00:00With us, an Israeli report released this Tuesday says Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical
00:06weapon of war in its October the 7th, 2023 attacks, building on other investigations by
00:13international and Israeli rights groups and the United Nations. Here at France 24, this from
00:18Emerald Maxwell. The Dina report builds on several others by international and Israeli rights groups
00:25and concludes that Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon of war motivated by genocidal
00:32intent during its October 7th attacks on Israel. The legal team's goal is to pursue justice for
00:38its victims. We carry here a universal message that sexual violence cannot be accepted as a tool of war.
00:48Victims like Ilana Brzyzewski, who was kidnapped from her home on Kibbutz near Oz and held hostage
00:55for 55 days in Gaza.
00:57I remember guns were pointed at me. I remember hands, which did not belong to me, touching me.
01:04I remember I yelled and then blacked out. When I woke up, I was half naked, surrounded by terrorists.
01:12They were beating me, they were touching me. I don't know what happened to my body during those
01:17last minutes, but my soul already knew. Nothing will ever be the same.
01:22The report said witness accounts indicated at least 15 separate cases of sexual assault,
01:30verbal and physical harassment and threats of forced marriage, as well as evidence of gang
01:35rape, followed by killing, genital mutilation and public humiliation.
01:39We formed an evidentiary framework that proves that Hamas used sexual violence in a systematic
01:48manner as a weapon of war.
01:51The report calls for wartime sexual violence to be treated differently from regular sex crimes,
01:56because it said Hamas had silenced most of its victims by killing them.
02:01It also said joint criminal responsibility should be applied to all participants in the attack,
02:06rather than trying to link individual perpetrators to specific victims.
02:11This, it said, would create a pathway to justice for victims of the October 7th attack,
02:16and potentially for those in other conflict zones.
02:19Hamas has denied its forces committed sexual violence against women,
02:23but a UN mission concluded last year that there were reasonable grounds to believe
02:27that conflict-related sexual violence occurred on October 7th.
02:31It's really scary.
02:33Admiral Maxwell with that report.
02:35Let's bring in Noga Tarnopolski.
02:36Noga, of course, is our correspondent in Jerusalem.
02:40Noga, thanks for joining us.
02:41This is an absolutely harrowing report about the sexual violence used by Hamas.
02:47It is shocking.
02:49We had some idea of things that had happened,
02:51but when it's spelled out the way this has just been done so,
02:55it is just incredibly moving and incredibly shocking.
02:58Give us a sense of how this has been received where you are.
03:01What has the reaction been?
03:05The reaction has been, I would say, one of quiet shock,
03:10and it reflects something mentioned and underscored in this report,
03:15which is that sexual violence,
03:18systematic sexual violence as an act of war,
03:22enjoys the cover of silence.
03:24First of all, because many, if not most of its victims, are killed.
03:28And secondly, because it's something so difficult to express and speak about.
03:33In fact, the clip that you showed of former hostage Ilana Groszewski,
03:39in that clip, she describes the experience of simply blacking out as she is sexually assaulted
03:46and awaking, half-naked, not knowing and never really knowing fully what happened to her.
03:53Today, coincidentally, in the Knesset, Keith Siegel, a male former hostage,
03:58described witnessing an act of violence against a female hostage while he was held in Gaza by Hamas.
04:05So what we're seeing is a preponderance of evidence that describes crimes
04:10and at the same time describes almost the impossibility of expressing those crimes.
04:17One interesting aspect of this report that was made by a very prestigious group of female professionals,
04:25including a former judge, advocate general of the Israeli army,
04:29former deputy attorney general of the country,
04:31is that they're trying to lay down a universal template
04:35that can be used in other countries and other situations
04:38to prepare the ground for legal redress
04:43in cases of mass sexual abuse as part of an act of war.
04:46So, I'll see you in the next one.
