52°F
weather icon Clear

New York Times reveals gruesome details of sexual violence during Oct. 7

Updated December 29, 2023 - 10:51 am

Everywhere Hamas terrorists struck on Oct. 7 — at the rave near Kibbuz Re’im, at the military bases along the Gaza border, and kibbutz after kibbutz — they brutalized women, the New York Times reported, citing Israeli officials.

An extensive, two-month New York Times investigation determined these assaults on women were not random, isolated incidents but rather part of a greater pattern of Hamas-perpetrated gender-based violence.

For months, Israeli activists strongly condemned U.N. Secretary General António Guterres along with the U.N. Women agency for failing to promptly acknowledge initial allegations of abuse until weeks post-attack.

“I say to the women’s rights organizations, to the human rights organizations, you’ve heard of the rape of Israeli women, horrible atrocities, sexual mutilation — where the hell are you?” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a news conference earlier this month, switching to English to emphasize the point.

President Joe Biden has called the reports of sexual violence “appalling” and has urged the world to condemn “horrific accounts of unimaginable cruelty.”

New York Times journalists pinpointed no less than seven sites where available evidence suggests Israeli women and girls endured sexual violation or mutilation.

A man hiding in a pit during the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on an outdoor music festival in Israel said he heard someone nearby screaming she was being raped.

Elsewhere in the area, a combat paramedic saw the body of a young woman with her legs open, her pants pulled down, and what looked like semen on her lower back.

An army reservist who was tasked with identifying those killed by the terrorists said some of the women were found wearing only bloodied underwear.

Such accounts given to The Associated Press, along with assessments by an Israeli rights group, show that sexual assault was part of the atrocities-filled rampage by Hamas and other Gaza terrorists who killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took more than 240 hostages that day.

Israel Hayom recently interviewed the women working to collect testimony and preserve evidence of the horrific sexual violence from that day.

One deeply distressing photo captured a female corpse defiled by dozens of nails pierced through her thighs and genital region.

Israeli military footage displayed two deceased female IDF soldiers who underwent apparent fatal gunshots directly to their vaginas.

A witness informed colleagues that one Hamas fighter raped an Israeli woman while another severed the victim’s breast.

The group Physicians for Human Rights Israel published an initial assessment in November.

“What we know for sure is that it was more than just one case and it was widespread, in that this happened in more than one location and more than a handful of times,” said Hadas Ziv, policy and ethics director for the organization.

MOST READ
Exco Sidebar
Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.
MORE STORIES
THE LATEST
Mediators tout a Gaza ceasefire deal, plan to free hostages

While Qatar’s prime minister said the deal would go into effect on Sunday, Israel said final details still need ironing out.

Teams of local firefighters continue to help battle LA wildfires

Two teams of firefighters from the Las Vegas Valley continued their efforts in Southern California, where they were providing support to fire personnel and residents impacted by the devastating blazes.

Southern California winds ease, but expected to intensify overnight

With winds not reaching dangerous levels Tuesday evening, the National Weather Service pushed back its dire warning of critical fire weather until 3 a.m. Wednesday.

 
Key takeaways from Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, publicly faced senators for the first time after weeks of questions from Democrats — and praise from Republicans — about his “unconventional” resume.

$2B Powerball jackpot winner loses home in LA County wildfire

The man who won the largest ever Powerball jackpot and used some of his winnings to buy homes in exclusive Los Angeles County neighborhoods has lost at least one of those properties to the wildfires.

Trump would’ve been convicted for Jan. 6 ‘unprecedented criminal effort,’ report says

The report is unsparing in its details about schemes undertaken by Trump to undo the presidential contest, accusing him of an “unprecedented criminal effort to overturn the legitimate results of the election in order to retain power.”

Lawsuit claims utility lines sparked Eaton Fire

Authorities still haven’t determined an official cause for any of the fires, which began last Tuesday amid hurricane-force winds and have killed at least 24 people in and around Los Angeles.