A memorial on the web site of the Nova rave, the deadliest single web site of the assaults on Oct. 7. A brand new report by a United Nations workforce discovered “reasonable grounds to believe” that rape came about on Oct. 7, together with on the web site of the rave.

Menaham Kahana/AFP by way of Getty Images

conceal caption

toggle caption

Menaham Kahana/AFP by way of Getty Images

A memorial on the web site of the Nova rave, the deadliest single web site of the assaults on Oct. 7. A brand new report by a United Nations workforce discovered “reasonable grounds to believe” that rape came about on Oct. 7, together with on the web site of the rave.

Menaham Kahana/AFP by way of Getty Images

A report by the United Nations has discovered “reasonable grounds to believe” that the Oct. 7 Hamas-led assaults on Israel included sexual violence — together with rape and gang rape — and that some Israeli hostages skilled such violence whereas in captivity in Gaza.

The long-awaited report shouldn’t be a full-fledged U.N. investigation, in line with its creator, the U.N. particular consultant for sexual violence in battle. Israel has blocked such an investigation by the U.N.’s human rights workplace over what the nation’s leaders allege is anti-Israel bias.

Still, it represents essentially the most intensive report but with regards to sexual violence on Oct. 7 carried out by an unbiased physique based mostly outdoors of Israel.

The findings are based mostly on dozens of interviews with survivors and witnesses of the assault, first responders and well being suppliers carried out throughout a 17-day journey to Israel in January and February. The U.N. researchers and specialists additionally reviewed greater than 5,000 images and round 50 hours of footage of the assaults.

Rapes possible came about in no less than three places on Oct. 7, the report mentioned. And researchers discovered “clear and convincing information” in regards to the rape and sexualized mistreatment of hostages in Gaza, warning that such violence could also be ongoing. In whole, about 1,200 individuals have been killed within the Oct. 7 assault and a few 240 taken hostage.

“The mission was a difficult one, in terms of what we heard and the details of the most shocking brutality of the attacks by Hamas and other armed groups that we received. We saw a catalog of the most extreme and inhumane forms of torture and other horrors,” Pramila Patten, the U.N. particular consultant, mentioned throughout a information convention Monday on the United Nations in New York.

Still, she mentioned, the findings don’t in “any way legitimize further violence,” however relatively reinforce the necessity for a cease-fire, she mentioned.

Perhaps no topic associated to the Oct. 7 assaults has come below extra intense scrutiny than the problem of sexual violence that day. Skeptical press and social media customers have exhaustively in contrast the tales of eyewitnesses and known as into query the credibility of some first responders whose accounts have been confirmed to be false.

Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that guidelines the Gaza Strip, has denied the allegations and has accused Israel of utilizing the allegations as a justification for its ongoing navy marketing campaign in Gaza, which has killed at least 30,000 Palestinians, in line with the Gaza Health Ministry.

No survivors of sexual assault on Oct. 7 have come ahead publicly. The U.N. workforce mentioned they have been “made aware of a small number of survivors” nonetheless present process remedy for trauma, however finally they have been unable to fulfill with any.

“Obviously, it’s a very sensitive issue, and they need to come forward in their own time on their own terms. So we did not push,” Patten mentioned. The workforce did obtain firsthand accounts from launched hostages.

The challenges confronted by investigators have been many, the report famous, beginning with the size of the assaults. “The vast death toll from the 7 October attacks in multiple locations overstretched the response capacities of the Israeli authorities, which were compelled to prioritize the efforts to regain control of the affected areas, over the collection of evidence for the purpose of investigation,” the report acknowledged, in line with a duplicate supplied to reporters.

Israeli authorities companies might have coordinated higher, the report mentioned. Volunteer first responders have been inadequately skilled, resulting in the inadvertent mishandling of proof or incorrect interpretations of bodily stays. Israeli authorities prioritized different goals, reminiscent of figuring out victims and burying the lifeless in accordance with Jewish non secular practices, over the gathering of forensic proof. And no less than 100 our bodies have been burned so badly that little proof may very well be gathered from them, researchers discovered.

The workforce finally decided that some accounts of sexual violence couldn’t be verified or have been outright unfounded, together with a number of that had been publicized in media reviews.

Still, the report discovered motive to imagine that rape occurred in no less than three places: on the web site of the Nova rave festival, alongside Route 232, the primary freeway alongside the border with Gaza, and at one of many kibbutzim attacked.

“In most of these incidents, victims were first subjected to rape, and then killed. In at least two incidents related to the rape of women’s corpses,” Patten mentioned.

Several our bodies, principally ladies, have been discovered bare or undressed from the waist down, with their fingers tied and shot to dying, the report mentioned. “Although circumstantial, such a pattern may be indicative of some forms of sexual violence,” Patten mentioned.

Patten additionally visited the West Bank, the place she and her employees interviewed Palestinian officers and 4 lately launched detainees about sexual violence on Palestinians in detention dedicated by Israeli safety forces. Other U.N. bodies are already investigating those allegations in higher element. Patten’s workforce didn’t go to Gaza.