Wilfried Devillers (special correspondent in Israel) / Photo credits: ALEXI J. ROSENFELD / GETTY IMAGES EUROPE / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP
modified to
8:08 a.m., November 29, 2023
In Israel, evidence is accumulating concerning cases of rape and sexual mutilation committed during the Hamas attack on October 7. Some of the victims who survived the events testify. Europe 1 met Sarah Weiss, legal advisor charged by the Israeli government with gathering evidence of these attacks.
A month and a half after the kibbutz massacres, the international community discovered the extent of Hamas’ barbarity. Bodies of women and children which bear traces of rape or sexual mutilation. Europe 1’s special correspondent in Israel met exclusively with Sarah Weiss. This former diplomat, now legal advisor for the MAE, is responsible for gathering evidence of these attacks on behalf of the Israeli government. Some testimonies are particularly shocking.
A premeditation to terrorize
The young woman’s hands tremble and her gaze is frozen when she describes the cases of sexual assault and rape that she discovers every day. She watched hours of videos of survivors of the attacks. “I watched the testimony of an eyewitness, who witnessed a gang rape. The last terrorist to rape the victim inserted himself inside her, shot her in the head and then ejaculated inside her, when she was dead,” she describes coldly.
She also recounts the numerous testimonies of rescuers who found the bodies of naked women, their crotches bloody, or others with their clothes torn off. “One of the rescuers said he smelled a strong odor in one of the houses. He was looking and found himself facing the remains of a woman, a knife stuck in her vagina,” continues the advisor. It is difficult for the moment to know precisely how many women and children were also victims. Identification of the bodies and collection of evidence is still ongoing.
But one thing is certain for Sarah Weiss: “I want to be clear that the amount of evidence we have seen is not just about individual cases of rape… We are talking about mass, premeditated rapes to terrorize women, girls and Israeli children. The former diplomat denounces the silence of UN Women and major international organizations on these cases of rape and sexual abuse.