The UN report on sexual violence on October 7 has found no evidence of systematic rape by Hamas or any other Palestinian group, despite widespread media reporting to the contrary. But there are deeper problems with the report’s credibility.
A New York Times story claiming a pattern of gender-based violence on October 7 hinged on the story of Gal Abdush. But the Abdush family says there is no proof she was raped, and that Times reporters interviewed them under false pretenses.
Our recent position paper on sex and gender-based violence during the October 7 Hamas attacks was the best possible way to engage with a complicated reality.
Recent reports by Physicians for Human Rights Israel and Human Rights Watch on alleged mass rape and the Ahli Hospital attack fail to meet the basic standards of human rights reporting and feed into Israeli propaganda campaigns justifying genocide.