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Israel recalls ambassador after UN’s silence on Hamas sexual crimes

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said, ‘The silence in the face of Hamas’s sexual violence turns International Women’s Day into a sick joke.’

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Foreign Minister Israel Katz has announced that Israel is recalling its Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan over the UN’s failure to hold a hearing following a report on Hamas’s sexual crimes.

Katz said in a statement, “I ordered our ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, to return to Israel for immediate consultations regarding the attempt to keep quiet the serious UN report on the mass rapes committed by Hamas and its helpers on Oct. 7.”

Katz was highly critical of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for not holding a hearing at the UN Security Council on the report of Hamas’s sexual crimes and the body’s hesitancy to declare Hamas a terrorist organization.

The United Nations did not comment on the Foreign Minister’s comments or on the decision to recall Israel’s Ambassador.

Pramila Patten, the UN Special Envoy on Sexual Crimes in Conflict was scheduled to present a report on the issue on Monday.

Ambassador Erdan also issued a statement saying, “It took the UN five months to finally recognize the shocking sexual crimes committed during the Hamas attack on Oct. 7.”

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He also said, “The silence in the face of Hamas’s sexual violence turns International Women’s Day into a sick joke.”

“The UN should be ashamed of its silence. In the future, you will not be able to claim that you did not know – just as the world claimed after the Holocaust. That you were not exposed to the suffering and horrors. Those who remain indifferent are complicit in the crimes themselves,” declared Erdan.

Pramila Patten visited Israel in February to investigate claims of sexual violence committed by Hamas against Israelis.

She interviewed survivors of the October 7th massacre as well as released hostages regarding what they endured and witnessed.

Patten also talked to  Capt. (res.) Avigail Bar-Asher, head of the Military Rabbinate’s Female Corpse Identification Team at Camp Shura and viewed forensic evidence of sexual crimes.