Sexual and gender-based violence in the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel

During the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, Israeli women, girls, and men were reportedly subject to sexual violence, including rape and sexual assault by Hamas or other Gazan militants.^[1][2][3] The militants involved in the attack are accused of having committed acts of gender-based violence, war crimes and crimes against humanity.^[4][5][6][7] Hamas has denied that its fighters committed any sexual assaults,^[1] and has called for an impartial international investigation into the accusations.^[8][9]

The BBC reported in December 2023 that "videos of naked and bloodied women filmed by Hamas on the day of the attack, and photographs of bodies taken at the sites afterwards, suggest that women were sexually targeted by their attackers".^[7] Israeli police said dozens of women and some men were raped. Witnesses described the perpetrators using shovels,^[10] beheading victims, engaged in rapes, and playing with severed body parts.^[7] Several victims of sexual violence from October 7th and captivity in Gaza have come forward, while testimonies by October 7th survivors and released hostages' reported witnessing both female and male hostages subjected to sexual violence.^{[11][12][13][14][15][16][17]}

The UN's Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten reported in March 2024, with the "full cooperation" of the Israeli government,^[18] that there was "clear and convincing information" that Israeli hostages in Gaza experienced "sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment", that there are "reasonable grounds" to believe such abuse is "ongoing"^[19][20] and there was also "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,"^{[21][22][19][20]} although the report was not a full and legal investigation and thus was unable to establish anything beyond a reasonable doubt.^[23]

On 12 April 2024, the European Union sanctioned military and special forces wings of Hamas and the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad due to their responsibility for the alleged sexual violence on 7 October.^[24] The EU said the two groups' fighters “committed widespread sexual and gender-based violence in a systematic manner, using it as a weapon of war.”^[25]

The independent UN Commission of Inquiry (CoI) subsequently published a legal and in-depth investigative report in June 2024 which concluded from “documented evidence” that there was a pattern indicative of sexual violence by Palestinian forces during the attack, that these incidents were not isolated, and that Hamas and other militant groups were responsible for gender-based violence "by willful killings, abductions, and physical, mental and sexual abuse."^{[26][27][28][27]} They also reviewed testimonies of rape, sexualized torture and genital mutilation but were unable "to independently verify such allegations" due to Israel's obstruction of its investigation.^[27] It also found "no credible evidence" that Palestinian militants "received orders to commit sexual violence," and thus was unable to draw conclusions on the issue.^[27]

A number of initial testimonies of sexual violence were discredited later.^[29][30][31] Israel accused international human rights groups of downplaying assault reports.^[32]