A team of Israeli team of experts in law and gender have called on the United Nations to hold Hamas accountable for systematic use of sexual violence during attacks on Israeli communities near Gaza on 7 October, 2023, and in the course of holding some 251 Israelis and foreigners hostage over subsequent months. 

Speaking at a briefing with Geneva’s UN press corps on Wednesday, leading figures with The Dinah Project said the UN should outlaw, or blacklist, Hamas for using sexual violence, “as a tactical weapon of war” – while international courts should prosecute Hamas figures said to have led or carried out the violence.

“The hope is to… set the historical record straight and to have it affirmed by as many organizations as possible, and building upon this, continue also on the international political level, said Ruth Halperin-Kaddari,” a noted Israeli legal scholar and women’s rights advocate. She added. “We are hoping that the Secretary General will indeed follow on and blacklist Hamas.”  

A new report by the project, released Tuesday, cites at least 15 separate cases of sexual assault, including at least four instances of gang rape and other cases of genital mutilation, followed by the killing of the victims after their assault, during the 7 October attacks by Hamas gunmen, said Halperin-Kaddari, a lead author of the report. Nearly 1200 people died in the early morning Hamas assault on Israeli communities near the border with the Gaza Strip and young festival goers at the Nova music festival. 

Over a dozen former Israeli hostages have also testified that they either experienced first hand, or witnessed, various forms of sexual assault – including sexual violence, forced nudity, verbal sexual harassment and threats of forced marriage, the report found. 

The highly technical report by the team of Israeli legal experts also calls for a broader set of evidentiary  principles to govern the prosecution of sexual violence during conflicts more generally – saying that the direct testimony of wartime sexual violence victims is often impossible to collect – as many of them are subsequently killed.  

“Most victims were permanently silenced — either murdered during or after the assaults or remain too traumatized to talk — creating unique evidentiary challenges,” the report stated. 

So cases need to rely not only upon the victims’ own testimony, but the evidence of witnesses and forensic evidence. And when a pattern of systematic violence is identified, not only individual perpetrators, but the leadership of an armed group should also be held to account.    

“If we use the regular criminal law paradigm, the result is impunity.  You cannot actually point to a specific attacker, who attacked a specific victim,” said Nava Ben-Or, a retired Israeli judge, at the briefing.  “We need to a mass atrocity [section of] criminal law, which will enable the justice system to bring these perpetrators to justice.”

The report by the independent NGO was supported by the UK government as well as a variety of Israeli-and Jewish-affiliated foundations.

Report builds upon UN fact-finding mission

The project builds upon a report by a UN fact-finding mission last year, following a 17-day visit by Pramilla Patten, UN Special Representative of the Secretary General on Sexual Violence and Conflict, to Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Her report found “reasonable grounds” to believe that multiple incidents of sexual violence occured during the 7 October Hamas onslaught.  There was also “clear and convincing” that hostages held by Hamas in Gaza were subjected to sexual violence, Patten said in a subsequent press release. 

Since Patten’s report, more Israeli hostages have been released from Gaza including some who relayed new evidence about sexual violence that they experienced directly, or witnessed, including some men as well as women, the Dinah Project’s authors note.   

Hamas did not comment immediately on the report.  

However, through the course of the grueling 21 month war, there have also been UN and Israeli media reports of sexualized forms of violence perpetuated by Israel against Palestinian detainees, particularly in Israel’s notorious Sde Teiman prison.

And earlier this year, a report by a UN Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, asserted that gender-based and sexual violence, including forced public stripping and nudity, sexual harassment.. and sexual assault” were “standard operating procedure” of Israeli Security Forces toward Palestinians – allegations that Israel “categorically” rejected. 

Calls for a new standard for prosecuting sexual violence in the context of conflicts

“I do not have any credence to opine what I think about, what my government is doing or not doing in Gaza,” said Halperin-Kaddari, in response to a reporter’s query about the broader charges that have since been levied against Israel for genocidal actions in Gaza since 7 October – including constant military attacks within civilian “safe zones” and restrictions on the entry of food, medicines and other humanitarian aid, as well as fuel and water.

“We are not the government… This report is an independent work of academia, experts. …  There were victims and they were not recognized. And Hamas is still viewed by too many organizations, too many countries, too many entities, including human rights entities…as part of the international human rights community, and hearing their silence….I take it as a total failure of the international human rights system,” Halperin-Kaddari added. “We demand that they come to terms with the realization that Hamas are deplorable as using the worst kind of crime against humanity of sexual violence in war.”

The Dinah Project leaders said that they also want to convey a universal message condemning sexual and gender-based violence in conflict settings. 

“We established the Dinah Project to take action, not only regarding October 7 victims, but also around the world,” said Sharon Zagagi Pinhas, a former chief military prosecutor, at the briefing.

 “And we aim to influence protocols and procedures around the world in different arenas, and the problems that and the challenges that we identified on October 7 are the same challenges that we identify in other places around the world. 

“It’s not just an Israeli initiative. It’s an initiative that is intended to continue and also to seek ways to help also victims, but also systems and organizations in finding ways to achieve accountability in cases of conflict related sexual violence around the world.

Added Halperin Kaddari, “We have already started… to establish working relationships and contacts with other sister organizations, whether it is Yazidi women or women in Ukraine. There is already an umbrella chain of organizations that work on the same field, which we are part of, and we will certainly develop this outreach to other areas.

“But we focus on the legal framework and on the legal theory. … And unfortunately, there is a universal need, and our message is indeed universal.” 

Image Credits: X/via Israel Ha Yom, UN News .