Hamas fighters raped dead women, UN report claims

HAMAS attackers raped women’s corpses, a UN report has found, citing “clear and convincing” evidence to support multiple accounts of sexual violence.

Pramila Patten, the UN special envoy on sexual violence and women, said there were “reasonable grounds” to believe Hamas committed “sexualised torture” when they carried out their attack on Israel on Oct 7.

Sexual violence against Israeli hostages being held in Gaza may also be ongoing, the report found.

Experts said they had found evidence of attacks including rape and gang rape at the Nova music festival site, the road to leave it and kibbutz Re’im, near the Gaza border.

“In most incidents, victims first subjected to rape were then killed, and at least two incidents relate to the rape of women’s corpses,” the report said.

The report also highlighted allegations of sexual violence against Palestinian females implicating Israeli security forces and settlers in the West Bank.

The UN team has asked the Israeli government to allow other UN bodies to conduct thorough independent investigations into the allegations.

It comes after the UN faced criticism for being slow to respond to reports of sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas.

Ahead of the report’s release, Israel Katz, Israel’s foreign minister, criticised the UN’S secretary general Antonio Guterres for not convening the security council to discuss the findings.

Mr Katz announced he had recalled Gilad Erdan, the country’s UN ambassador, to discuss alleged attempts “to keep quiet the serious UN report on the mass rapes committed by Hamas and its helpers on Oct 7”.