By Athena Papakosta

Since the very first days following the Hamas attack on October 7, Israel has been accusing the Islamist Palestinian organization of using sexual violence. For its part, Hamas denies the accusations, citing false allegations.

Israeli authorities are still gathering evidence. Most of them are based on the testimonies of survivors, members of the medical staff and the material of photographers who arrived at the sites of the attacks a few hours later.

As reported by the British BBC network, in a related report, so far, the Israeli police have gathered more than 1,500 testimonies only from eyewitnesses and members of the medical staff.

The incidents of violence that are examined concern gang rapes as well as the mutilation of the female genital organs of the victims.

According to the head of the International Crimes Investigations Department of the Israel Police, Meni Biyamin, who spoke about the matter to the New York Times, dozens of women and some men were raped by Hamas gunmen on October 7.

As he explained, these are “violent incidents of rape” of which “most involve extreme acts of sexual abuse”.

According to him, the forensic evidence as well as the confessions of Hamas gunmen who have been arrested and detained in Israel confirm the fact.

At the same time, professor, lawyer and women’s rights activist Ruth Halperin-Kandari speaks to BBC Radio 4 and confesses that she has seen videos of women whose condition left her in no doubt that they had been raped.

“I saw material and photos from many different locations where bodies were found whose condition betrayed the same pattern of mutilation and left no doubt that before they were executed, these women had been raped,” he emphasizes.

Also, according to the Israeli police, an eyewitness – who has not been named – testified that while he was hiding among bushes at the location of the Super Nova music festival, he watched speechless some Hamas gunmen rape a young woman one after another, mutilating her. and then execute it.

Hamas, however, denies the accusations.

With a statement on the Telegram application, the Islamist Palestinian organization speaks of “lies” and claims that aim to “distort the humane way in which Hamas treated the Israeli hostages.”

For their part, Israeli women’s rights activists are urging international organizations to publicly acknowledge reports of sexual violence during the attacks, while on Monday dozens of protesters gathered outside the official UN headquarters in New York.

At the moment, the UN committee is examining the acts that constitute war crimes on both sides and, as is known, sexual violence will also be included in its ongoing investigation. So far, however, Israel has not cooperated with the committee in question, considering it biased.