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Israeli women and girls were raped during Hamas attack. Where’s the outcry?
The organizations meant to stand for the prevention and eradication of
such attacks have been eerily silent since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7.
And this silence has been deafening.
By Elizabeth Gaufberg and Cami TussieUpdated November 18, 2023, 3:00 a.m.

A woman walks by posters with photos of hostages taken to the Gaza Strip
during Hamas' attack on the Israeli south on Nov. 15 in Hadera, Israel.
A woman walks by posters with photos of hostages taken to the Gaza Strip
during Hamas' attack on the Israeli south on Nov. 15 in Hadera,
Israel.AMIR LEVY/GETTY

Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy took a deep breath after warning the audience
about the graphic horrors she was about to relate. Then she described
just some of the overwhelming visual evidence that has emerged of the
Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel: a young concert-goer, stripped from the
waist down, frozen by rigor mortis into a spread-eagle position, her
body partially burned. A young woman, similarly exposed in death, torn
underwear hanging off one naked leg. Rape victims paraded through the
streets of Gaza, blood gushing from between their legs.
The list went on. And on. Compiled from various sources — Hamas footage,
first responders, workers who handle corpses, survivor accounts — these
testimonials formed the basis of a webinar this week entitled, “The
Unspeakable Terror: Gender-Based Violence on Oct. 7.” Organized by
Jewish students at Harvard Medical, Dental, Law, and Business schools,
it accrued more than 4,500 registrants and, in the days after, more than
20,000 viewers.
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Why such great interest in the horrors perpetrated by Hamas against
women and girls on Oct. 7? We believe it reflects the relative lack of
attention until now to the brutal sexual and gender-based violence that
took place as part of Hamas’s assaults.
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Despite the circulation of the evidence Dr. Elkayam-Levy shared,
worldwide organizations dedicated to women’s and human rights have
stayed largely silent.
“The evidence is undeniable, yet we find ourselves fighting a dual
battle,” said Elkayam-Levy, chair of the Israeli Civil Commission on
Oct. 7th Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children. “One against these
atrocities and another against global silence. And we see the same
mechanism of denial that we recognize from individual rape.”
Others share her concern, and a petition calling on UN Women to address
the crimes against Israeli women is taking on momentum, with more than
180,000 signatures; the hashtag #MeToo_UNless_UR_a_Jew has been trending
on X.
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As a Harvard School of Dental Medicine student who helped organize the
event, and a Harvard Medical School associate professor of medicine and
psychiatry who moderated that panel, we found hope in some of the
experts’ reports: The act of rape, once widely accepted as part of the
“spoils of war,” is now recognized as a prosecutable war crime, even a
crime against humanity when it is perpetrated systematically.
But other statements were heartbreaking, including that most or all of
Oct. 7 rape victims were either killed or abducted, and are thus not
able to tell their stories to the world. Webinar participants said that
the forensic evidence shows extreme sexual violence, including genital
mutilation and assaults brutal enough to break pelvic bones. Some
accounts describe abject sadism like cutting off a woman’s breast and
tossing it as a plaything.
Perhaps the most poignant and vexing comment at the event came from a
physician who posed an age-old question: How could they? There are
rumors the attackers were intoxicated with drugs, the physician said,
but “even with drugs, how can someone do such an act that is not human?”
The visual and forensic findings add to the urgent need to provide
medical care to the hostages now held in Gaza, Dr. Devora Bauman of
Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem said in the webinar.
Rape victims often have genital injuries, she said, and severe vaginal
tearing, if not repaired, can lead to death. Care for pregnant and
postpartum women is essential; there are reports that at least one
hostage has given birth while in Hamas captivity and others face the
very real possibility of impregnation by their rapists.
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Just as these Israeli experts on the webinar are feeling abandoned by
their colleagues in the global women’s rights communities, so are the
families of the female hostages held in Gaza. “Where are you? Where is
your voice? Why is it not heard?” said Kinneret Stern, a relative of a
hostage, told Reuters.
UN Women has issued a report on girls and women in Gaza, but it does not
mention the Israeli victims of Hamas’ attacks. The Global Fund for
Women, despite making a blanket statement “condemn[ing] the violence of
Israel and Hamas against civilians,” has focused its efforts on calling
for a cease-fire and drawing attention to the plight of Palestinian
women, without mentioning Israeli victims of Hamas. The NGO Working
Group on Women, Peace, and Security issued a statement on the plight of
Palestinian women without any mention of Israeli women, hostages, or
sexual assault attacks.
The Israeli experts on the webinar reported on testimonies from captured
terrorists and documents found on the deceased — that the attackers
received special religious dispensation to abuse women “in order to
instill fear in the Israeli population.” If sadism was an intentional
strategy, that offers further explanation for what the terrorists did to
women, children, and men.
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The world outcry against rape and war crimes must be resounding and
universal. The collective response must be unequivocal and consistent.
As a collective, we must define and uphold our societal principles of
justice and morality.
On the webinar, Orit Sulitzeanu, who leads Israel’s association of rape
crisis centers, shared her sense that the world changed irrevocably on
Oct. 7 — for everyone. “It’s not just terror, it’s sadism,” she said,
inflicted on civilians in their homes. “I want the people listening to
understand that this could happen everywhere. And if you don’t fight it,
it can happen even to you.”
Dr. Elizabeth Gaufberg is an associate professor of medicine and
psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and a physician and educator at
The Cambridge Health Alliance. Cami Tussie is a third-year student at
Harvard School of Dental Medicine and president of the HMS/HSDM
Maimonides Society, a Jewish student organization.