Hamas Weaponized Rape of Israeli Women on Oct. 7, Advocates Say
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Following weeks of silence by the United Nations concerning evidence that Hamas weaponized rape against Israeli women on Oct. 7, a special meeting was convened at the UN on Monday to raise awareness of the issue, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports. Monday’s meeting was organized by Israel’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, the World Zionist Organization, and the National Council of Jewish Women.
Hundreds of Israeli women were killed on Oct. 7, many of whom were raped, mutilated, tortured, and burned before dying.
Chairing the UN meeting, Israeli journalist Tal Heinrich stated that some of the women who died on Oct. 7 were murdered twice.
“The first time when blood-thirsty Hamas terrorists committed shocking acts of sexual violence against them,” Heinrich said. “The second time these women were murdered was when terrorists put a bullet in them. In at least one case, this happened simultaneously. Let that sink in.”
In a report for BBC News, an outlet that has recently been criticized for anti-Israel bias, journalist Lucy Willamson wrote: “Multiple photographs from the sites after the attack show the bodies of women naked from the waist down, or with their underwear ripped to one side, legs splayed, with signs of trauma to their genitals and legs.”
Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, a legal expert at the Davis Institute of International Relations at Hebrew University, is quoted in the BBC report saying: “It really feels like Hamas learned how to weaponize women’s bodies from ISIS [the Islamic State group] in Iraq, from cases in Bosnia. It brings me chills just to know the details that they knew about what to do to women: cut their organs, mutilate their genitals, rape. It’s horrifying to know this.”
On Nov. 29, the UN Commission of Inquiry investigating war crimes by both Israel and Hamas announced it would focus on sexual violence by Hamas as well, Reuters reports. Any findings may subsequently be referred to the International Criminal Court.
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