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In the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, sexual violence has left deep scars on both sides. Recent reports and a UN expert Firstpost spoke to highlighted harrowing accounts of women and men subjected to rape, sexual humiliation, and torture read more
 "How Israel and Hamas top brass ‘authorised’ use of rape, sexual violence")
Rape and sexual violence appear to be authorised or condoned by Hamas and Israel top brass. AI-generated image via DALL-E
To them, she was just one of the many women they needed to hurt.
What was her name? Did she have a family waiting home? It is unlikely that they cared. She was a body – one from the enemy group – and nothing more.
They restricted her movement. Got rid of her clothes. And then, they raped her.
The story is the same, but the victims are two different women. One of them an Israeli; the other, a Palestinian.
The Israeli woman was violated on October 7, 2023 on Road 232, close to the Nova Music Festival site.
Her rapists have been referred to as “armed elements” in a mission report by the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (OSRSG-SVC).
The Palestinian woman was reportedly raped while in detention by Israeli army personnel. Based on a press release by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, she was likely violated sometime between October 7, 2023 and February 19, 2024.
We do not know whether these two women are alive.
A grim pattern emerges
What we do know, however, is that their stories are not isolated ones.
These acts fit into a broader pattern. It’s a feature of every conflict. From the Rwandan Genocide to the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and beyond– this is use of rape (and sexual violence) as a tool of war.
“It is a feature of all conflicts, this kind of conduct. This is why we look to international law. We look to states to comply with international law. We look to military leaders, political leaders to prevent this kind of conduct,” Navi Pillay, a South African jurist who is the Chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, exclusively told Firstpost.
During the October 7 attack, and afterwards, multiple cases of rape, gang rape, sodomy, and sexualised humiliation and torture by both Hamas and Israeli security forces have emerged.
Systemic violations by Hamas
Consider actions by Hamas, first.
On the day Hamas and other Palestinian groups attacked Israel and took hostages, murdered people, mostly women, were found shot in their heads with their hands tied behind their backs. Some of these individuals were totally naked, while others were unclothed from their waist down.
It’s circumstantial, but this pattern of undressing people prima facie appears to be evidence of sexual violence.
Bodies in this condition were found at multiple locations. That points to a systematic use of sexual violence by Hamas militants collectively.
Then there are the accounts of released hostages. These provided the OSRSG-SVC “clear and convincing information” that sexual violence, including rape and sexualised torture, occurred against some women and children while they were held captive. In fact, UN experts said there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that this violence may still be happening.
“We saw one video where this woman was being forced from Israel into Gaza by these armed Palestinians and other civilians with them. So we saw some graphic footage like that and that gives you an idea that they are being subject to violence and ill treatment and huge indignities,” Navi Pillay pointed out.
Evidence, when it comes to Hamas, is limited. Their assault lasted just one day on October 7. And the hostages are being held in underground tunnels, where satellites cannot locate them and footage or videos can not be taken.
Israeli forces and sexual violence towards Palestinians
Israel’s actions, on the other hand, are much better documented.
There was a great deal more footage, testimonies, and reports of the treatment of Palestinian detainees by Israeli soldiers.
Earlier this year, UN experts including Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, had pointed towards reports that “Palestinian women and girls in detention have also been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers. At least two female Palestinian detainees were reportedly raped while others were reportedly threatened with rape and sexual violence.”
The Israeli army also took photos of female detainees in degrading situations. These pictures were reportedly uploaded online.
One Gazan man recounted his experience during evacuations. It was winter of 2023– early in November– when he, his family, and other displaced persons were travelling via Salah al-Din Street.
“They [Israeli soldiers] ordered all of us, men and women, to take off our clothes and to continue walking, ordering us to only look forward. I was walking naked between the tanks, not even wearing underwear. An Israeli soldier spit in my face,” he told the UN-backed Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.
Another witness spoke about the sexual abuse on Salah al-Din Street. He said Israeli security forces ordered women to take off their clothes: No veil to cover their hair, and nothing but their underwear on their body.
The witness said that while they were stripped, several women faced sexual harassment by the soldiers. A girl about the age of 17 or 18 was among the victims.
Beyond the body: Impact on psyche
The sexual abuse is not only directed towards the body. It aims to psychologically break the person, too.
“With regards to [Israeli security forces] orders to remove veils, the women’s choice is between shame and abuse, possibly death. Being forced to remove your veil has a deep psychological impact on women,” a person working with an organisation providing psychosocial support to women in the Gaza Strip told the Commission, which is chaired by Navi Pillay.
Massive scale of these acts against of women in detention, during evacuation, and in women’s centres also point to a systemic use of sexual violence as a tactic of war.
“From everything I’ve read and seen, women activists clearly see this as a deliberate use of rape and sexual violence against women as part of the weapons of war. It’s an attack on the enemy,” Navi Pillay said, referring to sexual violence against women on either side.
But, it isn’t women alone.
The sexual violence towards men is a notable feature of Israeli security forces’ onslaught in Gaza.
“We just look at the facts and when we look at the level of the crimes, it’s true that women were mostly violated by Hamas and it’s men and boys who are violated by Israeli soldiers and law enforcement on this side,” the South African jurist noted.
The intent of targeting men was to “feminise”, and shame them. It was to make them feel like they were not “man enough”.
One Palestinian victim detailed his humiliation during evacuation of an area in Beit Lahia. Two months into the war, early in December 2023, he was in his home. Soldiers entered the area and ordered people to evacuate.
At the same time, men and boys were forced to undress in front of family members. They were ordered to kneel. The victim’s wife and children saw his forced undressing before they left.
He and about 50 other men were made to walk till the end of the street: barefoot, and only in their undergarments. They were forced to kneel with about 250 other males– each of them in only their underwear. Digital evidence corroborated this information.
The victim went on to say that a female Israeli soldier had also ordered two teenage boys who had been stripped to their underwear to dance. She recorded them. And she laughed.
“Women are certainly seen as the property of the enemy, and in this case, Palestinian men and boys also seen as property. They [Israeli forces] could do what they liked with them [Palestinian males] and that’s why the humiliation, the stripping, parading them naked,” Navi Pillay told this correspondent.
Again, this isn’t a one-off violation. The Commission documented at least nine incidents where hundreds of Palestinian men were recorded by Israeli soldiers in humiliating and degrading situations.
There are pictures of undressed Palestinian men. Some were tied to a chair, others knelt on the ground, while still others were seen lying blindfolded and tied. There is photographic evidence of physical abuse, too.
Most of the footage was first published in Israeli Telegram groups, and later disseminated on X (formerly Twitter).
That is not all. There is solid proof that this, too, was systematic.
Daniel Hagari, the official spokesperson of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said that the circulated photos did not originate from the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.
Yet, the Commission revealed most videos were taken by Israeli soldiers. Their analysis was based on the proximity of the images to the soldiers, the captions of the footage, and the camouflage uniform of the cameraman appearing in some of the frames.
Regarding the sexual violence, Navi Pillay told Firstpost, “Clearly they see them as enemies. As people they’ve captured– as trophies of war. And because this has happened so often historically in all wars, international law has tightened up and has very strict rules against this kind of conduct.”
The evidence– limited, but overwhelming
The evidence is limited. Hamas is not easily traceable. Israel has not allowed the Commission to enter the country and has blocked access to victims. The atrocities and sexual violence unleashed by both sides may well be a lot more intense.
Still, in a way, the evidence is overwhelming.
It clearly shows: Israel has been carrying out sexualised torture and humiliation; Hamas has treated women’s bodies as trophies of conquering the enemy. Sexual violence on both sides is not the result of individual desires. It is entrenched. It is systemic. And it is systematic.
There are now two things to address: the intention and the support powering heinous sexual violence.
The intention, reports show, is revenge. Revenge through punishment and humiliation.
In the aftermath of the October 7 attack, there has been a massive increase in the range, frequency and severity of sexual and gender-based violence by Israeli security forces against Palestinians. Investigations have suggested that the increase is linked to an intention to punish and humiliate Palestinians in retaliation for the attacks.
Historically, as also in contemporary times, women’s bodies and sexuality are believed to be linked with the nation’s honour and dignity. Women are seen as property of the men, and a “true man” is one who can protect his possessions.
And so, violating the woman would mean violating the nation. Raping a woman would mean emasculating the man.
At the same time, sexually humiliating the man and “feminising” him via sodomy is an even greater affront to his “manhood”, his masculinity. He is not only incapable of protecting his possession, but also has no control over his own body.
The same lens may be applied to Hamas. The rapes and gang rapes of women are revenge towards the perceived coloniser who has hurt their land, and “their” women.
And what of the institutional support for these practices?
Did Israel, Hamas top brass authorise sexual violence?
Navi Pillay has a clear answer. Her Commission’s report suggests these acts may be condoned or even authorised.
She says, “We did identify that.”
The former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights goes on to say that those above the perpetrators, in this case Hamas or the Israeli security military heads, are aware of the sexual violence.
She explains that sometimes, the culprits send the videos up to their bosses saying– “Look, I’ve done this in revenge for what has been done to us.”
“We have identified that those in authority have tacitly consented to this or authorised it, because international law requires those in authority to prevent and/or punish the perpetrators. And none of these people have so far investigated or punished any of their soldiers or their their activists who carried out sexual violence. So that’s why we say it’s condoned or authorised as to why they would do that, as I said.”
And therein lies the suffering of the Israeli woman, and the Palestinian woman, with whose tales we began this story.
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English (US) ·