POSITION PAPERSEXUAL & GENDERBASED VIOLENCE AS
A WEAPON OF WAR
DURING THE OCTOBER 7, 2023 HAMAS ATTACKSNOVEMBER 2023

Introduction
As time goes on, a fuller picture of what transpired during Hamas’
October 7, 2023, assault on the communities of the Gaza Envelope isbeginning to emerge. It is becoming more apparent that the violence
perpetrated against women, men, and children also included
widespread sexual and gender-based crimes.
While the full scale of the assault is yet to be uncovered, we consider
it essential to present the information currently known to us. We havechosen to do so for several reasons. First and foremost, to encourage thereporting and documentation of these severe violations of international
humanitarian law and fundamental moral principles, to advocate forinternational condemnation and sanctions against the perpetrators,
and to prevent their recurrence. Secondly, to support the survivors andthose who will hopefully still survive. Social and institutional recognitionof the experiences of survivors is crucial to their capacity to describe
what they endured. We hope that providing such recognition also
promotes the allocation of social, professional, and financial resources
to facilitate the conditions for their healing. Lastly, the publicationof this position paper aims to bring attention to the urgent need torelease the hostages still being held in Gaza. Those among them who
endured or witnessed sexual and gender-based crimes face a higher
risk of experiencing further violence and neglect while being denied
vital physical and mental medical care.1 The increased danger to theirwell-being compels us to utilize all available means to promote theirrelease from captivity and safe return.
It is important to note that this position paper2 does not attempt or aim
to meet legal thresholds. Past experience has shown that survivors of
sexual assault are only able to speak, if ever, after sufficient time has
passed. As a human rights organization, our role is to validate and voice
the experiences of those who endured sexual and gender-based violenceProf. Hagi Levin and Mor Hershkowitz. “Medical report on the needs of women
kidnapped by Hamas,” November 11, 2023. [Hebrew]
2This document has been published following consultations with medical andinternational law experts to whom we are in debt.
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- even if they are no longer here to do so themselves. Therefore, thisdocument cautiously outlines the currently available information while
citing all sources used and working with the understanding that westill do not possess a complete account of the events. The information
published to date is only partial, both due to a lack of systematic
analysis of the findings for forensic evidence of sexual abuse and dueto the conditions of some of the victims’ bodies, their quantity, and theurgency of identifying and evacuating them - sometimes under fire. It
is also likely that much of the documentation has not been officiallypublished for additional reasons, including privacy concerns.
Based on the currently available information and the accounts
indicating that sexual and gender-based violence occurred acrossseveral locations, an inquiry must be conducted to examine whether
their scope and manifestations amount to crimes against humanity
under international humanitarian law. However, the primary goal ofthis document is to highlight the importance of ensuring health caresystem preparedness for adequate, holistic, and adapted treatment forthe survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.

Accumulating accounts of sexual violence
Accounts have been collected from several publicly available sources,
including media reports and social media networks, and throughinterviews we conducted with several professional sources. The evidencecollection process continues to be carried out by state and civil society
actors, including through the establishment of the Civil Archive for theDocumentation of Crimes Committed Against Women by Hamas.3

Victims
Physicians for Human Right-Israel (PHRI) was informed that the
Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel (ARCCI) received
information regarding cases in which women and girls were assaulted.
The information available in the archive was presented during a webinar hosted by
Harvard Medical School and others: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D7tb4zFKdk&ab_cha
nnel=MaimonidesSocietyHarvardMedicalSchoolandHSDM
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The information relates to incidents of violence that occurred acrossall arenas of the October 7 attacks, including the Nova music festival,
private homes in the Gaza Envelope, and an Israeli military base. Dueto privacy concerns, details of the violent acts were not made public.
Given the nature and consequences of sexual violence, the well-beingof survivors is prioritized over the collection and documentation ofevidence. As ARCCI Executive Director Orit Sulitzeanu noted, “We must
consider those who were harmed and ask, “What about their dignity
and privacy?” I want the public to know about the war crimes thatwere committed, but we must first ensure that these women are being
treated as humans.”4
Given that mere exposure to sexual violence is a traumatic event, those
who have witnessed sexual and gender-based violence may respond insimilar ways to those who were directly harmed. Some survivors of theOctober 7 massacre described accounts of sexual and gender-based
violence during interviews with various media outlets. A male survivor
who had been hiding in a bush described the following account: “Theterrorists, people from Gaza, raped girls. And after they raped them,
they killed them, murdered them with knives…They laughed. They
always laughed. It’s - I can’t forget how they laughed on the - in thissituation.”5 Rami Shmuel, an organizer of the Nova music festival,
detailed what he had encountered at the site, leaving no doubt as towhat some women had endured: “We found naked women, they were
stripped, and their legs were spread wide open.”6
A month after the attacks, an Israeli broadcaster reported that the
Lahav 433 police unit had collected hundreds of testimonies fromsurvivors - primarily residents of the Gaza Envelope - and that theseincluded dozens of accounts of sexual violence.7 Among them was
the testimony of a woman who detailed the group rape and murder ofa young woman by assailants dressed in military uniforms: “They bent
Bat El Kolman, Makor Rishon (print edition), 17.11.2023 [Hebrew].
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/survivors-of-hamas-assault-on-music-fest-describehorrors-and-how-they-made-it-out-alive6
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/11/16/sexual-violence-israeli-women-hamasattack-tapper-pkg-lead-vpx.cnn
7
https://kan.org.il/content/kan-news/defense/600882/?app=true4

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some woman over, I realized he was raping her and passing her on toanother man in uniform.” She later noted that one of the rapists shot
the woman in the head and then mutilated her body8. This testimony
was later cited as the only account of a rape to have been collected bypolice.9 As detailed later in this document, the term “sexual violence”
refers to various other acts in addition to rape (defined as forcible
sexual penetration by a genital organ or object.)Testimonies by emergency, medical,
and security personnel
Rescue teams, military forces, and emergency response personnel10
who participated in the evacuation of survivors and were present at sites
where victims’ bodies were found observed signs of severe violence. In
their assessment, these signs of violence indicated rape had occurred.
Itzik Batach, a ZAKA Search and Rescue volunteer, described witnessing
a couple undressed and bound together in a home in Kibbutz Be’eri.11
Simcha Greinman, another ZAKA volunteer, stated that the body of awoman he encountered three days after she was murdered had beenleft with her lower half exposed.12 A video testimony presented by theInternational Spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office included aparamedic in an elite Israeli military unit who was facing away fromthe camera as he described entering a home in a Gaza Envelope
community while the combat was still ongoing. The paramedic statedthat he had seen a girl lying on the floor of the house: “She was lying
on her stomach, half-naked, her legs spread open, and there wereremains of semen on her back. Someone executed her after brutally
raping her...”13

8
https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politics/2023-11-08/ty-article/0000018b-afa1-d3c1a39b-bfe10ae50000?utm_source=App_Share&utm_medium=Android_Native&utm_
campaign=Share9
https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politics/2023-11-19/ty-article-magazine/.premium/0000018be425-df9a-ab8b-feed647d0000?gift=52beb3a054d0482793b1dd081ec9cda1
10https://www.israelhayom.co.il/news/defense/article/14801490.
11
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/rescue-workers-recount-horrors-foundkibbutz-attacked-by-hamas-2023-10-17/
12https://www.timesofisrael.com/amid-war-and-urgent-need-to-id-bodies-evidence-ofhamass-october-7-rapes-slips-away
13
https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/bjnxpwufp

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Two testimonies from within the Shura military base - to which mostbodies and remains from the massacre were brought - similarly
described signs of sexual violence. The first is the testimony of Ma’ayan,
a female reserves officer and dentist who was assigned to the forensic
medical team. Ma’ayan stated that she observed many signs of abusein groins, broken legs and pelvises, blood-stained underwear, andwomen who were exposed from the waist down. Sarai, a member ofa special unit responsible for handling the bodies of female soldiers,
was also present at Shura as a reservist. Speaking to the camera, she
noted: “Yes, we saw women who were raped - from young children toelderly women, including penetration so forceful it broke their bones…
We saw amputated genitals.” While both these witnesses, like otheremergency and medical personnel who provided testimonies, are notprofessionally trained to determine whether rape had occurred, theaccounts they provided indicate the perpetration of sexual violence.14
A senior medical official with knowledge of the efforts being carried out at
Shura shared with us that incidents of broken pelvises and other physicalsigns indicating sexual violence had been documented.15 The official
also noted that he spoke with medical personnel at hospitals to whichsurvivors and bodies from the attacks had arrived, who told him they had
observed clear signs of sexual violence, including vaginal tears.

Visual testimonies
Videos spread online by Hamas, some of which were later removed,
provide evidence of abuse of women and girls. The videos showed theindividuals who were assaulted - some of whom were alive while being
filmed, some who had already died, and some who were in an unknown
state - being paraded through the streets of Gaza.16 These acts in andof themselves constitute sexual crimes, but in light of the various
testimonies, there is also serious concern that some of these womenhttps://www.timesofisrael.com/amid-war-and-urgent-need-to-id-bodies-evidence-ofhamass-october-7-rapes-slips-away/.
15
Stated during phone calls and text exchanges, November 2023.
16
https://www.memri.org/reports/special-announcement-%E2%80%93-hamas-atrocitiesdocumentation-center-hadc
14

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faced additional sexual abuse.17 While we were not provided with accessto the full video presented by Israeli authorities to diplomatic missions
and journalists around the world, a journalist who was allowed to seeit later described its content on X (formerly Twitter): “The bodies of two
females laid on the grounds of the music festival - both without pants.
The underwear of one of them was partially lowered. The other didn’t
seem to have underwear on. An eyewitness described seeing a woman
being raped by several Hamas militants who pulled her hair while
taking turns raping her. One of them cut off her breasts, and the otherplayed with them like they were toys. The last Hamas militant to rape
her proceeded to shoot her in the head… The witness also described amilitant carrying a naked woman on his shoulders.”18 According to thejournalist, police representatives present at the screening of the video
stated that they were still collecting evidence, including eyewitness
testimonies and DNA samples from rape victims.19

Additional information
In videos shared with the media by Israel’s Shin Bet security service,interrogated persons can be seen describing the orders they hadreceived to kill and kidnap civilians, as well as orders to “sully” women- meaning to defile them through sexual acts.20 It is important to notethat we have not relied on the accounts recorded in these videos due
to severe concern that the interrogations included the use of torture.

Based on these accounts and reports, in addition to accumulated
experience from armed conflicts in other regions and scientific
The videos and photos we viewed while working on this document include a video of ayoung woman being forced into a vehicle as blood covers the pelvic region of her pants; apartially undressed woman in a vehicle along with several armed men, a photo of a body withthe lower half exposed; a burned body bearing signs of sexual abuse; a photo of a woman
who was tortured and burned in her home.
18
https://x.com/mrconfino/status/1724385046583234841?t=r9L3a5S0cBrcfCiZDHuaaA&s=08:
The journalist is Jotam Confino, a freelance Middle East affairs correspondent who hasreported for BBC, CBS, Sky News, and others.
19
Ibid.
20
https://www.timesofisrael.com/kill-behead-rape-interrogated-hamas-members-detailatrocities-against-civilians/
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literature on the vulnerability of hostages, there is serious concern thatthe individuals being held captive in Gaza face an ongoing threat ofsexual violence. Prominent examples from other regions include womenof the Yazidi community,21 individuals detained at the US military prisonof Abu Ghraib,22 and other incidents cited by the UN Secretary-General
in a report on conflict-related sexual crimes against women, girls, andother victims of abduction and human trafficking.23

Sexual and gender-based violenceas crimes against humanity
Sexual and gender-based violence refers to acts of abuse committed
against a person’s will and rooted in a system of unequal gender norms
and dynamics.24 Gender violence includes physical, sexual, and mental
harm intended to humiliate, subordinate, threaten, and debilitate
victims. In the context of armed conflict, these acts of violence aresometimes utilized to humiliate not only the victims themselves but
to symbolically infringe upon the dignity of their entire communities,
societies, and nations.
Such wartime crimes have been known to occur for thousands of years.
While national prohibitions of these crimes have existed for nearly as
long, it was not until relatively recently that they gained international
resonance and recognition. In 1992, amid the widescale rape of womenin the former Yugoslavia, the topic of conflict-related sexual violence
was discussed for the first time at the United Nations Security Council.
On December 18, 1992, while acknowledging previous resolutions on
international crimes (resolutions no. 770 and 771), the council also
addressed the organized and systemic mass rape and confinement of
women (mostly of Muslim women in Bosnia and Herzegovina.)25
21
Kizilhan JI. PTSD of rape after IS («Islamic State») captivity. Arch Womens Ment Health.
2018 Oct;21(5):517-524. doi: 10.1007/s00737-018-0824-3. Epub 2018 Mar 10. PMID: 29525830.
22
Ryan Ashley Caldwell . Fallgirls: Genders and the Framing of Torture at Abu Ghraib.
23
https://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/report/conflictrelated-sexual-violence-report-of-the-united-nations-secretary-general/SG-Report2020editedsmall.pdf
24
WHO | Sexual and other forms of gender-based violence in crises, 2014-07-21‫‏‬
25
UN Security Council, Security Council resolution 798 (1992) [Bosnia and Herzegovina], 18
December 1992, S/RES/798 (1992), available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3b00f16163.html

8Later, the Statute of the (ad hoc) International Criminal Tribunal for theformer Yugoslavia enabled the prosecution of rape (as well as tortureand genocide) as a crime against humanity when committed against acivilian population within the context of armed conflict.2627 In 2002, theRome Statute of the International Criminal Court defined rape, sexual
slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization,
and any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity as crimes
against humanity (article 7) when committed as part of an attack that isboth widespread (beyond isolated incidents) and systematic (based on
written or oral plans.) In contrast to war crimes, crimes against humanity
are defined as directed against any civilian population, with knowledge ofthe attack, and not only as the consequence of military warfare.
Sadly, despite the various international prohibitions of conflict-related
sexual violence, it continues to be used as a means of warfare. The
atrocities committed by Hamas were intended to be utilized as a
psychological weapon. The objectification of both living and deceased
victims is a horrific and brazen violation of human dignity. At least two
testimonies described the mastectomy of women, while an additional
account described the dissection of a pregnant woman’s abdomen
and the stabbing of the fetus.28 Such acts brutally illustrate theobjectification inherent to gender-based violence.
Though we are unable to determine the dimensions of the harm
inflicted, the accounts and reports of sexual abuse committed during
the October 7 Hamas attacks, including those brought to our attention
and those made public, provide sufficient evidence to require an
investigation of crimes against humanity. As International Criminal
Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan similarly urged: “We cannot leave
a world for our children where burnings and executions and rapes andkillings can take place as if they are normal, as if they are to be tolerated
Outreach Programme on the Rwanda Genocide and the United Nations, Background Note,
Sexual Violence: a Tool of War, April 2013.
27
UNITED NATIONS, International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible
for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of theFormer Yugoslavia since 1991, Updated Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for theFormer Yugoslavia, September 2009.
28
ZAKA volunteer, Yossi Landau, interviewed on Kan Darom Radio [Hebrew]: https://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=bXo2zkU0SfQ, and the journalist›s account of the video testimony cited above.
26

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as if they can happen without consequence… And when these typesof acts take place, they cannot go uninvestigated and they cannot
go unpunished. Because these types of crimes that we’ve all been
watching, that we saw on the 7th of October, are serious violations, if
proven, of international humanitarian law.”29

Conclusion
The reports and testimonies mentioned in this document, some ofwhich remain confidential and some of which appeared in the media
and on social media networks, raise concerns that the October 7 Hamas
attacks included many incidents of sexual assault following repetitive
patterns. A professional inquiry is required to determine whether theseincidents were perpetrated as part of the overall attack orders andwhether they were systematic and premeditated. Some time will pass
before the survivors - both those in Israel and those still held hostagein Gaza - will be able to provide their testimonies, if ever.
Given that determining whether crimes against humanity have beencommitted is a matter of legal nature, it falls upon those making theseassertions to prove that the violence was perpetrated systematically.
There are clear objective and subjective challenges to collecting andpublishing the evidence to prove these claims. Yet, acknowledging
these cautions does not absolve us from providing comprehensive
support and recognition to the victims.
Social recognition is no less critical than legal recognition. Victimsof sexual violence often feel shame regarding the experiences they
endured. Paired with a struggle to process the traumatic event,
this shame can lead to silence and isolation. Conversely, the public
exposure of the accounts of sexual crimes committed by Hamas isperceived as a realization of universal primal fears - particularly thoseof girls and women who do not feel protected in any space. In responseto this distress, a natural defense mechanism is mobilized - casting
doubt: “Denial, repression, and dissociation operate on a social as well29

https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/syihf9rf6.
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as an individual level. Those who attempt to describe the atrocities
they witnessed also risk their credibility. To speak publicly about one’s
knowledge of atrocities is to invite the stigma that attaches to victims.”30
As a society, we must be able to identify and acknowledge the sexualand gender-based violence perpetrated on October 7, 2023. We must
break the cycle of silence sustaining the shame and foster adequate
space and conditions to support the healing of survivors. Adequate
funding must be provided to address the significant shortage of forensic
pathologists. Until enough professionals are trained, forensic personnel
must be supported by teams from abroad - both in times of emergency
and routine. In addition, financial resources must be granted to fundsupport services for survivors of torture and trauma-informed training
for medical, nursing, and paramedical care providers. Investigative
personnel must be systematically and routinely trained in proper
sample collecting, the maintenance of the chain of custody, and bestpractices for interviewing survivors and witnesses of sexual violence.
Finally, all relevant institutions must prepare to prevent and address an
expected rise in violence, particularly domestic violence.
To enable these conditions, we urge the following:
1.

State and civil society organizations must cooperate and exchange
information to provide adequate support services for survivors andtheir families - while bearing in mind that some survivors have losttheir entire families and social support networks. Sufficient financial
resources must be allocated to enable this work. Importantly, thismust be carried out by establishing trauma-informed care systems
equipped to provide survivors with holistic responses that go beyond
traditional mental health services (which must also be strengthened.)
A painful indication of the urgency for such preparedness became
evident with reports that at least ten survivors of the Nova music
festival were forcibly hospitalized due to their mental health condition- occurrences that may have been prevented if the appropriate care
had been promptly provided.31

Judith Lewis Harman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic
Abuse to Political Terror, Basic Books, 1992.
31
National commissioner for involuntary hospitalization speaking at the Knesset Health Committee,
November 14, 2023. See: https://www.mako.co.il/news-lifestyle/2023_q4/Article-322da3ddf49cb81026.htm
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2. Support services must be administered with an understandingthat the survivors are heterogeneous and include infants, children,
teens, the elderly, men, migrant workers, foreign nationals, andPalestinian citizens of Israel - all requiring different forms of
support.
3. The support services must also provide adequate attention to
the emergency personnel who arrived at the sites of the attacks,
the medical and health teams, and the rescue units who firstencountered the survivors and the bodies of the victims.
4. Women must be comprehensively included women while forming
the response services and carrying out decisions.
5. Survivors must be provided with access to tools and means for
obtaining justice and filing legal claims, with the understandingthat victims’ rights under international law include truth, justice,compensation, and preventing repetition of the acts.
6. Local and international bodies must investigate the testimonies andreports to determine whether the accounts they describe amount tocrimes against humanity.

Writing: Roni Ben Canaan and Hadas Ziv
Editing: Lital Grossman, Guy Shalev
Proofreading: Nili Alexandrovitz
Background research: Timor Tal
Cover photo: Oren Ziv

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