[[link removed]]

CLAIMS OF MASS RAPE BY HAMAS UNRAVEL UPON INVESTIGATION  
[[link removed]]


 

Arun Gupta
March 5, 2024
Yes Magazine
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ On top of serving as war propaganda, stories by Zaka volunteers
appear invented. Western media is full of Zaka atrocity claims, nearly
all of which are fabrications, dubious, or unsubstantiated. _

, ILLUSTRATION BY DEEMA ALAWA/YES! MEDIA

 

This investigative report uncovers questionable sourcing and a
striking lack of physical or eyewitness evidence in two early reports
that have been widely cited to bolster claims that Hamas committed
mass sexual violence in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

_Editor’s Note: The story that follows is not typical of the
solutions journalism that YES! focuses on. The author first submitted
a version of this story, centered on debunking a major _New York
Times _investigation, to YES! and another outlet in early
January. In light of the seriousness of the genocide in Gaza, and
YES!’s belief in the importance of fact-based, impactful journalism,
we accepted the submission and are proud to present the resulting
in-depth investigation. _A WARNING FOR OUR READERS THAT DESCRIPTIONS
OF THE ALLEGED RAPES AND VIOLENCE ARE GRAPHIC AND DISTURBING. 

Following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks that resulted in at least 1,163
deaths
[[link removed]],
rumors began circulating that Israeli women were experiencing horrific
mass rape and sexual violence. Months later, a position paper
[[link removed]] by Physicians
for Human Rights Israel and a _New York Times_ investigation
[[link removed]] convinced
[[link removed]] many
[[link removed]] observers
[[link removed]] that
Hamas used rape as a weapon of war. But an investigation by YES!
examining both reports, other media investigations, hundreds of news
articles, interviews with Israeli sources, and photo and video
evidence reveals a shocking conclusion: There is no evidence mass rape
occurred. 

_The New Yorker_
[[link removed]], _New
York Times_
[[link removed]], Associated
Press
[[link removed]],
and _The Nation_
[[link removed]] treat
PHRI’s paper as the gold standard for proof of Hamas’ rape and
sexual violence. But the paper is shockingly thin. It lacks original
reporting and is based on media reports that are dubious at best with
no corroboration—no forensic evidence, no survivor testimony, no
video evidence.

During a two-hour-long interview that was heated at times, Hadas Ziv,
director of ethics and policy at Physicians for Human Rights Israel
[[link removed]] (PHRI), acknowledged numerous problems
with the position paper she co-authored, “Sexual and Gender-Based
Violence As a Weapon of War During the October 7, 2023 Hamas Attacks.
[[link removed]]” 

Ziv admitted credibility problems with sources and that she did not
review all available evidence. She was “unaware” numerous sources
had fabricated atrocity stories about Oct. 7. Ziv said, “Yeah,
that’s a problem,” about a soldier she quotes whose claim of rape
was changed by the government. She quoted volunteers from Zaka, a
scandal-plagued organization
[[link removed]] that
collected human remains after Oct. 7, but Ziv did not realize Zaka
openly talks of inventing stories. When discussing claims that
women’s sexual organs were deliberately mutilated, Ziv conceded,
“OK, if there’s alternative explanations you can’t say
that.” 

While admitting “I did not know all the stories that you speak about
that discredit those witnesses,” Ziv also lashed out: “I feel like
I’m a rape victim that’s being interrogated.” YES! responded,
“Not every interview is a friendly interview.” 

Further, the PHRI paper is riddled with errors small and large. Names
are misspelled, quotes don’t match links, and an individual is
misidentified. Ziv was unaware that the Israeli government alleges
[[link removed]] it
has forensic evidence
[[link removed]] of
rape, which it has not produced publicly. Most egregious, Ziv didn’t
realize her paper counted one alleged gang rape as two separate
incidents. 

_The_ _New York Times_’ Dec. 28, 2023, story, “Screams Without
Words [[link removed]],” has also
been treated
[[link removed]] as proof
[[link removed]] that Hamas
committed [[link removed]] widespread
[[link removed]] sexual violence. 

The cornerstone of that report is Gal and Nagi Abdush, a couple killed
on Oct. 7. The _Times_ says Israeli police believe Gal Abdush was
raped. But the only evidence given is a “grainy video
[[link removed]]”
of Gal’s burned corpse, “lying on her back, dress torn, legs
spread, vagina exposed.” Gal became known as “the woman in the
black dress.” The story blew up
[[link removed]] in
the _Times’_ face. Surviving family members denied she was
raped. 

PHRI references the video of Gal Abdush as evidence of possible
“sexual abuse.”

The _Times_ mentioned messages that Gal and Nagi, parents of two
children, sent to their family during the attack. After Gal was
killed, Nagi sent “a final audio message” to his brother Nissim
Abdush at 7:44 a.m., “Take care of the kids. I love you,” right
before he was killed.

But the _Times_ fails to mention other text and phone messages that
make it almost impossible Gal was raped. She messaged at 6:51 a.m.
about intense explosions on the border, based on an Instagram
[[link removed]] comment
by Miral Altar, Gal’s sister. 

Nine minutes later, at 7:00 a.m., Nagi Abdush called his brother
Nissim to say Gal was shot and dying.

_Mondoweiss_ said
[[link removed]] Nissim
told his story to an Israeli TV station
[[link removed]].
He said Nagi never mentioned Gal was raped, nor did Israeli police
indicate to the surviving family that Gal was sexually assaulted.
The _Times_ never explains how Gal could be captured, raped, fatally
shot, and burned to death in nine minutes while Nagi messaged his
family and never mentioned any physical contact with Hamas forces.

YES! spoke with Nissim and Neama Abdush, siblings of Nagi. They said
Nagi called twice, first to say Gal had been shot in the heart and had
died, and then his farewell call asking them to take care of their
children. Neama said, “No, no, no,” when asked whether Nagi said
anything about Gal being attacked or raped.

In a follow-up call, Nissim reiterated the police did not give any
indication Gal was sexually assaulted, but he refused to offer any
more details unless he was paid 60,000 “dollars, shekels.”

Tali Barakha, another sister of Gal, wrote on Instagram
[[link removed]],
“No one can know if there was rape.”

THE DUBIOUS DOZEN

PHRI’s paper stated there is “sufficient evidence to require an
investigation of crimes against humanity.” _The New York
Times_ claimed “attacks against women were not isolated events but
part of a broader pattern of gender-based violence on Oct. 7.” 

Yet there are extraordinarily few sources. Twelve individuals account
for the vast majority of rape and sexual violence claims in hundreds
of articles. 

Eight of these sources are in PHRI’s paper and six are in _The New
York Times_ report. Investigations by _The Washington Post_
[[link removed]]_, __The
Guardian_
[[link removed]]_, __The
Straits Times_
[[link removed]]_, _BBC
[[link removed]], AP
[[link removed]], Reuters
[[link removed]],_ __The
Wall Street Journal_
[[link removed]], NBC
News
[[link removed]], _The
New Yorker_
[[link removed]],
and various
[[link removed]] CNN
[[link removed]] segments
[[link removed]] all
rely on a combination of these 12 sources.

All but one of the 12 sources are connected to the Israeli military
and police, such as the Home Front Command
[[link removed]].
Five of the sources are Zaka volunteers who told stories that smack of
fabrications. Five other sources claimed they saw corpses that bore
signs of rape or sexual violence. Not one of these sources was
professionally trained to make such assessments, and nearly all
fabricated stories, as described below. 

That leaves only two people who claimed they witnessed rape. The
government of Israel’s entire case for mass rape is built on two
allegations: a source known as “Witness S.,” or Sapir, put forward
by the police, and an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) special forces
soldier, Raz Cohen. The soldier has changed his story numerous times,
making it suspect, while Sapir’s account is so fantastical as to
defy belief, as explained below. 

Even if all 12 sources are considered entirely credible, their
accounts lack photo and forensic evidence and survivor testimony. At
best they are unsubstantiated claims. 

As for evidence, two reports have thrown cold water all over it.
First, _Ha’aretz_ reported
[[link removed]] on
Dec. 24 that Israeli police sent a court order to “general and
psychiatric hospitals” to “provide information on the victims of
sexual offenses committed by Hamas terrorists on October 7.” It was
a tacit admission that police lack survivor testimony. The court order
also undercut claims
[[link removed]] that alleged
survivors [[link removed]] were
not being identified
[[link removed]] to
protect them as unique details would make it simple to identify
them. 

Second, an even more revealing _Ha’aretz_ report
[[link removed]] published
on Jan. 4, 2024, pointed out that “[t]he police are having
difficulty locating victims of sexual assault or witnesses to acts
from the Hamas attack, and are unable to connect the existing evidence
with the victims described in it.” Police are so desperate they
appealed through the media, without success so far, “to encourage
those who have information on the matter to come and testify.”

United Nations experts have provided some evidence. On Jan. 29, a
U.N. envoy in Israel
[[link removed]] investigating
sexual violence on Oct. 7 issued a plea through the Israeli
president’s office for “victims of alleged sexual assault [to]
break your silence.” It was met with silence. Then on Feb. 19, four
U.N. experts
[[link removed]] said
they “expressed alarm over credible allegations” that Israel had
subjected hundreds of Palestinian women and girls in Gaza to
“arbitrary detention,” “degrading treatment,” “multiple
forms of sexual assault,” including rape, and “deliberate
targeting and extrajudicial killing.” 

EXTRAPOLATING “EVIDENCE” FROM HEARSAY

Much of the coverage of Oct. 7 is reminiscent of 9/11 conspiracy
theories. Reporters have tried to glean “truth” from ambiguous
photos and jumped to conclusions without considering other
possibilities. An undressed corpse does not equal sexual assault.
Clothes might be torn off while fleeing, in panic, hiding in brush, or
dressing wounds. 

_The_ _New York Times_ recounted the death of the Evens family
[[link removed]] in
Kibbutz Be’eri, using texts and photos. Caught in a fire, “they
stripped to their underwear.” Soldiers later found “several
half-naked bodies lying under a line of trees.” The parents and two
teenage boys “had all been shot dead.” 

Similarly, metal fragments in a body does not equal sexual violence.
A Reuters
[[link removed]] report
on Be’eri, one of the worst-hit communities on Oct. 7, described how
grenade blasts in a safe room turned screws from a sofa into shrapnel
that punctured the leg of a 13-year-old girl. If she had not lived
would that now be a case of Hamas sexual violence?

Asked about the Reuters report, PHRI’s Ziv admitted, “OK, if
there’s alternative explanations you can’t say that” it was
sexual violence. 

Alternative explanations applies to nearly every sexual violence claim
in the media. 

HEAD IN HANDS

Two witnesses, the anonymous source Sapir and Raz Cohen, provide the
most dramatic claims of sexual violence in PHRI’s
paper, the _Times_
[[link removed]],
and other media. Sapir and Cohen attended the Supernova music festival
and claimed to see gang rapes taking place 50 to 150 feet away from
their hiding spots. The _Times_ places them a few miles apart,
meaning Sapir and Cohen were describing different assaults.

In early November Israeli police showed
[[link removed]] a three-minute
video clip
[[link removed]?] with
Sapir’s face blurred to reporters, but they refused to take
questions and have since “declined” to release
[[link removed]] the
entire interview. Reports on the three-minute clip and shorter
excerpts on the web
[[link removed]] were
all that was known of Sapir’s story until _The_ _New York
Times_ interviewed
[[link removed]?] her
“several times.” The _Times_ says Sapir is “a 26-year-old
accountant” who
[[link removed]] “has
become one of the Israeli police’s key witnesses.”

The _Times_ said Sapir was wounded in her back and feeling faint.
She hid near a road covered “in dry grass and lay as still as she
could.” She claimed to see a group of “about 100 men” involved
in the horrific rape and murder of “at least five women.”
The _Times_ said:

The first victim she said she saw was a young woman with copper-color
hair, blood running down her back, pants pushed down to her knees. One
man pulled her by the hair and made her bend over. Another penetrated
her, Sapir said, and every time she flinched, he plunged a knife into
her back.

She said she then watched another woman “shredded into pieces.”
While one terrorist raped her, she said, another pulled out a box
cutter and sliced off her breast.

“One continues to rape her, and the other throws her breast to
someone else, and they play with it, throw it, and it falls on the
road.” …

Around the same time, she said, she saw three other women raped and
terrorists carrying the severed heads of three more women.

Compare this to what is known of the police video. In a 52-second
clip
[[link removed]] of
the police video, Sapir claimed a woman standing on her feet was raped
by militants and passed around. Sapir said a militant “cuts her
breasts. He throws it on the road. They are playing with it.”

Referring to the police video, the BBC added
[[link removed]] that Sapir
claimed a militant killed the woman and continued to rape her. “He
… shot her in the head before he finished. He didn’t even pick up
his pants; he shoots and ejaculates.” 

One journalist [[link removed]] who viewed part of the
video said Sapir claimed
[[link removed]] “some
terrorists were carrying heads in their hands [beheaded] as trophies,
saying there wasn’t a thing [they] didn’t do to the heads,”
implying that Hamas fighters were having sex with severed heads.

Sapir’s story and how it changes between the police video
and _Times_ report raises many questions. How could she see 100
militants and numerous assaults while lying still, covered? How does
one victim of rape become five? Why did one woman who was raped and
had her breast cut off in the police video become two women in
the _Times_ story?

Given such a slaughter—severed heads, hacked-off parts, blood
sprays, and five mutilated corpses—where is the forensic and photo
evidence? Why are there no witnesses who can verify any of her
accounts, such as sex with severed heads and corpses that sound like
they are out of Dante’s _Inferno_? 

The _Times_ published a follow-up
[[link removed]?] defending
the Dec. 28 report after it was hammered
[[link removed]] for poor
sourcing
[[link removed]] and lack
of evidence
[[link removed]],
but it only raised more questions about flimsy reporting.

PHRI’s position paper bungles Sapir’s story as well, citing it as
two separate incidents. It is first mentioned in the “Victims”
section as “a woman who detailed the group rape and murder of a
young woman by assailants dressed in military uniforms.” Then, PHRI
cited Sapir’s story again under “Visual Testimonies” as it is a
video. Hadas Ziv admitted the mistake to YES!, but no other media
outlets have picked up PHRI’s error. 

CHANGING STORIES

Raz Cohen, the second eyewitness to claim he saw rape, is a former
Israeli officer from “the elite Maglan unit
[[link removed]].” Neither the
original _Times_ report nor PHRI mentions Cohen is an ex-special
forces soldier
[[link removed]] or
that his story has changed numerous times. 

Cohen hid
[[link removed]] in a
streambed with friends after fleeing the Supernova festival. According
to the _Times_
[[link removed]],
he claimed to see a white van pull up about 40 yards away and five men
drag a woman across the ground, “young, naked, and screaming.”
Cohen said, “They start raping her. I saw the men standing in a half
circle around her. One penetrates her. She screams. I still remember
her voice, screams without words. Then one of them raises a knife, and
they just slaughtered her.” 

Initially, Cohen’s story was different. On Oct. 7, he described
[[link removed]] hundreds
of terrified people fleeing Hamas gunmen across a field as some were
shot and fell. Cohen and others hid for six hours in the bush as
gunshots whistled above them and a battle between “our army and the
terrorists” raged around them. 

In the next three days, a shaken Cohen
[[link removed]] described
similar experiences in videos
[[link removed]] and interviews
[[link removed]]. He said
people were “slaughtered with knives.” The Australian Broadcasting
Corporation reported in an Oct. 10 story
[[link removed]] based
on an interview with Cohen that, “Hamas militants stabbed a group of
women nearby.” But he made no mention of rape or sexual violence.

Then Cohen’s story changed. Later in the day in an Oct. 10
appearance, Cohen said on _PBS Newshour_
[[link removed]],
“The terrorists, people from Gaza, raped girls. And after they raped
them, they killed them, murdered them with knives, or the opposite,
killed—and after they raped, they—they did that.” In an Oct. 24
interview
[[link removed]] with
the _Washington Free Beacon_ he also claimed a woman was raped and
murdered.

It is notable that Cohen’s story is strikingly similar to Sapir’s:
multiple gang rapes, killing with knives, sexual assault of corpses.
No major media has picked up on the similarities, nor that the number
of victims appears to go from several to one. 

Since both Sapir and Cohen’s accounts surfaced, a different
companion who hid with each one has since come forward. The _Times_
[[link removed]] interviewed
both, and their accounts don’t back up those of Sapir or Cohen.
There are other
[[link removed]] accounts
[[link removed]] of rape
[[link removed]] and
sexual violence, but the sources can’t be identified
[[link removed]] or
say they “heard
[[link removed]]”
but did not visually witness
[[link removed]] rape.

Further undermining Sapir and Cohen are reports on the massacre
[[link removed]] of 364 people
[[link removed]] at
the festival. CNN,
[[link removed]] BBC
[[link removed]], _The Guardian_
[[link removed]], _The
Wall Street Journal_
[[link removed]], _The
New York Times_
[[link removed]], _The
New Yorker_
[[link removed]], ABC
News
[[link removed]],
and NBC
[[link removed]] News
[[link removed]] reconstructed
the killing field using photos, videos, social media, and interviews
with dozens of festival goers. It was a horrific slaughter, but no one
mentioned torture, sexual violence, or rape. 

Nor have police substantiated Sapir or Cohen’s stories
despite possessing
[[link removed]] “over
60,000 ‘visual documents’ including videos from GoPro cameras worn
by attackers, CCTV footage and images from drones.” YES! reviewed
every graphic video and photo it could locate, including in
a Telegram channel
[[link removed]],
Israeli government
[[link removed]] websites
[[link removed]], and a five-part series
[[link removed]] of,
frankly, snuff films. They show militants, brutal killings, and
hundreds of corpses, but nothing like the scenes Sapir or Cohen
described. 

BODY BAGS AND MONEY GRABS

The dearth of evidence of mass rapes has been attributed
[[link removed]] to Israeli
government claims
[[link removed]] that religious
concerns
[[link removed]] and chaos
[[link removed]] prevented
[[link removed]] the gathering
of forensic evidence. But other reports indicate Israel manipulated
evidence, forensics, and Zaka testimony that all create the appearance
of a campaign of mass rape. 

_Ha’aretz_
[[link removed]] reported
Zaka volunteers sidelined soldiers in collecting evidence after Oct.
7. 

[The] IDF decided to forego the deployment of hundreds of soldiers
specifically trained in the identification and collection of human
remains in mass casualty incidents. Instead, the Home Front Command
chose to use Zaka, a private organization.

A Nov. 12 Ynet report
[[link removed]] suggests
why Zaka took the lead. An information specialist in Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office boasted to Ynet that Zaka testimonies
“had a tremendous impact on the reporters” by portraying Hamas as
“human-monsters.” That bolstered Israel’s narrative that
“Hamas is equal to Isis … deepening the legitimacy of the state to
act with great force,” the official said.

On top of serving as war propaganda, stories by Zaka volunteers appear
invented. This author described in a recent _Intercept_
[[link removed]] investigation
how Zaka
[[link removed]] officials
[[link removed]] say
[[link removed]] “we’re
[[link removed]] using our
imagination” when they recount atrocities and “the bodies is
telling us the stories that happened to them.” Western media is full
of Zaka atrocity claims, nearly all of which are fabrications,
dubious, or unsubstantiated.

Even more shocking, Zaka was founded decades ago by Yehuda
Meshi-Zahav
[[link removed]],
who allegedly sexually assaulted at least 20 minors
[[link removed]] over
decades before being exposed in 2021. Meshi-Zahav and relatives
reportedly used “shadow organizations
[[link removed]]”
to divert millions of dollars
[[link removed]] from
a nearly insolvent
[[link removed]] Zaka
into a “slush fund
[[link removed]]”
to finance “a lavish lifestyle in 5-star hotels and a multi-million
dollar villa.” 

_Ha’aretz_
[[link removed]] reported
that during Oct. 7 recovery efforts, a financially troubled Zaka used
“the dead as props” for fundraising. In the
process, _Ha’aretz_ says, Zaka wrecked forensic evidence that
could prove or disprove rape claims.

PHRI’s paper includes testimony from two Zaka volunteers. After
being told a few Zaka stories, Hadas Ziv told YES!, “I didn’t know
that they are unreliable. … But maybe I’m just trusting people who
tell the story as it is and I don’t look into [it].”

Reuters, CNN, _The New York Times_, BBC, _The Guardian_,
NBC, _Politico_
[[link removed]], _The
Wall Street Journal_
[[link removed]],
and _The Washington Post_
[[link removed]] also
quote Zaka volunteers with no mention of past scandals or present
controversies.

A FLOOD OF DISINFORMATION

Remaining sources also have credibility problems. One is an anonymous
[[link removed]] paramedic
with Unit 669, an elite Israeli search-and-rescue outfit. The soldier
claims he found a dead girl, “14, 15-years-old teenager,” on the
floor of a home in a kibbutz. She was “on her stomach, her pants are
pulled down, and she is half-naked. Her legs are spread out, wide
open, and there are remains of sperm on her back. Someone executed her
right after he brutally, brutally raped her.” 

He first spoke [[link removed]] on Oct.
25 with Republic World, a right-wing Indian news channel
[[link removed]], his back to the camera.
Ziv linked to a clip
[[link removed]] in the PHRI paper
from the same interview that Eylon Levy tweeted the same day. A
spokesperson for Netanyahu, Levy is a conduit
[[link removed]] of
[[link removed]] disinformation
[[link removed]]. 

In the full interview, the paramedic said a teammate
[[link removed]] “pulled out of
the garbage” a 1-year-old baby “multiple times stabbed all over
his body.” He also claimed there were “Arabic sentences that were
written on entrances to houses [with] the blood of the people that
were living in those houses.” 

One infant was killed on Oct. 7, 10-month-old Mila Cohen
[[link removed]],
“who was shot while in the arms of her mother,” who survived. 

Needless to say, these stories appear to be fabrications as well. More
significantly, the paramedic is typical of other major sources. Their
claims are wild, there’s no other witnesses, no independent
reporting, no photo or forensic evidence, no information about the
deceased.

Further weakening his credibility, the paramedic initially identified
Kibbutz Nahal Oz [[link removed]] three
times as the site of the attack and translated its name as “River of
Strength.” In Nahal Oz
[[link removed]],
at least 60 soldiers were killed and 12 civilians. Five family members
were killed in one home, including two sisters, but they were adults,
aged 18 and 20. 

Perhaps realizing none of the victims in Nahal Oz matched the
paramedic’s description, Eylon Levy changed the location to Be’eri
in a tweet
[[link removed]] and
trimmed the clip to cut out all references to Nahal Oz. 

When talking to _The New York Times_
[[link removed]], AP
[[link removed]], _The
Washington Post_
[[link removed]]_,_ and CNN
[[link removed]],
the paramedic only referenced Be’eri as the location. The number of
victims changed as well, hardly a minor point, from one
[[link removed]] to two
[[link removed]],
to half a dozen
[[link removed]],
and back to one or two
[[link removed]]. 

When asked about how she did her research for the PHRI paper, Ziv
said, “I checked every report that was available to me.” The
Republic World interview of the paramedic was available to her as she
linked to the short clip Levy tweeted out in the PHRI paper.

After listening to a description of the paramedic’s false stories,
Ziv said, “No, I didn’t see this one.” YES! asked, “So you
didn’t look at all the evidence then?” Ziv responded, “No I
didn’t, probably.” 

Ziv also said, “Yeah, that’s a problem” about the fact
Netanyahu’s office altered the paramedic’s story and that he is an
anonymous military source. 

DEAD BABIES

Six of the 12 sources fabricated dead-baby stories, including Shari
Mendes. A volunteer military reservist who worked in the Rabbinate
Corps at the Shura military morgue
[[link removed]] in
Central Israel for two weeks, Mendes helped “medics with
fingerprinting and cleaning female soldiers’ bodies,” according
to Reuters
[[link removed]]. 

On Oct. 20, Mendes told _The Daily Mail_
[[link removed]],
“A baby was cut out of a pregnant woman and beheaded and then the
mother was beheaded.” Senior personnel at Shura, Col. Rabbi Haim
Weisberg
[[link removed]] and
retired Brig. Gen. Rabbi Israel Weiss
[[link removed]],
also claimed they discovered a pregnant mother killed with her
fetus. 

_Ha’aretz_ says
[[link removed]],
“This horrific incident … simply didn’t happen.” 

PHRI quotes Mendes
[[link removed]] from
a Nov. 9 _Times of Israel_ report
[[link removed]].
Mendes says, “Yes, we have seen that women have been raped. Children
through elderly women have been raped. Forcible entry, to the point
that bones were broken.” Mendes
[[link removed]] has also
alleged, “We saw genitals cut off, heads cut off, babies, hands,
feet, no reason.” She says
[[link removed]],
“This is not just something we saw on the internet, we saw these
bodies with our own eyes.”

PHRI cites Capt. Maayan, an IDF reservist and dentist at Shura, from
the same article. _The Times of Israel_ wrote:

Maayan said on October 31 that she has seen several bodies that had
signs consistent with sexual abuse.

“I can tell that I saw a lot of signs of abuse in the [genital
region],” Maayan said, using her hand to euphemistically
demonstrate. “We saw broken legs, broken pelvises, bloody
underwear,” and women who were not dressed below the waist, she
said.

_The Times of Israel_ said Mendes is not “legally qualified to
determine rape.” Likewise PHRI cautioned that “emergency and
medical personnel who provided testimonies” were not
“professionally trained to determine whether rape had occurred.” 

But PHRI tries to have it both ways. It cites claims of rape and
sexual abuse from Shari Mendes, Capt. Maayan, the paramedic, Itzik
Itah and Simcha Greiniman of Zaka, and its final source, Rami Shmuel,
a music festival organizer. 

If these sources can’t determine rape, why include them? PHRI also
says “the accounts they provided indicate the perpetration of sexual
violence.” What qualifies them to conclude wounds are deliberate
signs of sexual violence and not from weapons? 

When asked how Mendes could have known broken pelvises
[[link removed]] were
caused by mass rape, Ziv said, “She doesn’t, she doesn’t. She
can only say that this is what she saw. She can’t say this is a
result of rape.”

So why is Israel seemingly making untrained civilians the face of mass
rape claims? At a high-profile U.N. session
[[link removed]] on
Dec. 4, organized
[[link removed]] with
the help of tech mogul Sheryl Sandberg, Mendes, and Greiniman
testified and parts of Sapir’s video were shown. 

Greiniman [[link removed]],
a deputy commander
[[link removed]] in
Zaka, claimed naked women were tied to trees at the Supernova
festival, he found a toddler
[[link removed]] with a knife
stuck through its head, and he discovered foreign fighters—they left
their IDs in their pockets. Why did Israel choose to present sources
with some of the most bizarre and hard-to-believe stories to the
world? 

Why have doctors, pathologists, or soldiers who recovered remains not
offered testimony or documentation of rape, sexual assault, or other
atrocities? Israel has produced videos
[[link removed]] of forensic
investigations [[link removed]] of Oct.
7 victims. Media were given access to document atrocities 
[[link removed]]at
the National Center of Forensic Medicine on Oct. 16.

On Oct. 14, Reuters
[[link removed]], _Ha’aretz_
[[link removed]],
and _Politico_
[[link removed]] joined
a media tour of Shura
[[link removed]] organized
by Israeli officials. Reuters reported, “Military forensic teams …
found multiple signs of torture, rape and other atrocities.” Rabbi
Israel Weiss, who helped oversee the identification of the dead, said
“Many bodies showed signs of torture as well as rape.” Capt.
Maayan said, “Forensic examination found several cases of rape,”
according to _Politico_.

But, according to Reuters, “The military personnel overseeing the
identification process didn’t present any forensic evidence in the
form of pictures or medical records.”

Not long after, Zaka volunteers, Shari Mendes, and the Unit 669
paramedic began making a splash in the media. Little has been heard
from the forensic experts since.

_ARUN GUPTA [[link removed]] is a
graduate of the French Culinary Institute and has written for
the Washington Post, the Nation, The Daily Beast, The Raw Story, The
Guardian, and other publications. He is the author of the
upcoming Bacon as a Weapon of Mass Destruction: A Junk-Food-Loving
Chef’s Inquiry into Taste (The New Press)._

_YES! Media is a nonprofit, independent publisher of solutions
journalism.  YES! Media is a nonprofit, independent publisher of
solutions journalism.  YES! MEDIA IS THE BUSINESS NAME FOR POSITIVE
FUTURES NETWORK, A 501(C)(3) NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION. YES! is ad-free
and has no paywall for its online content. Most magazines make their
money from advertising. But we don’t want advertisers to influence
the content of YES! Because subscription sales cover just one third
of our costs, we rely on tax-deductible donations
[[link removed]] from our readers and from
foundation grants. _

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