Reem Alsalem’s remarks contradict 2024 UN report which found ‘reasonable grounds’ to believe sexual violence took place in Hamas-led attacks, and even more against hostages in Gaza
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, falsely said Friday that there was no independent probe finding evidence of rape during the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.
“No independent investigation found that rape took place on the 7th of October,” Alsalem wrote on X.
She was responding to a thread on her original tweet, in which she wrote: “For those who naively believe that Israeli perpetrators of sexual violence against Palestinians will ever be investigated and prosecuted, think again,” referring to the alleged abuse of a Palestinian detainee at the Israel Defense Forces’ Sde Teiman detention facility in southern Israel in 2024, in which five soldiers have been indicted.
However, a series of investigations have found evidence that Palestinian attackers raped Israelis during the invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, and while they were being held hostage in Gaza, including a report last year by Pramila Patten, the UN’s special representative of the secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict.
Patten presented the 24-page report at the UN in March 2024, based on more than two weeks of meetings on the ground.
The report stated that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that Hamas committed rape and sexual abuse during its murderous rampage on October 7, and that there was an even higher standard of evidence to indicate that hostages kidnapped by Hamas that day were raped and sexually assaulted in captivity.
“We saw a catalog of the most extreme and inhumane forms of torture and other horrors,” Patten said at the time, including that there are reasonable grounds to believe that “rape and gang rape” occurred during the October 7 attacks in at least three locations: the Supernova music festival site, Kibbutz Re’im, and along the nearby Route 232.
Patten said that she met with representatives of 33 Israeli institutions as well as 34 individuals, including survivors and witnesses, released hostages, first responders, and others. She noted that she did not meet with any survivor of sexual violence, saying that she was told the small number of living survivors are undergoing “specialized trauma treatment” and are unable to discuss their experiences.
outside of United Nations headquarters in New York City, on December 4, 2023. (Yakov Binyamin/Flash90)
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, falsely said Friday that there was no independent probe finding evidence of rape during the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.
“No independent investigation found that rape took place on the 7th of October,” Alsalem wrote on X.
She was responding to a thread on her original tweet, in which she wrote: “For those who naively believe that Israeli perpetrators of sexual violence against Palestinians will ever be investigated and prosecuted, think again,” referring to the alleged abuse of a Palestinian detainee at the Israel Defense Forces’ Sde Teiman detention facility in southern Israel in 2024, in which five soldiers have been indicted.Promoted: Ketubah.comKeep Watching
However, a series of investigations have found evidence that Palestinian attackers raped Israelis during the invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, and while they were being held hostage in Gaza, including a report last year by Pramila Patten, the UN’s special representative of the secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict.
Patten presented the 24-page report at the UN in March 2024, based on more than two weeks of meetings on the ground.
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The report stated that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that Hamas committed rape and sexual abuse during its murderous rampage on October 7, and that there was an even higher standard of evidence to indicate that hostages kidnapped by Hamas that day were raped and sexually assaulted in captivity.
“We saw a catalog of the most extreme and inhumane forms of torture and other horrors,” Patten said at the time, including that there are reasonable grounds to believe that “rape and gang rape” occurred during the October 7 attacks in at least three locations: the Supernova music festival site, Kibbutz Re’im, and along the nearby Route 232.
Patten said that she met with representatives of 33 Israeli institutions as well as 34 individuals, including survivors and witnesses, released hostages, first responders, and others. She noted that she did not meet with any survivor of sexual violence, saying that she was told the small number of living survivors are undergoing “specialized trauma treatment” and are unable to discuss their experiences.
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A January report said that the UN team had “verified” that rape took place, as well as “reasonable grounds to believe that multiple incidents of sexual violence took place with victims being subjected to rape and/or gang rape and then killed or killed while being raped.”
The UN team said a “fully-fledged investigation” would be required to establish the overall magnitude, scope, and specific attribution for the sexual violence. Over a year and a half later, no investigation has been initiated.
There have been accounts of the rapes of a number of women and at least one man during the October 7 attack.
Israeli authorities have also released video confessions by perpetrators.
A number of former hostages have recounted sexual abuse that they suffered at the hands of their captors in Gaza, in addition to other physical and mental torture, most recently Rom Braslavski, who was released from captivity on October 13, along with the other 19 living hostages, as part of the US-brokered agreement to end the war in Gaza.
Israel has accused the UN of playing down its own report and dragging its feet on looking into the allegations, while trying to silence the accusations — something the international body has denied.
The United Nations has long faced Israeli criticism for reacting too slowly to the rape and sexual violence carried out by Palestinian terrorists during the Hamas-led atrocities that sparked the Gaza war, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken captive.
Following the attacks, it took about eight weeks for UN Women, a women’s rights group under the tutelage of the UN, to post, and shortly thereafter delete, a condemnation of the October 7 onslaught itself.
Another week would go by before the agency registered the existence of “disturbing reports of gender-based and sexual violence on October 7.”
However, Haaretz reported in January that Israel was blocking the United Nations from launching an investigation into Hamas’s sexual violence during its October 7 onslaught because doing so would also require allowing the UN to probe alleged sex crimes committed against Palestinians in Israeli detention.
BY: The Times Union
