UN official concludes ‘no rape took place’ during October 7th attack

A UN report in February 2024 showed substantial evidence that Hamas raped and sexually abused civilians during and after the attack.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

A United Nations official posted on social media that no sexual violence occurred during the October 7 massacre despite an extensive UN report detailing evidence of rape and other crimes during the Hamas invasion.

Reem Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, wrote on Friday that “no independent investigation found that rape took place on October 7.”

She also argued that “no Palestinian applauded rape in Gaza,” comments she posted while addressing the legal case involving Israeli soldiers accused of abusing a detainee at the Sde Teiman facility.

Her statements contradicted extensive evidence gathered by UN-appointed investigators and Israeli organizations.

Alsalem previously claimed in March that she was unaware that Israel had been subjected to repeated rocket attacks from Hamas and Hezbollah, even as those barrages struck towns and cities across the country.

She later co-wrote a February 2024 report with UN envoy and harsh critic of Israel, Francesca Albanese, accusing the IDF of sexually abusing Palestinian women.

In a Channel 13 interview at the time, Alsalem said her claims relied on “reasonably credible information” from unnamed sources and the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, whose board chair Richard Falk has promoted anti-Israel conspiracy theories, and has accused Israel of being behind the deadly Boston Marathon terror attack.

A separate UN team sent to Israel in February 2024 reached sharply different conclusions.

Led by Pramila Patten, the secretary-general’s representative on sexual violence in conflict, the delegation reviewed more than 50 hours of video, thousands of photographs, and dozens of independent interviews.

Their report said the experts had gathered substantial evidence that Hamas raped and sexually abused civilians during and after the attack.

They cited multiple locations — the Nova music festival, Route 232, and Kibbutz Re’im — where rape and gang rape occurred.

An investigation by the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel reached similar findings.

After studying confidential testimony, witness accounts, and interviews with survivors and first responders, the organization detailed cases in which Hamas terrorists raped victims openly, sometimes in front of family members, and often murdered those they assaulted. Some bodies were found with severe genital mutilation.