The Unresolved Reckoning: Inside the Bitter Global Debate Over Sexual Violence on October 7

More than two years after the deadliest day in Israel's history, the question of what happened to women and men on October 7, 2023 — and what has happened to Palestinian detainees since — remains one of the most fiercely contested aspects of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Multiple UN investigations, international reports, and journalistic inquiries have produced findings that both confirm and complicate the initial narratives, while the politicization of sexual violence allegations by all sides has made the pursuit of justice agonizingly difficult.

What the Evidence Shows

On March 4, 2024, Pramila Patten, the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, released a 24-page report following an official visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank. Her mission team — comprising nine experts — conducted 33 meetings with Israeli representatives, examined more than 5,000 photographs and 50 hours of video footage, and carried out 34 confidential interviews with survivors, witnesses, released hostages, and first responders [1].

The report concluded there were "reasonable grounds to believe" that conflict-related sexual violence — including rape and gang rape — occurred during the October 7 attacks in at least three locations: the Supernova music festival site near Kibbutz Re'im, Kibbutz Re'im itself, and along Route 232 [2]. The mission team also identified a disturbing pattern of victims — mostly women — found "fully or partially naked, bound and shot" across multiple locations, which Patten said "may be indicative of some forms of sexual violence" [1].

Regarding hostages taken to Gaza, the report found "clear and convincing information" that captives had been subjected to "sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment" [3]. In November 2025, Guy Gilboa Dalal, who was held in captivity for two years, publicly revealed that he was sexually abused during his detention [4].

However, the Patten report carried significant caveats. The mission was "neither intended nor mandated to be investigative in nature" [1]. Crucially, it was "unable to establish the prevalence of sexual violence" and "did not gather information and/or draw conclusions on attribution of alleged violations to specific armed groups" [5]. Hamas has consistently denied that its fighters committed sexual assaults and has called for an impartial international investigation [5].

Corroborating Investigations — and Their Limits

Multiple other investigations have since added to the evidentiary record. In July 2024, Human Rights Watch published a 236-page report titled "'I Can't Erase All the Blood from My Mind'" based on 144 interviews, including with 94 Israeli and other nationals [6]. While it documented "acts of sexual and gender-based violence by fighters including forced nudity" and the non-consensual posting of sexualized images online, HRW acknowledged it was "not able to gather verifiable information through interviews with survivors of or witnesses to rape during the assault" [6]. Instead, it relied on the UN special representative's earlier findings.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory released its own report on June 12, 2024, finding that both Hamas and Israeli forces had committed sexual violence and torture [7]. The commission found that Palestinian armed groups were responsible for incidents "indicative of sexual violence" at the Re'im festival, the Nahal Oz military outpost, and several kibbutzim — including the sexual abuse of female abductees and "sexualized desecration" of corpses [7].

Source: GDELT Project

Data as of Mar 10, 2026CSV

In Israel, the Dinah Project — founded by legal scholars Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, Sharon Zagagi-Pinhas, and Nava Ben-Or — produced a report identifying at least 17 survivors who witnessed sexual violence across at least 15 separate incidents [8]. The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel (ARCCI) separately collected confidential testimony, and Israeli police's Lahav 433 unit told the Knesset that 1,500 testimonies had been collected [9].

Yet the forensic record remains thin. Israeli media acknowledged that attack scenes had not been properly photographed, preserved, or forensically examined in the immediate aftermath [10]. Morgue officials stated they could not designate individual cases of rape due to a lack of the physical proof required by courts [10]. As of January 2025, the former head of the security cases division in Israel's Southern District prosecutor's office confirmed that no criminal case was being filed due to a lack of evidence and complainants [4].

The Journalism Controversy

The debate was further complicated by controversy over the New York Times' December 28, 2023 investigation, "'Screams Without Words': How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7." Written by Jeffrey Gettleman and two freelancers, Anat Schwartz and Adam Sella, the article based on 150 interviews contended that Hamas systematically used rape as a weapon of war [11].

The story quickly came under scrutiny. The Intercept reported that two of the three victims specifically highlighted by the Times were not in fact victims of sexual assault, according to the spokesperson for Kibbutz Be'eri [12]. One of the freelancers, Anat Schwartz, was found to have engaged in social media activity that included "dehumanizing language and endorsements of violence against Palestinians in Gaza," prompting an internal Times investigation [11].

In March 2024, the Times acknowledged that "new video evidence 'undercut' some important details" in the article, though no formal correction was issued [11]. Over 60 journalism professors subsequently wrote to the newspaper demanding an independent review [13]. By October 2025, more than 300 New York Times contributors boycotted the paper, with demands that included a retraction of the article for what they called its failure to meet journalistic standards [4].

The episode illustrated a broader dynamic: debunked or questionable accounts fueled skepticism about legitimate evidence, while legitimate evidence was dismissed by those who viewed the entire narrative as propaganda. As a PBS analysis noted, "2 debunked accounts of sexual violence on Oct. 7 fueled a global dispute" that extended far beyond the facts of any individual case [14].

The Other Side of the Ledger

The debate over October 7 sexual violence cannot be separated from allegations of sexual violence by Israeli forces against Palestinian detainees — allegations that have grown more documented and more severe over the course of the war.

UNRWA reported that Palestinians released from detention described being forced to strip naked, having photographs taken of them while naked, and suffering beatings on the genitals. One detainee reported being "forced to sit on an electrical probe that burned his anus" [15]. Investigations by The Associated Press and human rights organizations exposed conditions at Sde Teiman, the military base through which most of the thousands detained from Gaza during the war have passed [16].

In August 2024, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights described Israel's "escalating use of torture against Palestinians in custody" as a "preventable crime against humanity" [17]. Pramila Patten herself expressed "serious concerns over reported instances of rape and other forms of sexual violence against Palestinian detainees" [18].

In March 2025, the UN Commission of Inquiry released a report concluding that Israel had "systematically used sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since 7 October 2023," including measures it said were "intended to prevent births" among Palestinians in Gaza — which the commission categorized as a form of genocidal act under the Genocide Convention [19]. Israel rejected these findings.

Israel's Paradox: Blocking Its Own Investigation

Perhaps the most revealing aspect of the entire saga is Israel's decision to block a comprehensive UN investigation. In January 2025, Haaretz reported that Israel refused Pramila Patten's request to conduct a full investigation into Hamas' sexual crimes on October 7 — because the investigation would also require granting access to Israeli detention facilities to examine allegations of IDF abuse against Palestinian detainees [20].

The decision effectively prevented the kind of thorough, independent accounting that Israel had itself demanded in the immediate aftermath of October 7. It also meant that the UN's initial finding of "reasonable grounds to believe" sexual violence occurred — while significant — could not be upgraded to the definitive investigative conclusions that both accountability and justice would require.

The UN Blacklist and Its Fallout

In August 2025, the annual report of the UN Secretary-General on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence included Hamas on its blacklist for the first time — the list of countries and organizations "credibly suspected" of responsibility for patterns of sexual violence in conflict [21]. The listing was based on verified information from 2024 indicating sexual violence against hostages and during the October 7 attacks in at least six locations.

The same report placed Israel "on notice" for potential future listing, citing "significant concerns" regarding patterns of sexual violence by Israeli armed and security forces [21]. The ICC had already issued arrest warrants in November 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif — with the prosecutor's applications alleging crimes including rape and sexual violence on both sides [22].

Jewish organizations like the American Jewish Congress welcomed the Hamas listing but warned against "false moral equivalence with Israel" [23]. Critics from the other direction accused the UN of complicity in what Mondoweiss described as "Israel's mass rape propaganda" [24]. The polarization was complete.

The Weaponization of Suffering

Academic analysis has identified a disturbing dual dynamic. A paper published in the Journal of Genocide Research described the phenomenon as one of simultaneous "weaponization and denial" — where sexual violence allegations are both instrumentalized for political purposes and denied or minimized by the opposing side [25].

Some Palestinian solidarity groups have condemned what they call the "manipulative and cynical" exploitation of sexual violence accounts by the Israeli government as propaganda to justify military operations in Gaza [14]. Feminist scholars have warned that "fixation on rape cheapens feminist arguments against sexual violence if the charges are sensationalized and weaponized for political agendas" [14].

Conversely, organizations like the Pinsker Centre have argued that the UN failed October 7's sexual violence victims through delayed response and institutional bias [26]. Israeli officials have accused international human rights bodies of systematically downplaying evidence of Hamas atrocities.

The truth, as the evidence shows, is that sexual violence has been perpetrated by both parties to the conflict — and that the political exploitation of these crimes by all sides has made justice for any victim more difficult to achieve. As The Conversation noted, "both sides are reporting sexual violence committed by their enemy — but these crimes are hard to investigate" [27].

What Justice Looks Like

The path forward remains uncertain. The ICC's arrest warrants represent the most concrete step toward accountability, but enforcement depends on member states' willingness to act. The UN's blacklisting of Hamas carries moral weight but limited enforcement power. And the absence of a comprehensive, independent investigation — blocked in part by Israel's own strategic calculations — means that the full scope of sexual violence on and after October 7 may never be definitively established.

What is clear is that sexual violence occurred on October 7, 2023. What is also clear is that sexual violence has been perpetrated against Palestinian detainees. What remains tragically unclear is whether the international community can address both realities simultaneously — or whether the victims on both sides will continue to be subordinated to the political narratives their suffering is made to serve.