During October 7th, Hamas booby-trapped victims’ bodies in an attempt to kill anyone attending to them.
By Vered Weiss, World Israel News
Shari Mendes, an IDF reservist who helped identify female victims of the October 7th massacre, told Sky News in an interview that Hamas shot women multiple times in the faces until they were unrecognizable and mutilated their genitals.
Mendes describes the piles of bodies she confronted at the Shura camp, the hundreds piled up on top of each other.
Many of the bodies were desecrated to the point where it was difficult to identify them or prepare them properly for burial.
“The halls were lined to the ceiling with body bags, the smell was unimaginable. I can’t tell you the shock and despair that struck all of us.”
As a testament to the sexual assault that was perpetrated on the women who were killed, Shari Mendes said she saw many of the women with underwear pulled down to their knees with blood on the groin and on the fabric.
“Women were shot many times in the face… Their mouths were in grimaces, their eyes were open, their fists were clenched.”
Hamas had booby-trapped many of the bodies in an attempt to kill anyone attending to them, and workers had to be evacuated.
“Our team saw women shot in the crotch, in the genitals. Women were shot in the breast… Our team saw this.”
In spite of forensic evidence and eyewitness testimony that there was sexual assault and mutilation, many still deny that such crimes took place on October 7th, alleging that Hamas wouldn’t have engaged in sexual violence because it is against Islamic law.
According to accounts from freed hostages, both women and men are being sexually abused in captivity.
Released hostage Chen Goldstein Almog said, “There are girls in captivity who haven’t had their periods in a long time, and maybe we should pray for that, that their bodies will protect them and they won’t get pregnant from rape.”
She continued, “We have to do everything to get them back.”
Aviva Siegal, whose husband Keith is still in captivity said, “The terrorists bring inappropriate clothes, clothes for dolls and turn the girls into their dolls.”
“Dolls on a string with which you can do whatever you want, whenever you want,” she added.
Siegal said sexual abuse was also perpetrated on male hostages, “The boys also go through abuse — what the girls go through.”
“Maybe they don’t get pregnant [but] they are also puppets on a string,” she said.