Israeli investigators probing the aftermath of the violent Oct. 7 attacks have found evidence that men and women suffered sexual violence and rape at the hands of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, according to an activist group investigation..

Yael Sherer, spokeswoman for the Israeli defense group Survivors of Sexual Violence, reported that there was physical evidence as well as eyewitness accounts of sexual violence perpetrated against both sexes amid the attacks.

“There was sexual violence and rape in the communities that were attacked in southern Israel… we have few survivors – not many – of both sexes. It didn’t just happen to women, it happened to men too,” she told BBC Radio 4.

“Many of the bodies of people murdered that day had been mutilated while the evidence shows that the terrorists made sure to embarrass these people and dishonor them,” she added.

The results of her research group of activists come as Israeli police conduct the country’s largest-ever investigation into sexual violence and crimes against women.

Research lead Shelly Harush said: “It is clear now that sexual crimes were part of the design and the purpose was to terrorize and humiliate people.”.

The police have collected thousands of statementsphotos and video clips that are ‘unbearable’ to watch as a mother as it includes evidence that ‘girls were so rushed that their pelvis had been broken».

The testimonies of the survivors are chilling like that of Yoni Saadon, 39, who survived the attack on the Nova music festival by hiding under corpsesand gave a horrifying account of the sexual violence he saw committed against women at the festival.

One of the images of horror he described was one that a woman’s decapitated head rolled down the street after she was beheaded for refusing to undress.

As the sun rose on the festival and Hamas stormed in, Yoni was covered under a music tent. Nevertheless a woman hiding next to him was spotted by Hamas gunmen.

“She fell to the ground after being shot in the head, and then I pulled her body off me and smeared her blood on me so that they would pass me off as dead”he told The Sunday Times.

“I will never forget her face. Every night I wake up and apologize to her, saying “I’m sorry”.

After an hour, the survivor recounts that he went outside and describes that “I saw this beautiful woman with the face of an angel, and eight or ten of the fighters were beating and rushing her.”

The woman was shouting “stop”, he said, and begged the terrorists to kill her to put her out of her misery. “When they finished they were laughing and the last one shot her in the head,” he said.

The horror was not over for Yoni as, hiding in the bushes, he saw two more Hamas fighters grab a woman.

“She wouldn’t let them undress her,” she recalls. “They threw her on the ground and one of the terrorists took a shovel and decapitated her and her head rolled on the ground. I see that head too.’

Yoni shared his story on The Sunday Times at a support group for festival survivors in Sitria, south-east of Tel Aviv.

Three times a week survivors from all over Israel meet with parents whose children were among those massacred.

Yoni Saadon’s account is one of many accounts of rape from festival survivors.

Source: Daily Mail