An American official estimated that the renewal of the truce in Gaza failed because the Islamist movement would have opposed the release of female hostages, so that they would not testify to the abuse suffered.
An American official estimated that the renewal of the truce in Gaza failed in part because Hamas wanted to silence the women held hostage, possibly victims of sexual violence. “It seems that one of the reasons why they don’t want to release women that they’re holding hostage and why this break has been shattered is because they don’t want these women to tell what they are told. arrived during their detention”, declared Monday, December 4 to the press Matthew Miller, spokesperson for the State Department.
The American spokesperson refused to provide further details, emphasizing the sensitive nature of the issue, but declared that the United States had not “no reason to doubt” information on sexual violence attributed to Hamas. “There is very little that I think Hamas is not capable of when it comes to the treatment of civilians and particularly the treatment of women,” he added.
Israel had stopped its offensive in Gaza as part of an agreement negotiated under the aegis of Qatar and the United States providing for the release of hostages kidnapped by Hamas during its bloody attack on Israeli soil on October 7. Priority was given to minors, mothers and elderly women who were to be freed.
Israeli authorities said Friday they were resuming their military offensive because the terrorist organization had not released all the female hostages. Thursday morning, 19 civilians including a minor as well as five military women were still held captive in Gaza. A majority of them are under 30 years old.
Israeli police are also investigating possible sexual violence committed on October 7 by Hamas members, including gang rapes and mutilations of corpses. Israeli investigators have so far collected “more than 1,500 shocking testimonies”, said a policewoman last week in the Israeli Parliament. She mentioned “girls undressed above and below the waist” and detailed testimony of the gang rape, mutilation and murder of a young woman.
The majority of victims “will never be able to testify”
She cited another witness reporting gunshot wounds to the ‘genitals, in the abdomen, legs and buttocks […]cut breasts or bearing gunshot wounds”, while rescuers reported the body of a woman “bleeding from the genital areas.” But “the vast majority of victims of the rapes and other sexual assaults of October 7 were murdered and will never be able to testify,” specified in November Cochav Elkayam Levy, president of the parliamentary commission on crimes committed against women on October 7.
Hamas has “rejected” these accusations, calling them “lies”. Lhe UN Women organization – the United Nations entity for gender equality – has claimed to be “aware of the concerns” in Israel and having met with Israeli women’s organizations to “listen to their horrific stories of what happened on October 7” and the “help as much as possible to expose gender-based atrocities, including sexual violence”.
Since the adoption of Resolution 1820 on June 19, 2008 by the UN Security Council, rape is a war crime against humanity and a crime constituting the crime of genocide.