Academic leads search for evidence of Hamas ‘sex crimes’

“I have no doubt that justice will be done. There is no question that crimes against humanity have occurred,” said Dr Cochav Elkayam-Levy.

Three months after the massacre by Hamas fighters of approximately 1,200 Israelis, most of them civilians, at a music festival, and in kibbutzim in the western Negev, the spotlight has turned on a Hebrew University researcher and legal expert, who has found her life’s mission in investigating what really happened.

Dr Cochav Elkayam-Levy (39), a lawyer and scholar of international law, gender and human rights and a mother of four, said in an interview this week with University World News: “I realised I had to take swift action. Recognising the urgency of collecting crucial evidence and testimonies, I, along with a committed group of [15] volunteers, legal professionals, and academic researchers, united on October 15th to expose the crimes committed against women and children.”

She founded the “Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children” a week later to document and investigate the events. The goal was clear: to “meticulously document the events, gather evidence, establish an archive and amplify the voices of the victims in the most respectful manner possible,” she told University World News.

The swift establishment of the Commission was “a response to the pressing need for a credible, independent non-governmental inquiry to address the unfolding humanitarian and human rights challenges in the wake of the tragic events”.

Her team comprised experts in international law, humanitarian and human rights law, victimology, and gender-based violence – including law professor Yifat Bitton, president of the Achva Academic College, who is in charge of the Commission’s interaction with the Israeli police and the State Prosecutor’s office.

The need for the commission arose in the wake of the Hamas attack on 7 October that the Israeli army and other rescue groups treated as a “mass war event”.

They were operating in war conditions and were concerned first and foremost to identify the bodies, clean them and prepare them for burial in accordance with Jewish customs, as Reuters reported. Therefore, their focus was not on rape kits, the items used by medical personnel for gathering and preserving physical evidence following an allegation of sexual assault.

As a result, an unknown number of women may have been buried without checking for evidence of sexual violence. However, the evidence and testimonies that have emerged from multiple sources are considered damning in Israel and will now be subjected to international verification by UN officials.

According to a report in The Guardian on 18 January, Israel’s top police investigations unit, Lahav 433, is still poring over 50,000 pieces of visual evidence and 1,500 witness testimonies, and says it is unable to put a specific number on how many women and girls suffered gender-based violence.

Some atrocities well documented

Some atrocities committed during the Hamas attacks are well documented and include entire families burned alive, tortured, mutilated, sexually violated, including gang rape and murder; in addition to women, children and elderly people being among those seized as hostages.

Professor Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, a legal scholar and international women’s rights advocate, after examining evidence, said at least seven women who were killed were also raped, The Guardian reported. Investigations by other international media outlets have reported identifying more than 30 killed women whose bodies bore evidence of abuse such as bloodied genitals and missing clothes.

The New York Times investigations identified at least seven places where Israeli women and girls appear to have been sexually assaulted or mutilated. Some of the details the New York Times – and separately NBC – reported are too distressing to repeat here and and are consistent with savage abuse of women before and after death.

Halperin-Kaddari, who is head of Bar-Ilan University’s Rackman Center for the Advancement of the Status of Women and spent 12 years as a member of a UN convention on discrimination against women, told the BBC that she saw “footage and pictures from numerous locations of bodies whose condition were all exhibiting the same pattern of mutilation and leaving no doubt that rape was performed on these women before they were executed”.

She added that the concentration of cases, all in one day but in several locations left her in “no doubt” that there was a “premeditation to use sexual violence as a weapon of war”.

Hamas has strongly denied that its fighters were ordered to, or carried out, sexual violence or mutilation.

Horrific testimonies

Elkayam-Levy, who admits she needs psychological help herself after being exposed to so many horrific testimonies, photos and other evidence, says: “The Civil Commission is gathering and cross-referencing evidence from diverse sources. These include videos shared by Hamas and other groups, real-time communications from victims during the assaults, footage from first responders, body collection teams (ZAKA), survivor testimonies, and evidence from the scenes and victims.

“The archive being developed encompasses a wide array of materials, such as videos, photographs, testimonials, recordings, newspaper articles, and various forms of documentation.”

She told NBC: “This was systematic gender-based violence that was so horrific it’s hard for me to find the words.”

Many of the women who were raped were subsequently tortured and killed and those who survived may find it difficult to talk about their experiences for a long time. However, there are witness accounts and during interrogation by security services recorded on video some of the arrested Hamas fighters revealed that rape and torture were part of their mission, as reported in Makor Rishon.

Were fighters ordered to rape women?

Elkayam-Levy said in a recent interview in the daily Haaretz newspaper: “The Shin Bet security service has released recordings of several investigations of Nukhba terrorists who were asked whether they had been given specific orders to abuse women and children. Referring to the sex crimes, one of them said that the aim was to ‘soil them, to rape them’.”

Elkayam-Levy has a bachelor degree in law and political science (with honours) from Bar Ilan University and a masters degree and doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. She says: “I never thought my work in international law and feminist theory would intersect in such a shocking way.”

Convinced that she would hear clear vocal condemnation of these atrocities against women (as well as men and children) from the UN, Elkayam-Levy was deeply disappointed by what she described as the “silence and delayed and inadequate” response of various UN groups including the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and UN Women, which “[failed] to match the magnitude of suffering and injustice” inflicted on innocent people.

Caution or scepticism among international organisations may have been fuelled initially by the lack of focus on collecting crime scene data or court compliant evidence of sexual assault in the immediate aftermath of the 7 October attacks. At the time, identifying the dead, many of whom had been burned or mutilated, was made a priority, as The Times of Israel has reported.

But Elkayam-Levy, like many other Israelis, found it “incomprehensible” that agencies of the UN that are responsible for promoting and safeguarding women’s rights were “ignoring the Israeli women who were taken hostage, or were raped and murdered by Hamas”.

On 1 November, together with hundreds of international academics, Elkayam-Levy sent out an “Urgent Call for Action by International Law and Human Rights Experts” to UN organisations regarding “crimes against humanity and war crimes against women and children during Hamas atrocities in Israel”.

Urgent condemnation demanded

They called for “an urgent and unequivocal condemnation of the massacre committed by Hamas,” writing that the fighters’ acts “constitute multiple war crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.” (This includes killing civilians, cruel treatment and torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, taking hostages and more.)

They also called upon the international community to “take all measures necessary to ensure the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas — among them babies, infants, children, women, elders, Holocaust survivors, and people with disabilities — all in need of immediate care and medical treatment”. (Channel 12 reported on 26 January that only 108 of the 136 men, women, children and babies still being held hostage in Gaza as of this writing are thought to be alive.)

Seven weeks after the attacks UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres agreed to Israel’s invitation to investigate them. He said the reports of sexual violence should be investigated vigorously and prosecuted.

On 29 November, Navi Pillay, chair of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, investigating war crimes on both sides of the Israel-Hamas conflict, said it would focus on sexual violence by Hamas in the 7 October attacks and pass the evidence to the International Criminal Court, and called for it to consider prosecutions, Reuters reported.

Mauritian attorney Pramila Patten, a UN investigator and Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, is due to visit Israel before the end of the month at the invitation of the Israeli Foreign Ministry and her findings will be included in UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' annual report to the Security Council.

Halperin-Kaddari said on Monday that Patten’s visit is a significant breakthrough that offers a great deal of hope that all of humanity “will be aware” of Hamas’ crimes, “and not just we in Israel”, Haaretz reported.

Developing a comprehensive account

This development also represents a breakthrough for Elkayam-Levy, who has spoken on panels including at the Jerusalem Press Club and the Maimonides Society, a Jewish student organisation at Harvard Medical and Dental School. In the latter, she presented on “The Unspeakable Terror – Gender-Based Violence on October 7”.

She also met with senior White House officials. “From the earliest days of the conflict, the Biden-Harris administration has been deeply concerned by the horrific reports of sexual violence used by Hamas against Israeli women and children as part of the October 7 attacks,” the White House stated.

“As [US] President [Joe] Biden has again underscored, the world cannot look away from the accounts by survivors and witnesses detailing the brutality of that day.

“During the meeting, Elkayam-Levy spoke about her work to gather testimony and document evidence of the events of October 7 and develop a comprehensive accounting of gender-based violence committed by Hamas,” the White House stated.

These meetings were all part of Elkayam-Levy’s efforts and that of the commission to try to gain recognition in the international arena that the acts committed by Hamas fall under the definition of “crimes against humanity”. The evidence which her team has established will help to pave the way for an independent international investigation.

“The role of international tribunals and different legal systems who will deal with those issues would be to expose the kinds of crimes, to deal with the unimaginable cruelty we’ve seen, to compensate the survivors and the families of the victims and to bring about transformational change in the ability to prevent such crimes. The international community must rethink the way human rights are protected,” she said in the interview with University World News.

Excruciating work

This excruciating work has clearly taken its toll on Elkayam-Levy. “This has been anything but simple. It’s difficult. Definitely the most difficult thing I had to do in my life.

“I never imagined that we would be seeing such atrocities here in Israel. It is really the most inhumane killings and crimes against women and children in ways that will redefine international criminal law. I’m learning to accept that this is my life mission.

“It is a historical mission to give a voice to those who remain voiceless and to bring about change in the international system to pave the way to secure women’s rights. The law failed and the system failed. We are dealing with a scale of denial that is unprecedented.

“So, despite the inherent difficulty, I view it as a moral imperative to be that voice for the victims…. I truly believe that standing up against this evil and injustice, even at the cost of emotional strain, is a moral duty that I am committed to fulfilling,” she said.

As for “the way back for women who have survived terrible assaults or sex crimes into society and normal life” that will require a compassionate and multifaceted approach, she says.

“First and foremost, there must be a recognition of the atrocity they have endured – a crucial step towards initiating the healing process, which is bound to be long and challenging.

“The journey towards recovery may involve a combination of recognition, psychological support, counselling, and therapeutic interventions tailored to the specific needs of survivors. Creating safe spaces for survivors to share their experiences and feelings can be instrumental in fostering a sense of validation and understanding.

“It is crucial to acknowledge that the healing process is unique to each individual, and some survivors may never fully come to terms with their experiences. This reality underscores the importance of ongoing support systems, both from mental health professionals and from the broader community.

“It is a collective responsibility to foster a society that prioritises the well-being and dignity of survivors, ensuring that they are not defined solely by their traumatic experiences and providing avenues for hope, healing, and empowerment. The international community also has a role in ensuring that survivors are heard and protected. That healing is possible,” she said.

Role of university researchers

As for the role of university researchers: “University researchers, operating independently of the government, play a pivotal role in addressing conflicts by offering critical insights, conducting comprehensive analyses, and contributing to understanding the ways forward for our future.

“In addition, through teaching, we equip students with the knowledge and skills needed for securing human rights.

“Gathering first hand data, researchers foster a deeper understanding of local contexts, enabling the development of knowledge. This, in turn, facilitates the translation of academic insights into social change.

“In this context, international collaboration is crucial for addressing the interconnected and complex nature of crimes and the consequences for our society,” she told University World News.