Israeli police probe ‘mutilation and rape by terror attackers’

IsraelI police are investigating ‘ multiple cases’ of rape and sexual violence against women by Hamas during the October 7 massacre, they said yesterday.

since the attack, which left more than 1,200 people dead, officers have been gathering evidence from witnesses, surveillance footage and the interrogation of arrested terrorists.

‘We have no living victims who said “we have been raped”,’ said David Katz, head of the lahav 443 criminal investigation unit, but he added that ‘we have multiple witnesses for several cases’.

although he did not give a precise figure for the number of cases under investigation, he said the inquiry could take ‘six to eight months’.

at a harrowing news conference, police showed reporters a chilling clip of video testimony from a survivor of the attack on the supernova music festival who described seeing a woman gang-raped, mutilated then shot. In the footage, the

‘Severed heads held as trophies’

witness, identified only as ‘s’, and who played dead herself to avoid the same fate, said she witnessed women being ‘taken to a specific place by armed men in military uniforms’.

‘I understood they raped them,’ she said, also describing how she saw another woman raped and mutilated by armed men, with one shooting her in the head. she claimed she saw terrorists holding severed heads of victims as trophies.

‘They were holding heads by the hair as if it was a sign of strength,’ she said. ‘They were holding them as if they were holding a bag.’

Mr Katz also outlined details of other evidence collected by police, including from the ZaKa organisation that recovers human remains in accordance with Jewish religious law to afford them a proper burial.

‘We have several statements from ZaKa people who saw the bodies of women without pants or underwear,’ he said. ‘We took more than 1,000 statements and some of the victims cannot speak due to being in psychological and medical treatment.’

around 15 young people, mostly from the supernova festival have been admitted to hospitals as a result of the psychological trauma of the ordeal.

Hamas fanatics stormed across the border into southern Israel on October 7 killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians and taking around 239 hostages. Israel has hit back with a huge bombardment of Gaza and a ground operation, which the Hamas-run health ministry says has killed more than 11,200 people, two thirds of them women and children.

Israel yesterday confirmed the death of woman soldier Noa Marciano who was ‘abducted by a terror organisation’.

Hamas earlier said she had been killed in an Israeli bombardment. Family members of the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza were last night staging a protest march on the 40-mile route from Tel aviv to Jerusalem, set to end outside the residence of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

They were walking under the slogan ‘We will bring them back’ with a rest stop expected last night in Be’er Yaakov.