Rape and sexual assault committed by Hamas militants during their terror attack on Israel have, unfortunately, been well-documented. The terror group has long been accused of using rape as a form of terrorism against innocent civilians.
Hamas began its terror attack on Israel on March 14, 2021, and for the first six weeks, over 10,000 rockets were launched towards Israeli cities. During the conflict, Hamas militants carried out multiple attacks on Israeli civilians, including harassment, looting and sexual violence.
The United Nations Human Rights Commissioner reported multiple accounts of Hamas militants subjecting Israeli women, men, and children to sexual violence. The UN also raised serious concerns about members of Hamas’s security service — Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades — committing these atrocities.
One chilling example of the violence inflicted by Hamas militants is when a grandmother living in the southern Israeli city of Sderot was forced to protect her granddaughter from an armed Hamas militant who had broken into her home and tried to rape the toddler.
Hamas has also targeted Israeli women living near Gaza Strip with violence and abduction. After a rocket attack by Hamas on the Israeli city of Ashkelon in 2021, Israeli media reported that a group of Hamas terrorists broke into an apartment, abducted the 18-year-old daughter of the family and drove her to a nearby village where she was sexually assaulted.
Hamas often uses rape and sexual violence as a form of revenge and psychological warfare. The group has used rape and sexual assault as a way to silence Israeli civilians and force them into submission.
Sadly, there has been little progress in bringing the perpetrators to justice. Despite the countless number of testimonies, no Hamas fighters have been charged or prosecuted for the crimes they have committed. This has been attributed to the lack of a functioning government in Gaza, which has led to difficulty in obtaining reliable evidence.
The global community must come together to ensure that Hamas militants are held to account for their inhuman acts. In addition, more must be done to protect innocent civilians from similar acts of sexual violence. The safety of the victims must always be taken into consideration and steps must be taken to create a safer environment for all.