Former prosecutor says they are distorting her statements that indictments are hard to file when so many of those raped were murdered and survivors are too traumatized to testify.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
Anti-Israel activists around the world have renewed propaganda efforts denying that Hamas terrorists raped Israelis during their surprise invasion of southern Israel last October 7t by distorting recent statements of a former prosecutor who investigated many of the cases, Ynet reported Monday.
Moran Gez, one of the original four prosecutors assigned to analyze evidence of the massive number of heinous acts committed by the thousands of terrorists and civilians who crossed the border from Gaza, had told Yedioth Ahronoth Friday, “Unfortunately, it will be very difficult to prove these crimes” because of the simple fact that “we don’t have complainants.”
Either the victims were murdered, she noted, or rape survivors are not willing to attest to what happened to them.
“In this area, I would temper expectations. I know the public is expecting action and understands the need to address the horrific sexual offenses and assaults that occurred, but the vast majority of these cases won’t meet the evidentiary threshold in court, and the criticism will ultimately fall on the prosecution—unjustly so,” Gez said.
Palestinian apologists soon began twisting her words on social media to mean that the rape accusations were false.
The Middle East Monitor, a London-based anti-Israel outlet, said outright that Gez had “stated that her department has found no evidence of sexual violence.”
It also claimed that a “March 2023” report by the UN – seven months before the war – “debunked similar allegations” whereas in reality the body’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, officially verified in March 2024 that Hamas fighters committed mass rapes during the invasion.
A different journalist, one with hundreds of thousands of followers, also used the fact that no indictments had been filed to post that this was “proof” that the crimes did not occur.
Gez was astounded by the lies.
“I am amazed,” she said. “The fact that there were no complaints was due to two reasons. The Hamas terrorists who raped the young Israeli women murdered them, even during the rape. [And] due to the trauma, women who were raped by members of the terrorist organization and Gaza residents who infiltrated Israel did not muster the courage to file a complaint.”
“Any other interpretation of my words is nothing more than cheap propaganda and ignores the fact that the Hamas terrorists committed war crimes,” she continued. “In my opinion, the only punishment for them is death.”
Gez did admit that the legal proceedings were moving along too slowly for two main reasons. Linking a specific person to a specific act is required for a normal kind of trial, but when there are dozens of crime scenes, hundreds of suspects, and thousands of crimes committed, she said, this becomes almost impossible.
“Standard rules of evidence don’t fit this situation,” she explained, and therefore, “What’s needed is a comprehensive legislative reform” so that “Israeli law is adapted to the atrocities that occurred that day” and indictments can be filed.
She didn’t know if such a reform process was even under way 15 months after the mass attack, but she did know that there are far too few prosecutors, perhaps 20 in all, examining the mountains of evidence already provided by first responders, the police, and forensic pathologists, among others.
The best solution is a confession, she noted, but “surprisingly, in the interrogations of these terrorists, they try to downplay the nationalist aspect,” she said. “From my experience with security cases, most terrorists are very proud of what they’ve done and don’t hide it…yet, in practice, most of the terrorists from October 7 turned out to be cowards” and are not admitting what they had done.