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Israel Blocks UN Probe of Alleged Hamas Sex Crimes During October 7 Attack
Israeli officials reportedly did not want U.N. investigators to have access to prisons where Palestinian detainees have allegedly been subjected to rape and other sexual violence.
Jan 08, 2025
Israel has blocked a request from United Nations sex crimes experts to probe alleged sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas fighters during the October 7, 2023 attack, reportedly to avoid attendant scrutiny of rapes and other abuses allegedly committed by Israeli forces against imprisoned Palestinians.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretzreported Wednesday that Pramila Patten, the U.N.'s special representative on sexual violence in conflict, sought Israeli authorization to investigate alleged sex crimes committed by Hamas during the massive attack it led on Israel.
While some allegations of Hamas sex crimes have lacked evidence or have been outright debunked, Patten concluded last year that "there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence—including rape and gang-rape—occurred across multiple locations of Israel and the Gaza periphery during the attacks on October 7, 2023."
Patten's office "also found convincing information that sexual violence was committed against hostages" that were kidnapped from Israel "and has reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may still be ongoing against those in captivity."
Former hostages have said they were physically, sexually, and psychologically abused by their Palestinian captors.
In addition to investigating alleged Hamas sexual violence, Patten demanded—and was denied—access to Israeli prisons to investigate sex crimes allegations against Israel Defense Forces personnel. U.N. agencies and international human rights groups have published accounts by former Palestinian prisoners and other witnesses describing rape and sexual torture by male and female IDF soldiers and, in one case, by a dog.
Among the at least 36 detainee deaths at Israel's notorious Sde Teiman torture prison under IDF investigation is one man who died after allegedly being sodomized with an electric baton.
Last July, video emerged of IDF troops allegedly gang-raping a Sde Teiman detainee. After several IDF soldiers were arrested in connection with the attack, a mob of far-right Israelis stormed Sde Teiman in a bid to free the defendants, and Israeli leaders including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich demanded a probe—not to seek justice for the victim, but rather to find and punish whoever leaked the video.
Patten's office told Haaretz that it "is exploring a future mission to the region after receiving an invitation from the Palestinian Authority regarding reports of conflict-related sexual violence against Palestinians as well as outreach by the government of Israel for a follow-up visit on the October 7 attacks and their aftermath."
The office also warned that Israel's refusal to cooperate with its probe could backfire and end up with the country included on the U.N'.s sex crimes blacklist and Hamas left off the list.
Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, a professor at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, told Haaretz that Israel's rejection of the U.N. probe represents "a missed opportunity for a definitive international record and recognition for the victims—not to mention the obligation to thoroughly investigate the new evidence to uncover the truth."
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American Historical Association Members Overwhelmingly Condemn Gaza Scholasticide
The nation's oldest learned society noted Israel's 15-month onslaught has "effectively obliterated" Gaza's education infrastructure and called for its rebuilding and a permanent cease-fire.
Jan 06, 2025
Members of the American Historical Association, the nation's oldest learned society, voted 428-88 Sunday for a resolution condemning scholasticide in Gaza, where Israel's 15-month U.S.-backed onslaught has killed or wounded tens of thousands of Palestinian students and academics and destroyed the embattled enclave's educational infrastructure.
The resolution—which must be approved by the AHA's elected council—states that "beyond causing massive death and injury to Palestinian civilians and the collapse of basic life structures," the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) assault—which is enabled by tens of billions of dollars in U.S. military aid—"has effectively obliterated Gaza's education system."
"We just won a very basic resolution to oppose scholasticide and 15 months of genocide at the American Historical Association," University of California, Santa Barbara professor and Journal of Palestine Studies editor Sherene Seikaly said following the vote in New York City.
"We won it in a landslide," Seikaly added. "And this moment makes me feel like, despite the fact that every single day for the last 15 months I have watched the obliteration of my people, the future is still ours."
Today, a resolution passed at the American Historical Association, by a margin of 428 to 88, condemning the Israeli scholasticide in Gaza. Here are my remarks for “The Palestine Exception: War, Protest, and Free Speech panel.” open.substack.com/pub/jehadabu...
[image or embed]
— Jehad Abusalim (@jehadabusalim.bsky.social) January 5, 2025 at 8:16 PM
The measure notes that United Nations experts last April expressed their "grave concern over the pattern of attacks on schools, universities, teachers, and students in the Gaza Strip," and their "serious alarm over the systemic destruction of the Palestinian education system."
"With more than 80% of schools in Gaza damaged or destroyed, it may be reasonable to ask if there is an intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system, an action known as 'scholasticide,'" the U.N. experts said at the time, defining the term as the "systemic obliteration of education through the arrest, detention, or killing of teachers, students, and staff, and the destruction of educational infrastructure."
The resolution notes:
- The IDF's destruction of 80% of schools in Gaza, leaving 625,000 children with no educational access;
- The IDF's destruction of all 12 Gaza university campuses;
- The IDF's destruction of Gaza's archives, libraries, cultural centers, museums, and bookstores, including 195 heritage sites, 227 mosques, and three churches;
- The IDF's repeated violent displacements of Gaza's people, leading to the irreplaceable loss of students' and teachers' educational and research materials, which will extinguish the future study of Palestinian history.
"Therefore, be it resolved that the AHA, which supports the right of all peoples to freely teach and learn about their past, condemns the Israeli violence in Gaza that undermines that right," the measure states. "Be it further resolved that the AHA calls for a permanent cease-fire to halt the scholasticide documented above. Finally, be it resolved that the AHA form a committee to assist in rebuilding Gaza's educational infrastructure."
As Inside Higher Edreported Sunday:
The resolution passed after a boisterous, hourlong, standing-room-only meeting in a hotel ballroom that was so full some attendees couldn't fit inside. Before members voted, they heard a structured debate on the resolution that included five people speaking for the resolution and five people against it. Throughout, there was raucous applause, cheers, and standing ovations for the speakers who advocated for the resolution and more muted claps for opponents.
According to data released by the Gaza Ministry of Education on December 31, at least 12,943 Palestinian students have been killed and 21,681 others wounded by Israeli forces since they launched their response to the devastating Hamas-led attack on Israel. The ministry also said that 630 educators and administrative staff have been killed and 3,865 others injured during that same period.
Overall, the Gaza Health Ministry says Israel's 458-day war on Gaza—which is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case—has left at least 165,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing in the coastal enclave and millions more forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened.
In an interview with Democracy Now!, Seikaly said: "I really have to give credit where it's due, which is to the Historians for Peace and Democracy, which is a group that actually began in 2003 under the name of Historians Against the War... They were really the spearheads and leaders of this resolution."
The American Historical Association overwhelmingly approved a resolution at its annual meeting on Sunday to oppose "scholasticide" in Gaza, condemning Israel's systematic targeting and destruction of the Palestinian education system and Palestinian educators. pic.twitter.com/4uEb7RbwKD
— Democracy Now! (@democracynow) January 6, 2025
"This genocide is really attempting to destroy our capacity to narrate our past and to imagine our future," Seikaly added. "And to be able to articulate a principled but really not that radical of a resolution opposing this, with such a landslide of support, was a turning point for the American Historical Association and, I believe, for the field in this country."
Addressing opposition to the resolution by New School professor Natalia Petrzela—who objected to the lack of mention of the October 7 attack or the hundreds of Israelis and others taken hostage by Hamas and other Palestinian militants—Seikaly told Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman that Petrzela was engaging in "bothsidesism."
"We got this from more than one of the opposing figures, attempting to equate the last 15 months with the incidents of October 7," she said. "And to me, that is really a very clear position of valuing certain lives over others. And this is the kind of hiding of the truth that we have seen."
"We know that today in the Gaza Strip, when there are rumors of humanitarian convoys coming, Israeli soldiers bulldoze corpses to hide the evidence of decomposing bodies," Seikaly added. "And it isn't just these soldiers who are trying to hide the truth. This is also happening in mainstream media, in the courts, as well as in our universities. And I think this equating is really trying to mask that truth that can no longer hide under the rubble."
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'Where the Hell Is Doctor Hussam?' Israel Gives Mixed Messages on Gaza Hospital Director
"To suggest he isn't in custody is an insult to the public's intelligence," said Dr. Muhammad Brika, his colleague at Kamal Adwan Hospital.
Jan 03, 2025
Israeli officials this week have given a human rights group and news media conflicting messages about Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza who was detained when Israel's troops attacked the facility a week ago.
Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) contacted Mashlat—the Israeli body responsible for coordinating with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) regarding the location of detainees from the Gaza Strip—on behalf of Abu Safiya's family.
On Thursday, PHRI shared on social media a screenshot of Mashlat's email claiming to have "no indication of the arrest or detention of the individual in question," which contradicts the IDF's Friday statement to CNN.
"On December 27, 2024, military forces raided Kamal Adwan Hospital, surrounded the building, and arrested Dr. Abu Safiya," PHRI
detailed in the social media thread. "In a video recording, the senior doctor is seen walking toward an armored military vehicle and is taken from there for interrogation."
That same day, an Israeli spokesperson "confirmed that he was arrested and transferred for questioning, but since then, his whereabouts have entirely vanished," the group noted. "Unfortunately, the court gave the state one week to respond regarding the hospital director's location."
Following the email to PHRI, CNNreported Friday:
The IDF has since told CNN that Dr. Abu Safiya "was apprehended for suspected involvement in terrorist activities, and for holding a rank in the Hamas terror organization, while hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were hiding inside the Kamal Adwan Hospital under his management. He is currently being investigated by Israeli security forces."
It made similar allegations about the hospital and its director around the time of the raid on the facility, without providing evidence for the claims.
While decimating Gaza hospitals and other civilian infrastructure—and killing at least 45,658 Palestinians—since October 2023, the IDF has repeatedly accused those killed and detained of ties to militant groups, often without sharing any evidence.
Citing recently released former detainees,
CNNreported Monday that Abu Safiya was among the medical professionals being held at Israel's notorious Sde Teiman military base in the Negev Desert, but his location has not been publicly confirmed as of Friday.
PHRI on Friday
circulated comments from Dr. Muhammad Brika, Abu Safiya's colleague at Kamal Adwan Hospital, who said: "To suggest he isn't in custody is an insult to the public's intelligence. The events we experienced were very clear."
"We remained at Kamal Adwan until the very end, until the military invaded the hospital," Brika continued, recalling the attack. "Dr. Abu Safiya was there the entire time. The image shown in the media, where he appears to be led towards the tank, does not reflect the reality of his arrest... Many details haven't been made public, and the truth is far different from the narrative they've tried to create."
"That same day, around 10:00 pm, we were forcibly transported to Al-Fakhoora school, with Dr. Abu Safiya up front," the doctor explained. "Upon arrival, we were treated horribly—forced to strip down to our underwear and left standing in the freezing cold. This continued until 1:30 am, during which Dr. Abu Safiya was taken into the school, either for interrogation or to give testimony. It's unclear what exactly was happening."
Abu Safiya was then brought back to the rest of the hospital workers, according to Brika. Israeli officers "told us one group would be arrested while the other would be allowed to leave the school," the doctor said. "At the last moment, they called Dr. Abu Safiya back and dressed him in white prison clothes in front of the entire medical staff. He was then formally arrested and taken into their custody, while the rest of us were allowed to leave."
People worldwide have sounded the alarm over officials' mixed messages about the missing hospital director—including Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard, who on Thursday urged Israeli authorities to "urgently disclose" his location and said that he should be considered a victim of enforced disappearance, "and as such at great risk of torture and ill-treatment."
Following CNN's Friday reporting, Callamard reiterated her call for Abu Safiya's release. She also highlighted how, under his leadership, the Gaza hospital "played an indispensable role in treating children suffering from malnutrition and dehydration-related issues," and "received those wounded from a series of Israeli attacks on starving people as they waited for flour trucks, known as flour massacres.
From last February to October, Callamard said, "Dr. Abu Safiya was the go-to source for human rights and humanitarian organizations investigating the situation of the healthcare sector in north Gaza and the impact of the mixture of disease and hunger on children in particular, providing accurate, nonsensationalist, and credible information, coordinating with international health organizations, providing media briefings, all whilst obviously working as a dedicated pediatrician."
The human rights leader further emphasized that the IDF's unsubstantiated allegations about the hospital director and Hamas are relatively recent. She asserted that "Dr. Abu Safiya's unlawful detention is emblematic of the broader attacks on the healthcare sector in Gaza and Israel's attempts to annihilate it. It is part and parcel of Israel's genocidal intent and genocidal acts—meant to inflict conditions of life CALCULATED TO BRING ABOUT DESTRUCTION OF PALESTINIANS."
"Dr. Abu Safiya has been acting as a leading voice for the healthcare sector in the north of Gaza since October 2024 and refusing to abandon the hospital and his patients," Callamard noted. "He has stood against Israel's genocidal act and his arrest along with that of [hundreds] of Palestinian medical staff further provides evidence of genocidal intent."
"None of the medical staff abducted by Israeli forces since November 2023 from Gaza during raids on hospitals and clinics has been charged or put before a trial; those released after enduring unimaginable torture were never charged and did not stand trial," she added. "Those still detained remain held without charges or trial under inhumane conditions and at risk of torture."
According to PHRI, "Since October 2023, Israel has arrested thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, including 230 doctors."
"The whereabouts and fate of many remain unknown, and requests for their location remain unanswered for many months," the group said Thursday. "In some cases, only thanks to the persistence of human rights organizations, information has been provided regarding the whereabouts of some of the missing. In some cases, it was revealed that the missing individuals died while in military or prison service custody."
Drop Site Newsreported Friday that the IDF ordered the "evacuation of al-Awda Hospital in north Gaza, warning that those who remain by 3:00 pm will face death or bombing," and pointed out that "around 65 healthcare workers and 30 patients are currently at the hospital."
In a Friday statement, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group in the United States, demanded action from the U.S. government, which has given Israel billions of dollars in weapons support as it has waged an assault on Gaza that's led to a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.
"The Biden administration, which is a full partner in Israel's genocide, must act to secure the release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and to end the far-right Israeli government's systematic assault on hospitals and medical personnel in Gaza," said CAIR. "Israeli attacks on medical facilities, its daily slaughter of Palestinian civilians, and its forced starvation of an entire population are clearly part of the overall genocidal campaign of ethnic cleansing in Gaza."
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