united nations
CNN
—
Pramila Patten, the UN special envoy on sexual violence in conflict, told reporters on Monday that the UN team had found “clear and convincing” information that hostages in Gaza were being sexually abused. Told. She added that she had “reasonable grounds” to believe sexual violence was ongoing.
Patten said the team also found “reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence, including rape and gang rape,” occurred during the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel. This is the world organization's most definitive finding on sexual violence. Suspicions after the attack.
According to reports on the 24th, the United Nations team led by Patten will be on duty from January 29th to February 2019 on October 7th and thereafter for a mission “aimed at collecting, analyzing and verifying information on conflict-related sexual violence.” He visited Israel until the 14th. Page report.
The team also traveled to Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. There, officials alleged “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment…including increased use of various forms of sexual violence, including acts such as invasive body searches.” Threat of rape. A UN report describes prolonged forced stripping of Palestinians in detention.
Patten stressed on Monday that the mission was “not intended or mandated to be investigative in nature,” and that the team had 33 meetings with Israeli agencies during its stay in Israel, and on Oct. 7. It added that 34 people, including survivors and witnesses of the attack, had been interviewed and subsequently released. Testimonies from the hostages were also obtained, and 50 hours of footage of the attack was reviewed.
“Despite our efforts, investigators were unable to meet with any victims of sexual violence on October 7,” Patten said. “On the first day, I appealed to survivors to come forward. However, we received information that a small number of them were receiving very specialized trauma treatment and were not ready to come forward.” she said.
Hamas has previously denied that its militants committed rape during the October 7 attack.
“We strongly reject that some Western media outlets are aligned with a Zionist misleading campaign that promotes baseless lies and claims aimed at demonizing the Palestinian resistance. , its latest claim is that resistance forces have committed “sexual violence” in the Palestinian fight. “The Al-Aqsa flood occurred on October 7,” Hamas' political office said in a statement on Telegram in December.
Findings in Israel and the West Bank
According to the report, investigators recovered “several bodies, naked or semi-naked from the waist down, with their hands bound and shot multiple times, often in the head,” in various locations in Israel; Most were women.”
Although circumstantial, the report continued, “This pattern of undressing and restraining victims may be indicative of some type of sexual violence.''
Patten said serious violations, most of them related to rape, were found in at least three locations: in and around the Nova Music Festival venue, on Road 232, and at Kibbutz Rem.
However, Patten said the mission had challenges “both in collecting and verifying sexual assault cases.”
She highlighted “limited professionally collected forensic material” at the crime scene and “inaccurate and unreliable forensic interpretations by some non-experts.”
The UN team's study also found that “internal displacement of affected communities and a lack of public trust and confidence in national and international institutions, including the United Nations, have resulted in limited access to victims, survivors and witnesses of sexual violence. It was also constrained by the fact that it was extremely limited. she said.
She said some of the widely publicized incidents were also deemed “unfounded” by the mission. These included unverified claims of horrific attacks on pregnant women and their unborn children. Officials with an Israeli search and rescue organization told CNN in October that they had found a pregnant woman who had been shot in the back and stabbed in the abdomen.
The report also stated that investigators could not confirm any reported incidents of rape and genital mutilation at the Nahal Oz military base. “Regarding the latter case, forensic analysis investigated injuries to intimate parts of the body, but no discernible pattern could be identified for either female or male soldiers. However, seven of female soldiers were abducted from this base to Gaza,” the report reads.
While in the West Bank, the mission said it was informed of the “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” that Palestinian women and men faced in detention.
The mission was told that Palestinian detainees “face various forms of sexual violence, including unwanted touching in intimate areas and forced exposure of women wearing hijabs.” Beatings involving the genital area. Threats of rape against women and, in the case of men, threats of rape against women's family members (wives, sisters, daughters). ”
The report said it also raised concerns about the circulation of photos of female detainees and “deprivation of menstrual products from women.”
CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
