Zaka personnel cleaning the remains of blood stains from the October 7 massacre, in Kibbutz Be’eri, near the Israeli-Gaza border, southern Israel, December 19, 2023.
(photo credit: CHEN SCHIMMEL/FLASH90)
Published January 1, 2023
Failure of collection of evidence, and stigma are some of the reasons the violence may never fully be known.
Evidence on the mass rape of women, three months after the October 7 Massacre, is still being collected. On Sunday, The Telegraph reported that the full extent of Hamas’s sex crimes may never be known for a variety of reasons.
In an interview with Haim Otmazgin, a ZAKA volunteer and first responder, The Telegraph details barriers to uncovering the evidence of mass rape and sexual abuse on October 7.
Otmazgin says he was not looking for evidence of sexual abuse when he joined the mission to recover the dead, murdered, and mutilated victims of the Hamas attack, but he found it when he entered Be’eri, one of the worst hit Kibbutzim on the border of Gaza.
“I typically don’t pay attention to details. We work like machines to pick up the bodies…but something went through my mind.”
One of the barriers outlined in this report is that only some of the evidence Otmazgin collected that day is reaching the public domain now, partially due to the panicked initial response from authorities and volunteers.
While Otmazgin was collecting the bodies in the field, the IDF base was receiving the corpses. Shari Mendes was one of the individuals receiving the bodies.
She said, “Many young women arrived in bloody shredded rags or just in underwear, and their underwear was often very bloody. Our commander saw several female soldiers shot in the crotch or the breast. There seemed to be systematic genital mutilation of a group of victims.” Forensic reviews of video footage, interviews, and these images illustrate a pattern of sexual violence perpetrated against women in Hamas’s attacks.
First responders overwhelmed, much evidence not collected
Both Otmazgin and Mendes told The Telegraph they were overwhelmed on the day of the attacks and, that their work was focused on finding survivors or preparing bodies, that everyone was in a hurry at the morgue to release bodies to the families for burial. They were not looking for clues about exactly what happened to them, so much evidence escaped collection.
An investigation by the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth at the beginning of December detailed the failures of Israeli authorities to preserve forensic evidence in the aftermath of the Hamas attack. Unnamed officials described a pattern in which immediate identification was prioritized over evidence collection. Jewish law requires burial within 24 hours after death.
Otmazgin did admit that he and his colleagues had missed some of the evidence because he had covered the bodies or adjusted their clothing “out of respect” when he came across them.
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SOURCE: www.jpost.com
RELATED: Hamas’ rape, sexual atrocities exposed – ‘Most significant trial in Israel’ since Eichmann
Investigative reports in leading news outlets give worldwide attention to Hamas’ violent sexual crimes on Oct. 7 after being largely ignored by global women’s rights groups
(Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen)
Published December 31, 2023
Major international news outlets continue to talk about the widespread sexual atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists on October 7, after some of them responded with significant delay to reports the reports of sexual assault on Israeli women. The wider discussion occurred over the past month, against the backdrop of Israeli frustration over the silence of international women’s organizations following the massacre.
Last week, The New York Times published an extensive investigation into the sexual attacks committed by Hamas terrorists at the music festival near Kibbutz Re’im and in other communities in southern Israel.
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SOURCE: www.ynetnews.com
RELATED: Evidence mounts of sexual crimes perpetrated by Hamas during Oct. 7 attack on Israel
Published December 13, 2023
Two months after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, evidence is mounting of the sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas that day. Prosecutors have little doubt that women were raped, tortured and some of their dead bodies mutilated. Israeli police, who opened a probe in mid-November, say they have gathered more than 1,500 testimonies from witnesses and first responders. Hamas denies the allegations. Meanwhile, there has been fierce criticism from women’s rights groups in Israel over the UN not moving faster to begin investigating. Our team in Israel reports. Warning: Viewers may find some of the footage in this report disturbing.
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SOURCE: www.france24.com
