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  • 2 years ago
The U.N. envoy focusing on sexual violence in conflict said in a new report Monday that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe Hamas committed rape, “sexualized torture,” and other cruel and inhumane treatment of women during its surprise attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7.

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00:00 We also found that there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence,
00:15 including rape and gang rape, occurred during the 7th of October attacks in at least three
00:21 locations, namely the Nova music festival site and its surroundings, Road 232 and Kibbutz
00:29 Ring. And in most of these incidents, victims were first subjected to rape and then killed,
00:35 and at least two incidents relate to the rape of women's corpses.
00:41 We regard to the hostages taken to Gaza, we found clear and convincing information that
00:47 sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment
00:53 has been committed against captives. And we also have reasonable grounds to believe that
00:59 such violence may still be ongoing against those still held in captivity.
01:05 Across multiple locations, we found a recurring pattern of victims found fully or partially
01:11 undressed, bound and shot. And we found that although circumstantial, such a pattern may
01:19 be indicative of some forms of sexual violence, including sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman
01:26 and degrading treatment. Some allegations of sexual violence previously
01:30 reported and highly publicized in the media were determined by us to be unfounded.
01:37 Coming to my visit to the occupied West Bank, we regard to that visit whose purpose was
01:43 different considering that we have UN-verified information on conflict-related sexual violence,
01:49 which will be, as I mentioned, included in the annual report of the Secretary General.
01:53 We nevertheless received, whilst there, from several interlocutors information about cruel,
02:01 inhuman and degrading treatment of Palestinians, men and women, in detention, also under the
02:07 administrative detention, including sexual violence in the forms of invasive body searches,
02:13 threats of rape and prolonged forced nudity. Concerns were also raised about disproportionate
02:19 physical and sexual violence, including sexual harassment and threats of rape during house
02:25 raids, including at night and at checkpoints. Coming back to the fact that the mandate is
02:32 not investigative in nature and that the purpose of the mission was to gather, analyze and
02:39 verify information for its potential inclusion in reporting to the Security Council.
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