple echelons to raise awareness, including a civil commission to document the crimes, international diplomacy, and a campaign by tech industry executives.

The ‘Civil Commission on Oct 7th Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children’ is a non-governmental body that seeks to advocate for and document war crimes committed by Hamas against women and children during the massacre on October 7, and the continuous war crimes towards abducted women and children. The Civil Commission takes it upon itself to obtain and distribute credible information and lend its expertise to relevant bodies in Israel and internationally.

The impetus for establishing the commission was both the overwhelming cruelty of the crimes committed, the vast amount of evidence left behind, and conversely, the deafening silence of the world, including from human rights and women’s rights organisations like UN Women. It is one of many examples of civilians leading initiatives during the war effort instead of the government. It is notable that, while admirable, it has been necessary for civilians rather than political leadership to fill this void.

The Commission held a webinar titled Women on the Front Lines.

Women lead the fight for justice

The following women are leading the campaign to seek justice for the victims, to hold the perpetrators accountable and to ensure we never forget the suffering that was endured by women, children and men in southern Israel on October 7.

Belkis Wille (Associate Director in the Crisis and Conflict Division at Human Rights Watch)

Belkis Wille spent three weeks in Israel following the Hamas-led October 7 attacks on more than 20 communities and a music festival near the Gaza Strip, as well as nearby military bases. Together with her colleague Richard Weir, she tried to establish a clear record of what happened that day when gunmen killed hundreds of civilians and abducted more than 230 people. 

The scale of the killings on a single day left deep scars, not just for survivors, victims, and their families,and for many Israelis and Jews around the world. Months later, survivors are reeling from the deaths of loved ones and neighbours and fearing for those still held hostage in Gaza. 

Here, Belkis talks about what her team has uncovered about the attacks, what it takes to build sufficient evidence when investigating severe international crimes, and why meticulous, independent research is crucial in the struggle for impartial justice.

Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy  (Reichman University, Head of Israel’s Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children)

Is leading the Commission tasked with investigating and documenting the atrocities committed on October 7.  In the days following the October 7 attack and the notable silence from the UN, Elkayam-Levy and fellow academics sent a letter to various structures with the UN.  She later testified before the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) regarding the gender-based crimes in Hamas’ massacre in Israel and the lack of response from the international community. 

We, as Israeli women, feel we are all subject to a collective international denial. The evidence is undeniable, yet we fight a dual battle: one against these atrocities that we now need to respond to and another against global silence.

The very committee dedicated to eliminating discrimination against women has yet to acknowledge the gender-based crimes against humanity, the atrocities and war crimes committed during these attacks.

The failure to condemn these hideous crimes weakens the legitimacy of global institutions and allows for further violations not just in Israel but globally.

The silence isn’t just deafening - it’s damning. It raises the haunting question: are Israeli women and girls protected under international law?

Pramila Patten (UN envoy for sexual violence in conflict)

The letters, petitions, and other appeals were directed to various UN human rights agencies and UN committees.   These efforts resulted in an official visit by the UN Women to Israel on 30 January 2024. Led by Patten to probe a wave of allegations of Hamas sexual violence on October 7.

Patten stated that she has been unable to sleep for a week since viewing the 47-minute video compiled by the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] of the atrocities committed on October 7. The scenes continue to haunt her.

Only after I saw the video did I understand things I didn’t understand before regarding the magnitude of the disaster.  

She acknowledged the sense of betrayal and abandonment felt by the Israeli people in the UN response to the massacre and the war that ensued.

In addition, UN experts released a revised statement demanding accountability for victims of sexual torture and unlawful killings during the October 7 attacks. The experts recall their previous statement on the need for independent and impartial investigations of all rights violations, including those in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.

International law and accountability

International human rights lawyers and the UN have noted that both Hamas and Israel have breached international humanitarian law, committing war crimes.

Under international humanitarian law or the law of armed conflict, targeting civilians is strictly prohibited, and intentionally targeting and killing civilians are war crimes. Violations and abuses by one party in a conflict do not justify violations, including targeting civilians by another.

NATO documents Hamas’ cynical use of its own people as human shields as far back as nine years ago, reporting: “Hamas most common uses of human shields include: Firing rockets, artillery, and mortars from…heavily populated civilian areas…(e.g. Schools, hospitals, or mosques)....” “If the IDF [Israeli military] uses lethal forces and causes an increase in civilian casualties, Hamas can utilise that as a lawfare tool: it can accuse Israel of committing war crimes….”

There is clear evidence that entailed severe violations of the most fundamental norms of International Humanitarian Law, which amount to war crimes. In addition, Hamas forces failed to comply with their obligation to take precautions against the effects of attacks, and there are indications that they violated the prohibition on the use of human shields.

Hamas used sexual violence as a weapon

On 04 March 2024, the UN’s special envoy on sexual violence in conflict has reported that there is “clear and convincing information that sexual assaults including rape and gang-rape in several places took place during the October 7 attacks by Hamas.  It also believes that some women and children hostages held by Hamas had been subjected to rape and sexualised torture and that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe such abuses were “ongoing”.

Association of Rape Crisis Centres in Israel - On 21 February 2024, released one of the first investigative reports on the atrocities committed on October 7. This report results from an initial examination of all the public and classified information, interviews, and testimonies that can be revealed now, which will likely increase with time. The report demonstrates that sexual abuse was not an isolated incident or sporadic case but rather a clear operational strategy.

Hamas's attack on October 7 included brutal sexual assaults carried out systematically and deliberately towards Israeli civilians. Numerous testimonies and pieces of disclosed and classified information present a clear picture of identical patterns of action repeated in each of the attack zones – the Nova Festival, private homes in the Gaza envelope kibbutzim, and IDF bases. With the abduction of 254 individuals to the Gaza Strip areas, sexual assaults continued to occur also in this arena. Therefore, there is a high likelihood that the kidnapped women and men in Hamas captivity are still at risk of sexual abuse at any given moment.

Hamas's attack included violent acts of rape, accompanied by threats with weapons, and in some cases targeted towards injured women. Many of the rapes were carried out as a group, with the participation of violent terrorists. Often, the rape was perpetrated in front of an audience – partners, family, or friends – in a manner intended to increase the pain and humiliation of all present. Hamas terrorists hunted young women and men who fled the Nova festival and, according to testimonies, dragged them by their hair amid screams. The actions targeted women, girls, and men. In most cases, the victims were killed after or even during the rape.

A series of testimonies, interviews, and additional sources attest that Hamas terrorists employed sadistic practices aimed at intensifying the degree of humiliation and terror inherent in sexual violence. Many of the bodies of sexual crime victims were found bound and shackled. The genitals of both women and men were brutally mutilated, and sometimes weapons were inserted into them. The terrorists did not stop at shooting; they also cut and mutilated sexual organs and other body parts with knives.

International Law and sexual violence in a conflict

Sexual violence is horrific in any context and is always connected to power and domination. But it takes on a different dimension when utilised as a tool of war — as it has been for centuries. And even though it is an unfortunately common feature of the broader conflict, it’s often misunderstood and is difficult to prosecute — as all war crimes are — making justice for victims a complicated prospect at best.

The definition of sexual violence used as a weapon during an armed conflict:  Conflict-related sexual violence encompasses a broad and evolving set of crimes that don’t necessarily involve rape; sexually invasive searches, groping, stripping and public shaming, and damaging or maiming sexual organs are all forms of sexual violence, as is coercion into sexual acts to secure favourable treatment, shelter, food, or security in conflict or captivity.

In the context of sexual violence against women and girls, an essential milestone in the struggle for recognition and protection of women’s rights in war came after the wars in Rwanda and former Yugoslavia during the 1990s, with the establishment of special international criminal courts under the terms of UN Security Council resolutions. These courts were set up to deal with crimes committed during those wars, which included systematic rape as well as cases of sexual enslavement.

International law reflects the values and moral conscience of the international community regarding the need to eliminate all forms of sexual violence in war. Therefore, the UN Security Council, UN Women, and other international organisations raise serious questions about their meek response—and, in some cases, complete lack of response—to Hamas’s attack on Israel.

The challenges when investigating sexual violence during a war

According to a UN report released on 08 September 2023, patterns of sexual violence worsened in conflict-ridden areas such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, and South Sudan. In Ukraine, sexual violence was documented as a form of torture and inhumane treatment against civilians and prisoners of war.

‘I just want justice’: Ukrainians struggle with hidden war crime of sexual violence.  Thousands of adults and children may have survived Russian sexual assaults, but few have come forward, and far fewer have seen any punishment.

Rape and sexual assault attributed to Moscow's forces in Ukraine are part of a Russian "military strategy" and a "deliberate tactic to dehumanise the victims", UN envoy Pramila Patten told AFP in an interview.

The world must learn from the mistakes made after the war in Bosnia to avoid putting Ukrainian victims of rape and conflict-related sexual violence through decades of trauma, a new expert report has warned. Ukrainian prosecutors and independent investigators from the United Nations and other international organisations have said there is mounting evidence that Russian troops are using rape and sexual violence as part of their campaign of terror in Ukraine – similar to the systematic use of rape by the Bosnian Serb army during the Bosnian war in the early 1990s. Russia has denied the allegations.

Sexual violence is an ancient and often unseen war crime. Much of conflict-relate sexual violence (CRSV) is underreported because of the shame, humiliation and trauma that follows. But some CRSV, like forced nudity and forced witnessing, often goes unreported because the people it happened to don’t realise it’s a crime. Those studying CRSV believe that leadership can encourage… or stop it.

Sky News investigation into rape as a weapon. Sexual violence has been used as a weapon in conflicts to humiliate, subjugate, and terrorise populations throughout history. Women and children are often the most vulnerable.  Yalda Hakim asks why the use of sexual violence is so common in war.