Israel’s October 7 Rape Propaganda Has Encouraged Sexual Violence Against Palestinian Women

Since October 7, various gruesome, details and unsubstantiated allegations of rape have been spread by the Israeli media. Later, a campaign that was coordinated with high-profiled figures like Hillary Clinton, again began pushing the idea that Hamas had committed a “systematic” mass rape atrocity against Israeli women. The New York Times, the BBC, and Western politicians all joined in on the promotion of this narrative, that has contributed to proven cases of sexual violence, including rape, against Palestinian women, for which we see next to no coverage despite the overwhelming evidence.

As the Israeli claims regarding an alleged mass rape atrocity on October 7 are falling apart little by little, a new range of allegations have spread, but this time it is against Israeli soldiers inside Gaza. As part of Israel’s re-invasion — for the fourth time — of al-Shifa Hospital and its surrounding, a number of claims have been spread across social media, originally emerging from a woman who was interviewed by al-Jazeera Arabic on March 23. That same day, a range of alleged victims and witnesses — who were all unnamed besides the woman who appeared on Al-Jazeera — gave gruesome testimonies, the most horrifying concerned the alleged rape of a pregnant woman in front of her family members.

Al-Jazeera has now deleted the clip that it originally published, carrying the rape claims from an alleged witness, after the account she gave was questioned and widely criticized for having spread hysteria throughout the population of the Gaza Strip. As for the other accounts, which spread across Arabic social media channels, there has been no follow up on them and so far there has been no independent inquiry or human rights report that has confirmed the alleged mass rapes of Palestinian women on that day.

While Israeli media has gone into overdrive in an attempt to dismiss allegations of rape, in and around al-Shifa Hospital, there has been no real acknowledgement of the allegations that have emerged in Western mainstream media. This reflects damning hypocrisy and double-standards, as the various claims of mass rape on October 7 — which have no proof to support them –spread like wild fire and were repeated as if confirmed, across Western and Israeli media. The likes of Hillary Clinton, who had weaponized false reports regarding rape in Libya to justify NATO’s invasion of the country in 2011, were paraded across Western media in a campaign to see the United Nations and general public condemn what they say was a Hamas implemented plan that weaponized rape on a mass scale on October 7.

Based upon the Israeli allegations, The New York Times released its “expose” entitled “Screams without words”, which has fallen apart and turned into a major scandal, as almost every element of the piece has been deconstructed and proven to be biased, false, or tantamount to a collection of poorly strung together distortions, at best. Israel’s Haaretz news also published a story, entitled “The Scope of Hamas’ Campaign of Rape Against Israeli Women Is Revealed, Testimony After Testimony“, which covered Cochav Elkayam-Levy’s commission that was formed to provide proof of the alleged Hamas mass rape atrocities. Not only had the commission not collected a single testimony from any alleged rape victim according to Haaretz (making their title’s “testimony after testimony” claim a clear and seemingly deliberate misrepresentation) Elkayam-Levy was recently outed by Israel’s biggest news outlet, ‘Ynet’, for taking funds from donors and not delivering on her promises. The Ynet piece interviewed an Israeli government official who said that her “methodology was neither good nor accurate” and that “people have disassociated themselves from her because her research is inaccurate“.

As the Western and Israeli media, along with their political representatives, have widely shared the tails of the evidence-free allegation of a “mass rape” atrocity having been systematically carried out by Hamas, it would be redundant to go through all the cases where it is mentioned. It is, however,  important to note the wide-spread nature of this specific allegation, not only because it has no evidence to back it up, but because it also created a clear impression on Israeli citizens that this was true.

Now, to make things absolutely clear, we cannot make any definitive conclusion on whether there was rape that occurred on October 7, to say that no Israeli or Palestinian committed such acts on that day would be just as ludicrous as to claim a systematic campaign of rape occurred; in the absence of any such proof either way. The charge of rape is specifically difficult to prove, and in this case Israel does not allow for an independent investigation.

Also, to address the claims made surrounding al-Shifa Hospital, specifically the number of allegations that Israeli soldiers had carried out mass rapes, to rush to a conclusion that such acts did not happen at all is not only displaying a clear double-standard, but also displays a revolting level of journalistic malpractice. While it is absolutely plausible that people are prone to exaggerate their circumstances, especially when there is documented proof of sexual violence and humiliation at al-Shifa, to toss out the allegations as flatly false displays that those attempting to undermine the charges do not care at all for victims of rape or sexual violence. Instead, for the propagandists that think that Al-Jazeera removing a report is proof that no rape ever happened, they clearly seek to weaponize stories of sexual violence for their own political benefit.

This being said, it should be noted that there are many allegations from Palestinian women in Gaza claiming that they were raped and sexually assaulted. Two cases of rape against Gazan women, who were taken captive by Israeli soldiers, were confirmed by the UN back in February, as they also documented proof of countless cases of sexual violence, threats of rape and other forms of sexual humiliation. In fact, there is more proof of rape having been committed against Palestinian women in Gaza than there is of rape against Israeli women on October 7, as there are actually confirmed rape victims with testimonies. Yet, despite the evidence, we see no coordinated media coverage of such sexual violence committed against Palestinian women on mainstream media.

When it comes to the specific allegations at al-Shifa, the following information has to be taken into consideration. Palestinian society is a socially conservative one, in which female victims of sexual assault feel less comfortable making themselves publicly known to have experienced this more than in Israeli or Western societies. Evidently, it is not easy for any woman to reveal such horrors in public, but in a conservative society, such as exists in Gaza, there are varying pressures which lead to women keeping their identity hidden. Considering this, there are a few possible scenarios which should be considered when it comes to rape allegations made on March 23:

Due to the widespread usage of sexual humiliation in and around al-Shifa Hospital, where Palestinians were provably tied up, stripped naked, used as human shields, and mass executed by Israeli soldiers, the initial claims could have been an exaggeration by an eyewitness speaking to Al-Jazeera. This does not mean that no rape occurred, just that this eyewitness exaggerated. Then, following this, amidst the hysteria the claim created, certain individuals with insidious aims used the moment as an opportunity to spread fake stories and cause fear.

What was not reported on, however, was the fear that the rape allegations at al-Shifa created in the population of Gaza, which truly believed that Israeli soldiers had raped a pregnant woman and made her children watch it at gunpoint [one of the allegations allegedly told by the husband of the victim]. In 1948, when Zionist forces were ethnically cleansing Palestinian villages, cities and towns, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe noted in his book, ‘The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine’, that the Zionists deliberately spread gruesome allegations that they were mass raping Palestinian women, which worked to scare many villages to flee. One trend that occurred widely in 1948, is that the men would stay behind to fight, while the women and children would flee.

When I interviewed two Nakba survivors for a short documentary in 2022, both specifically spoke about mass rapes occurring during the infamous Deir Yassin Massacre. We now know that, in some cases, the Zionists deliberately spread false stories surrounding what happened during the massacre, in order to encourage the people to flee Palestine, with the specific threat of sexual violence being a major factor in why many Palestinians fled. 

Another possible scenario is that there were cases of rape at al-Shifa Hospital, but due to the sensitivity of the issue and also the Palestinian armed factions knowing the fear it will cause, there was a decision made to halt reporting on allegations of this nature prior to establishing solid proof. I have heard countless stories of rape and sexual assault having happened in Gaza, from extended family members, friends and journalist colleagues, yet I cannot conclusively prove them without further evidence and made the decision to refrain from spreading the details due to fears of spreading potentially misleading rumors.

While the Israeli military has a vested interest in spreading such fear amongst the people of Gaza, it is important to consider that the number of graphic allegations published on March 23, could have been created by Zionists online. It is also possible that pro-Palestinian accounts simply sought to go viral for sharing provocative content and made up claims — but this is no way suggesting that all such claims being made are false. This is why we need an immediate independent inquiry into rape and other forms of sexual violence committed against Palestinians in Gaza, so we can conclusively known what is happening and how widespread cases of rape truly are.

On top of the prevailing apathy over the rape and sexual abuse of Palestinian women in Gaza, perhaps the most disturbing part of all this is that the October 7 propaganda has undoubtably led to a kind of “revenge” sexual violence against Palestinian women. One case to consider, is the testimony of 47-year-old Lama al-Fakhouri, who was imprisoned by Israeli forces and said:

“An interrogator came in and asked me in English what I thought about what Hamas did. He swore at me and called me a ‘whore.’ He said there were 20 soldiers in the room and that they would rape me like Hamas–ISIS raped Jewish women in southern Israel. He kept swearing at me and threatening me and my family. Then, a female soldier came and took me to another room with more female soldiers, who told me: ‘Welcome to hell.’ They sat me in a chair and started laughing at me and calling me ‘whore’ again and again.”

The above mentioned testimony was collected by Israel’s leading rights group, B’Tselem. What is consistent throughout the testimonies recorded from Palestinian women who were taken captive by the Israeli army, is that they were threatened and beaten after Israeli forces specifically brought up the allegations of Jewish women being raped on October 7 by Hamas. In early December, a Palestinian woman who was released from Israeli military detention, during a Hamas-Israel prisoner exchange, told the media that the women in the Israeli prisons were being raped.

It is clear, when looking at the sheer scale of sexual humiliation, which has included repeatedly forcing Palestinian women to strip naked and display their bodies in front of soldiers, has been perpetrated as a tactic of revenge in many cases. On top of all of this we have literally hundreds of snuff videos filmed by Israeli soldiers themselves, often posted on their own pubic accounts, many of which feature the soldiers wearing the lingerie and underwear of Palestinian women, while degrading them as “whores”. None of this is by accident, and while there are certainly cases of sexual violence in almost every war, the sheer scale of cases for which we have video and photographic evidence and testimony is truly astonishing and certainly on a grander scale than we have seen during any period of the Palestine-Israel conflict.

The extremely vivid and gruesome stories spread about alleged rape on October 7 — most of which have been proven false — served as an effective tool to convince Western audiences of Israel’s “right” to attack Gaza in the genocidal way it currently is. As the evidence mounts, suggesting that these rape lies have directly influenced Israeli soldiers to commit their own acts of rape and sexual violence against Palestinian women, it is clear why spreading such morbid stories, while either not bothering to confirm their veracity, or willingly lying about them, is so incredibly dangerous, especially with the charge of rape.

Every single politician and journalist that has been responsible for spreading the October 7 mass rape atrocity propaganda, pushing blatantly false stories for the specific purpose of aiding Israel’s public relations, is potentially complicit in rape and sexual violence themselves. That is how serious this issue is. These news outlets may believe that the lies they publish are just a means to an end for them, but words retain great power, and that is why, regardless of our biases as journalists, we have to do our due diligence before publishing, and of course, actually care about being factually correct. If a story is not confirmed, we have to make it clear that we are reporting on allegations and not make up stories at sensitive times.

As a journalist, I have my own bias that lands me on the side of the Palestinian people. This is down to my analysis on what is just. In addition to this, hundreds of members of my extended family in Gaza, along with friends and colleagues of mine in Gaza and the West Bank, have been murdered by Israeli forces. I do not hide this and I will always make it clear where I stand politically, so that you, the reader, can decided for yourself whether the information I present leads you to the same conclusions I have reached. The mainstream corporate media does the very opposite, they purposely spread harmful disinformation and claim to be objective, while pretending to maintain a non-biased position, which is clearly false. The mere fact that established news outlets like the BBC, The New York Times, and Haaretz have been able to get away with publishing such biased content on the topic of October 7 rape, says everything about where our “trustworthy” mainstream media is today.