Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz during a UNSC emergency session in New York (Photo: Shlomi Amsalem)
The United Nations Security Council held an emergency session on Monday to debate the report regarding, the rapes and sexual abuse committed by Palestinian terrorists on Oct. 7.
The 24-page UN report was prepared by Pramila Patten, the UN special representative of the secretary-general on Sexual Violence in Conflict, who based her findings on “clear and convincing” evidence of systematic sexual violence committed by Hamas operatives against Israeli women both on Oct. 7 and later against hostages held inside the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who attended the debate, blasted the UN for its silence in the face of Hamas’ atrocities.
“For too long the UN has been silent on Hamas actions,” Katz said, noting that while the UN has repeatedly condemned Israel’s military operations in Gaza, it has yet to denounce the highly-documented war crimes committed by Hamas terrorists.
“UN never condemned nor disapproved these Hamas brutal crimes,” Katz said. Nor has the UN recognized Hamas as a terror organization, he added.
Katz called on the UN to designate Hamas “as a terrorist organization and face the heaviest sanctions possible.”
“Hamas crimes are even worse than the terror actions carried out by al-Qaeda, ISIS, and other terror organizations that were sanctioned by the UN. Many countries have declared Hamas as a terror organization including the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, Paraguay, New Zealand, the UK, the EU, and others.”
In February, UN Relief Chief Martin Griffiths denied that Hamas is a terror organization, calling it instead a political movement that requires a “negotiated solution.”
The UN Security Council debate was held at the request of the United States, France, and the United Kingdom, and was the first session to include a debate about the individual and mass rapes and sexual violence committed by Palestinian men on Oct. 7.
By contrast, the UNSC has met numerous times to debate Gaza and Israel’s military operations.
During the session, Patten briefed the UNSC on her findings, noting that “nothing can justify the deliberate violence perpetrated by Hamas and other armed groups on the 7th of October against Israel.”
Nevertheless, Patten said that Israel’s military campaign was unjustified “collective punishment” against Gazan civilians and said she was “horrified” by the “injustice” faced by the women and children “killed in Gaza by countless bombs, gunfire. And I am also outraged by the level of deaths and pain of entire families, often generations wiped out.”
Relatives of hostages still in Gaza were part of the Israeli foreign minister’s delegation to the UNSC and some of them expressed frustration with the comparisons made during the session between mass rapes committed by Palestinians and the conditions of Gaza’s residents as a result of the war.
“I’m not minimizing that, but you can’t compare them both. It’s not comparable, you can’t put them in the same sentence,” said Yarden Gonen, sister of hostage Romi Gonen. “We’re talking about sexual violence, crimes. Not about the starvation.”
Others expressed their deep disappointment with Patten’s conclusions.
Elan Tiv, daughter of returned hostage Aviva Siegel, said she felt used by Patten, saying the UN official repeated Hamas rhetoric.
“I am really disappointed by the report. I feel like Patten came to Israel and heard all the things about the 7th of October and she took it and just compare it to the lies that she heard on the Palestinian side,” Tiv said.
“And it’s disappointing for me to come here all the way to the UN, to a place that to me, is supposed to look at the future and to create a better world for our kids…my hope has really gone down in this visit.”
Tiv was especially disappointed because her own mother had given testimony to Patten, despite being exhausted from her ordeal in the Hamas tunnels.
“She gave her testimony to [Patten] a few weeks after she came back from captivity. She was so weak and still she felt the urge to do it,” Tiv said.
]“I feel like it’s not fair to listen to broken women, and then to compare it to all kinds of unchecked things that you heard on the other side.”
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