‘Was the world quiet about October 7 rapes because it was Jewish women?’ Netanyahu hints at anti-semitism as he blasts women’s groups and world leaders for not ‘screaming’ about the atrocities

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted women's rights groups and world leaders for not “shouting” about the rape and mutilation of Israeli citizens by Hamas – while pointing out that their silence was because the victims are Jewish women.

Harrowing details have emerged about the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7, with eyewitnesses detailing how Israeli women were raped and mutilated before being shot dead.

“I heard heartbreaking stories of abuse,” a visibly emotional Netanyahu said last night. “I heard, as you heard, about sexual abuse and unprecedented cases of brutal rape.”

But Netanyahu said that despite the emergence of harrowing evidence of torture and gang rape committed by Hamas terrorists, women's rights groups and world leaders have remained silent, insisting this is due to anti-Semitism.

“Were you quiet because they were Jewish women?” Netanyahu asked in Hebrew.

Switching to English, a seething Netanyahu said: “I say to the women's rights organizations, to the human rights organizations: you have heard of the rape of Israeli women, terrible atrocities, sexual mutilation – where the hell are you?

“I expect all civilized leaders, governments and nations to speak out against this atrocity,” he added.

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden called reports of sexual violence “appalling” and urged the world to condemn “horrific stories of unimaginable cruelty.”

Shortly after Netanyahu's impassioned speech, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said: “The stories of sexual violence on October 7 in Israel are horrifying.

'Relatives must be heard, supported and cared for. Allegations must be fully investigated.”

Russell, who did not mention Hamas terrorists in her statement, added: “We condemn gender-based violence and all forms of violence against women and girls.”

It comes as survivors of the deadly Nova Festival attack on October 7 told how Hamas terrorists raped, tortured and mutilated Israeli women and men.

One witness has told Israeli police that they saw a woman mutilated by Hamas gunmen before a terrorist shot her in the head during a gang rape.

Others have described hearing the screams of women as they were attacked, and seeing the gunmen cut off their breasts and throw them to the side of the road.

Several people involved in collecting and identifying the bodies found in the aftermath have also told officials harrowing evidence of torture and murder, describing how festival-goers' genitals were shot at and how they found victims elsewhere their homes had been murdered and their genitals mutilated. with knives.

A combat paramedic said he saw the body of a young woman with her legs open, her pants pulled down and what appeared to be semen on her lower back. An army reservist tasked with identifying the terrorists' victims said some women were wearing only bloody underwear.

Although few victims of the atrocities are believed to have survived the attack, a selection of these recorded eyewitness accounts have been released by Israeli police and seen by several news organizations.

The horrific accounts show that rape and sexual assault were part of a brutality-filled rampage by Hamas, which killed 1,200 Israeli civilians as they screamed and begged for their lives.

By releasing the testimonies, Israel is calling on the international community to recognize Hamas' attack on October 7 as a crime against humanity. A senior official investigating sexual violence says the terrorists crossed the border from Gaza with a “clear order” to use force. 'rape as genocide.'

A woman at the gruesome scene said: 'There was a body of a woman with a blood stain on her genitals. At first I thought she might have had an accident out of fear. When we picked her up we were sure it was blood.'

Another told officers in a recorded video: 'There were a lot of gunshot wounds, including targeted shootings in the male genital area and we saw that a lot. They had a thing about sexual organs, both in women and men.

'The women we received were civilians, we mainly saw mastectomy or shooting to the chest, simply shooting from one side of the chest to the other.

'They were conscious when they arrived at our place. For the men it was their genitals, genitals shooting off, they had something to do with that, or amputation.'

In one of the gruesome videotaped statements, a witness known only as Witness S described how a female victim was passed from one attacker to another as they raped her, leaving her “bleeding from her back.”

The terror group then “cut off her breasts” before “throwing them on the road” and “playing with them”, the witness recalled.

She continues to say the victim was passed to another man in uniform.

“He penetrated her and shot her in the head before he could finish,” she said, according to the BBC, which saw the video testimony. “He didn't even pick up his pants; he shoots and ejaculates.'

The woman in the video described watching the militants while pretending to be dead. “I couldn't understand what I was seeing,” she said.

Another man who was at the festival when the bloody raid took place told the BBC that he could hear the “sounds and screams of people being murdered, raped and beheaded.”

When asked by the broadcaster how he could be sure that the screams he heard indicated a sexual assault, he said that upon listening at the time he believed the screams could only have been the result of rape.

In a statement made by the same man through a support organization, he described the attack by the terrorist group Hamas as “inhumane.”

“Some women were raped before they were dead, some raped while injured, and some were already dead when the terrorists raped their lifeless bodies,” his statement said. 'I really wanted to help, but I couldn't do anything.'

Another witness, Ron Freger, fled the music festival when Hamas attacked and said he heard women screaming for help.

“I was lying in a well and I heard a girl screaming loudly: 'They are raping me, they are raping me,'” he told the Associated Press.

Minutes later, he heard gunshots nearby and they fell silent, he said.

'The feeling at that moment is one of total powerlessness. I'm lying in this hole and I can't do anything,” the 23-year-old explained.

“I have no weapon, I have nothing, I am surrounded by other people who are in hiding with me and we are completely powerless.”

Two months after the Hamas attacks on the music festival, farming communities and army posts in southern Israel and near Gaza, police are still struggling to put the pieces together.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, priority was given to identifying bodies rather than preserving evidence, making the investigation more challenging.

Now Israeli police say they are searching 60,000 videos seized from the body cameras of Hamas gunmen. Social media footage and security cameras will also be examined in an attempt to bring the perpetrators to justice. However, it was difficult to find rape survivors as many were killed by the attackers.

But police say they do not have “multiple” eyewitness accounts of sexual assault.

They have not said exactly how many, and have yet to interview surviving victims of the attacks.