Her pants had been pulled down below her waist. He thought that was evidence of sexual violence. He tearfully recounted the details in a nationally televised appearance in the Israeli Parliament. In the frantic hours, days and weeks that followed the Hamas attack, his testimony ricocheted across the world. Beyond the numerous and well-documented atrocities committed by Hamas militants on Oct.
The United Nations and other organizations have presented credible evidence that Hamas militants committed sexual assault during their rampage. Some allege the accounts of sexual assault were purposely concocted. ZAKA officials and others dispute that. As some of the first people on the scene, ZAKA volunteers offered testimony of what they saw that day.
Those words have helped journalists, Israeli lawmakers and U. ZAKA, a volunteer-based group, does not do forensic work. The organization has been a fixture at Israeli disaster sites and scenes of attacks since it was founded in Its specific job is to collect bodies in keeping with Jewish law. Still, it took ZAKA months to acknowledge the accounts were wrong, allowing them to proliferate. And the fallout from the debunked accounts shows how the topic of sexual violence has been used to further political agendas.
Israel points to sexual violence on Oct. It has accused the international community of ignoring or playing down evidence of sexual violence claims, alleging anti-Israel bias. It says any untrue stories were an anomaly in the face of the many documented atrocities. But the U. Hamas has denied its forces committed sexual violence. Israel was caught off guard by the ferocity of the Oct.
About 1, people were killed and taken hostage. It took days for the military to clear the area of militants. There were hundreds of bodies scattered across southern Israel, bearing various signs of abuse: burns, bullet holes, signs of mutilation, marks indicating bodies were bound.
