Gal Gadot calls out world silence on Hamas’ sexual violence

Women’s organizations especially, she added, should join the demand “that Hamas release every single woman hostage immediately.”

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Superstar actress Gal Gadot blasted the global silence in general and women’s organizations in particular Sunday, in the face of Hamas terrorists’ systematic rape and violence against women during their surprise invasion of Israel October 7 in which 1,200 people were brutally massacred.

Using her Instagram platform, which has over 109 million followers, Gadot wrote sharply, “The world has failed the women of October 7th,” despite having proof “within hours” of Hamas brutality, with the “first, blood-chilling video…of [German-Israeli music festival attendee] Shani Louk being paraded naked and defiled by her proud assailants.”

Other clips of violence against female hostages were also uploaded to the internet by Hamas soon after their rampage, and the IDF compiled a 43-minute video of the terrorists committing the most heinous of war crimes against women in Gaza envelope communities, including torturing a pregnant woman and burning whole families alive.

Gadot screened the extraordinarily graphic video, called “Bearing Witness,” at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles three weeks ago for some 200 people, although she did not attend herself due to security concerns.

By now, she continued, “two months later, women are still hostage to these rapists and the world has failed to call this situation what it is: An urgent emergency that demands a decisive response.”

She called specifically on women, and especially “all those who have done so much for women’s rights globally,” including the UN and human rights community, to “join in the demand that Hamas release every single woman hostage immediately – not after the next round of international mediation, not after another day. These women cannot survive another moment of this horror.”

Some 15 women and two young children, one an infant, are still being held by Hamas and perhaps other terror organizations in the Gaza Strip. A few of them are active soldiers in the IDF, and it is especially feared in Israel that Hamas will demand an unpayable price for their freedom and that of their male counterparts.

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, or UN Women, finally came out Friday with a condemnation of Hamas’ actions, after seven weeks of being begged by Jewish and Israeli women’s organizations and prominent individuals such as former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg, to speak out.

“We unequivocally condemn the brutal attacks by Hamas on Israel on 7 October,” the group said in a statement. “We are alarmed by the numerous accounts of gender-based atrocities and sexual violence during those attacks. This is why we have called for all accounts of gender-based violence to be duly investigated and prosecuted, with the rights of the victim at the core.”

Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), just wrapped up an unofficial visit to Israel in which he met families of October 7 victims and visited some of the massacre sites, which led to a firm condemnation of Hamas.

“The attacks against innocent Israeli civilians on October 7 represent some of the most serious international crimes that shock the conscience of humanity, crimes which the ICC was established to address,” he said in a statement, and his team would work “to hold those responsible to account.”

Nine families of victims had opened a case against Hamas last month at the ICC for suspected war crimes and genocide.

Gal Gadothamas hostagesHamas sexual crimeshuman rights NGOsUnited Nations