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Manila Bulletin devider World devider UN experts seek justice for Hamas 'sexual torture'

UN experts seek justice for Hamas 'sexual torture'

Published Jan 8, 2024 02:00 pm

GENEVA, Switzerland - Two United Nations rights experts called Monday for justice for a multitude of alleged crimes, including sexual torture, during Hamas's unprecedented attacks in Israel on October 7.
 

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This photograph taken from Rafah shows smoke billowing over Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on January 8, 2024 during Israeli bombardment, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the militant Hamas group. (Photo by AFP)


These may even amount to crimes against humanity, they said, pointing to individuals burnt alive and bodies found decapitated, mutilated or with trauma consistent with executions.

"The growing body of evidence about reported sexual violence is particularly harrowing," the UN special rapporteur on torture, Alice Jill Edwards, and the special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, Morris Tidball-Binz, said in a statement.

"These acts constitute gross violations of international law, amounting to war crimes which, given the number of victims and the extensive premeditation and planning of the attacks, may also qualify as crimes against humanity,".

The UN has been criticised over its slow reaction to alleged sexual violence during that attack, which triggered the war raging in Gaza, and resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Hamas, considered a "terrorist" group by the United States and European Union, also took around 250 hostages, 132 of whom remain captive, Israel says. At least 24 are believed to have been killed.

Israel has responded with relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip and a ground invasion that have killed more than 23,000 people, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Even before forensic examinations began, an abundance of images pointed to the gruesome nature of the October 7 raids.

Edwards and Tidball-Binz -- who are independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but who do not speak on behalf of the United Nations -- decried "allegations of sexual torture (including) rapes and gang rapes, sexual assaults, mutilations and gunshots to genital areas".

"Female bodies were found with their clothing pulled up to their waists, with underpants removed or torn or stained with blood," the experts said.

"Acknowledging and documenting the harm done, and the pursuit of justice, are vital steps towards peace."

The experts said they were "deeply conscious of the active conflict in Gaza and Israel and the severe humanitarian crisis", and urged all parties to agree to a ceasefire.

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