Hamas accused the UN of pushing a pro-Israel bias.
By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner
Hamas has denied a United Nations report that found the Palestinian terrorist group likely committed mass acts of sexual violence, including gang-rape and torture against women, during its massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7.
The UN’s Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Monday issued the long-anticipated report, which said Hamas may today still be abusing women kept as hostages in Gaza. The inquiry was led by Pramila Patten, the team’s special envoy.
In response, Hamas accused the UN of pushing a pro-Israel bias.
“This report came after failed Israeli attempts to prove those false charges, aimed only at demonizing the Palestinian resistance,” the terrorist group said.
“She [Patten] relied on Israeli institutions, soldiers, and witnesses selected by the Israeli authorities to push towards proving these false charges, which have been refuted by all international investigations and reports.”
The UN report was based on testimony and other evidence collected during a two-week investigation.
It said the UN found “credible circumstantial information, which may be indicative of some forms of sexual violence, including genital mutilation, sexualized torture, or cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment was also gathered.”
The report also said that the UN team “found clear and convincing information that some hostages taken to Gaza have been subjected to various forms of conflict-related sexual violence and has reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing.”
On Oct. 7, Hamas, which rules Gaza, invaded neighboring Israel and massacred 1,200 people, mostly civilians, injured thousands more, and kidnapped over 200 hostages.
In the days following the tragedy, the brutality of Hamas’ violence shocked the world, as numerous eyewitnesses and victims shared accounts of rape, torture, beheading, and the mutilation of bodies.
Since then, far left agitators, who in other contexts have argued that sexual assault claims should never be doubted, and other anti-Israel voices have sought to discredit the testimonies of rape victims, attempting to bury them under counter accusations of anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia.
Other pro-Hamas activists have come under fire for remaining silent on the sexual violence perpetrated against Israeli girls and women.
Last month, the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel issued a report detailing harrowing accounts of Hamas’ sexual violence.
In 35 pages, it recounted numerous sexual assaults reported by Israeli women, several of which were perpetrated in the presence of their loved ones.
Some women were killed after the act, and some during it.
Hamas terrorists also desecrated the bodies of victims they murdered, mutilating their genitalia, and also raped men, according to reports.