Biden says world cannot ignore ‘appalling’ reports of Hamas raping Israeli women
President Biden on Tuesday forcefully denounced the reported rape and other sexual violence against Israeli girls and women by Hamas militants during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, calling on the world to condemn such conduct “without equivocation” and “without exception.”
Speaking at a campaign fundraiser in Boston, Biden noted that in recent weeks, female survivors and witnesses to the attacks have shared “horrific accounts of unimaginable cruelty.”
“Reports of women raped — repeatedly raped — and their bodies being mutilated while still alive — of women corpses being desecrated, Hamas terrorists inflicting as much pain and suffering on women and girls as possible and then murdering them,” Biden said. “It is appalling.”
Israel has said it is investigating several cases of sexual assault and rape carried out during Hamas’ cross-border attack. Witnesses and medical experts have said that Hamas militants committed a series of rapes and other attacks before killing the victims in the Oct. 7 assault, though the extent of the sexual violence remains unknown.
Experts have been piecing together evidence in recent weeks in a case that is complicated because there are no known victims to testify and forensic evidence is limited.
Biden’s comments come as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s government has sought to put greater focus on the sexual violence it says Hamas committed during the Oct. 7 attack. At least 1,200 people were killed on Israeli soil and 240 others were taken hostage, according to Israel. Some recently released hostages have shared testimonies of abuse and sexual violence during their time in the Gaza Strip.
A forensic investigator in Tel Aviv works to reassemble remains of victims of Hamas militants, trying to understand the causes of death and the underlying cruelty.
As the Palestinian militant group Hamas frees more hostages amid a temporary truce with Israel, a harrowing glimpse of captivity in war-torn Gaza emerges.
Hamas has denied that its militants committed sexual assaults.
Netanyahu railed against the lack of international response during a news conference Tuesday evening.
“I say to the women’s rights organizations, to the human rights organizations, you’ve heard of the rape of Israeli women, horrible atrocities, sexual mutilation — where the hell are you?” asked Netanyahu.
The group Physicians for Human Rights in Israel, which has a record of advocating for Palestinian civilians in Gaza suffering under Israel’s longtime blockade of the territory, published an initial assessment in November.
“What we know for sure is that it was more than just one case and it was widespread, in that this happened in more than one location and more than a handful of times,” Hadas Ziv, policy and ethics director for the organization, said Tuesday. “What we don’t know and what the police are investigating is whether it was ordered to be done and whether it was systematic.”
Israel hosted a special event at the United Nations on Monday where former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and former Meta Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg were among those who criticized what they called a global failure to support women who they said were raped and in some cases killed.
The comments from Biden came a day after White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the alleged assaults “reprehensible.”
‘I just don’t know where we’ll go.’ It’s a question Palestinians ask over and over in Gaza as Israel ramps up bombardment after Hamas truce collapsed.
Jean-Pierre, who underscored that she was speaking on the president’s behalf, was responding to a query about comments by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) during a CNN interview in which she responded to a question about rape by Palestinian militants by saying, “I think we have to be balanced about bringing in the outrages against Palestinians, 15,000 Palestinians have been killed.”
Israel’s bombardment and ground attacks in Gaza have killed more than 15,800 people, according to the Health Ministry in the Palestinian territory controlled by Hamas, which Israel has vowed to destroy.
Jayapal later issued a statement clarifying that she ”unequivocally” condemns “Hamas’ use of rape and sexual violence as an act of war.”
As a senator, Biden was the author of the Violence Against Women Act, which was signed into law in 1994. He referenced his work on the issue as a lawmaker as he spoke out against the allegations of sexual violence by Hamas.
“The world can’t just look away at what’s going on,” Biden told donors. He added, “It’s on all of us — government, international organizations, civil society and businesses — to forcefully condemn the sexual violence of Hamas terrorists without equivocation.”
Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim and Aamer Madhani in Washington and Sam Mednick and Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
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