The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel has issued the special report Silent Cry: Sexual Crimes on the October 7 War. I have embedded it via Scribd below. The Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest distributed the report yesterday with the apt warning: *DISCLAIMER* This report contains graphic descriptions of sexual abuse, torture, and murder. That “disclaimer” understates the atrocities documented in the report.
The Times of Israel has a good story on the report here with this introductory summary:
It identifies four main arenas where Hamas used rape as a weapon of war: the Supernova music festival near Re’im; Gaza border communities; military bases infiltrated by Hamas; and abuse of hostages inside the Strip.
According to a statement from the association, which was founded in 1990 as an umbrella organization of Israel’s nine rape crisis centers, “the report clearly demonstrates that this is not a ‘malfunction’ or isolated incident, but a clear operational strategy involving systematic, targeted sexual abuse,” contrary to the claims of some pro-Palestinian activists who have denied the extent of Hamas’s weaponization of rape.
The report collects numerous testimonies from eyewitnesses, including first responders at hard-hit Gaza border communities and survivors of the massacre at the Supernova festival, nearly all of them identified by their full names.
However, the statement continued, “the report does not provide quantitative information due to the nature of the events, most of which resulted in the victims’ deaths, making their full extent unknown and possibly unknowable.”
I urge interested readers at least to review the Times of Israel story. I also recommend a look at the atrocities documented at pages 19-30 of the report. The subsection on “Rape In the Presence of Family Community/Members” at pages 23-25, to take one example, deserves further study.
The report’s executive summary emphasizes the finding highlighted by the Times of Israel: “The report clearly demonstrates that sexual abuse was not an isolated incident or sporadic cases but rather a clear operational strategy.” It seems to me that the systematic evil of these atrocities — their brutality, degradation, and sickness — at least equals and may exceed that of the “Final Solution” implemented by the Nazis.
ARCCI Report – Sexual Crimes in the October 7 by Scott Johnson on Scribd
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