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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...
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— 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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Far-Right Israeli Lawmakers Demand 'Complete Cleansing' of Northern Gaza
The Knesset members are urging the Israeli military to destroy all sources of water, food, and energy—and to kill "anyone not flying a white flag of surrender."
Jan 03, 2025
At least seven far-right members of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, are calling on the country's defense minister to order the total destruction of northern Gaza's food, water, and energy sources—most of which have already been obliterated by 15 months of relentless attacks—and the killing of any Palestinian who isn't clearly surrendering to the attackers.
In a letter to Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz dated December 31, the lawmakers assert that the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) campaign to forcibly expel Palestinians from northern Gaza—which critics have called ethnic cleansing—"isn't being done properly" and is not "achieving the war objectives as defined by the government, which is the dismantling of Hamas' governing and military capabilities."
According to a translation by international humanitarian law expert Itay Epshtain on Thursday, the letter calls on the IDF to:
- Destroy all energy sources including fuel, solar systems, generators, and power lines;
- Destroy all food sources including warehouses, water, and water pumps; and
- Lay siege and remotely kill everyone not flying a white flag of surrender.
That last demand apparently includes men, women, and children. IDF troops would then "enter gradually for a complete cleansing of the enemy's nests," according to the letter.
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— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim.bsky.social) January 2, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Lawmakers who signed the letter and their party affiliations include: Avraham Bezalel (Shas), Amit Halevi (Likud), Limor Son Har-Melech (Jewish Power), Osher Shkalim (Likud), Zvi Sukkot and Ohad Tal (Religious Zionism), and Nissim Vaturi (Likud).
Vaturi, the deputy Knesset speaker, previously called for Gaza to be "wiped off the face of the Earth" and argued for Israel to "stop being humane" and "burn Gaza now," because "there are no innocents there."
Notably, the lawmakers' letter does not mention anything about freeing the more than 60 hostages believed to be alive and imprisoned by Hamas and possibly other groups in Gaza.
As Israeli journalist Bar Peleg reported Friday from the Jabalia refugee camp:
When the soldiers and officers in Jabalia are asked about their mission, the answer is destroying Hamas and its infrastructure, until the last terrorist is laid to rest. When they are asked, "And what about the hostages?" One soldier answered, "That concerns us, like it does everyone, but it isn't a part of our operational considerations."
Northern Gaza is already in ruins. As Peleg noted, "not a single habitable building remains" in Jabalia. Nearly all homes, hospitals, schools, and other infrastructure have been destroyed or damaged.
"Look at the extent of the destruction and annihilation here," one IDF officer said. "No one has done this before."
An IDF officer recently toldHaaretz that one commander, Brig. Gen. Yehuda Vach, seeks to personally execute the so-called Generals' Plan—a blueprint for the starvation and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from northern Gaza—by besieging and expelling 250,000 Palestinians from the area. United Nations officials estimate that more than 100,000 Palestinians have been forced from northern Gaza, even as the IDF says it disavows the Generals' Plan.
IDF troops, Palestinian witnesses, international medical volunteers, and others have described alleged war crimes including the indiscriminate killings of Gazans of all ages throughout the embattled strip.
Israel's "complete siege" of Gaza has also caused the sickening and starvation of hundreds of thousands of Gazans. At least dozens of children and babies have died of malnutrition or hypothermia.
Israeli policies and actions, as well as written and spoken calls for the destruction of Gaza and its people, have been presented as evidence in the South African-led genocide case against Israel currently before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister who ordered the siege of Gaza, are fugitives from the International Criminal Court, which in November issued arrest warrants for the pair and Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri.
Israel's 455-day bombardment, invasion, and siege of Gaza has left at least 165,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing, according to officials there.
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