UN calls for an investigation into reports that Israeli women were raped by Hamas militants on October 7

• UN Women has called for an investigation into reports of violence against Israeli women on October 7.

• After the terrorist attacks, allegations of rape and gender-based violence were made.

• The head of UN Women called for peace and engagement with both Israeli and Palestinian women.

UN Women has called for a “strict investigation” into reports of gender-based violence by Hamas against Israeli women on October 7.

In the immediate aftermath of the Hamas massacre, reports of rape and sexual assault quickly emerged. In the weeks since, many more horrific incidents have come to the surface Statements from survivors and witnesses and from the Body camera footage carried by Hamas.

According to evidence collected by forensic teams, Israeli civilians were tortured, raped and ill-treated by Hamas militants. Rabbi Israel Weiss, a former army chief rabbi, echoed statements of the corpses showing signs of sexual abuse.

A Washington Post investigation into the use of rape as a weapon of war on October 7 found that a woman, whose identity was concealed in a video statement to Israeli police, witnessed a gang rape at the Nova Rave near Re’im as she did like she was dead.

Their report describes how a Hamas fighter violently raped a woman and then handed her over to a comrade who shot her in the head.

“He didn’t pick up his pants. He shot her while he was inside her.” the witness said, according to The Washington Post.

The head of the United Nations unit on gender equality and the empowerment of women also spoke about the conflict at UN headquarters this week.

UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous told delegates that “women and girls pay the highest price of conflict” during a Security Council meeting on “The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian issue”.

She said an estimated 67% of people killed in Gaza since October 7 were women and children. 67% of the more than 14,000 killed would correspond to more than 9,000 women and children killed.

“That means two mothers are killed every hour and seven women are killed every two hours. We mourn them all,” she said.

Expressing alarm at reports of gender-based violence, Bahous said: “Any act of violence against women and girls, including sexual violence, is unequivocally condemned and must be fully investigated as a top priority.”

She told the Council that UN Women met with Israeli women and heard from them about their work documenting gender-based atrocities, and called for peace and engagement with both Israeli and Palestinian women.

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