After 8 weeks, UN Women condemns Hamas for Oct. 7 onslaught, expresses alarm over accounts of sexual assault

Women protest outside the UN Headquarters in Jerusalem over its failure to condemn Hamas violence against women during its October 7 onslaught, November 27, 2023. (Flash90)
Women protest outside the UN Headquarters in Jerusalem over its failure to condemn Hamas violence against women during its October 7 onslaught, November 27, 2023. (Flash90)

After eight weeks, UN Women breaks its silence on allegations of sex crimes carried out by Hamas terrorists on October 7.

“We reiterate that all women, Israeli women, Palestinian women, as all others, are entitled to a life lived in safety and free from violence,” the organization says.

“We unequivocally condemn the brutal attacks by Hamas on Israel on 7 October,” the organization says. “We are alarmed by the numerous accounts of gender-based atrocities and sexual violence during those attacks.”

“For the sake of everyone in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, and especially women and children, we call for a return to a path of peace, a respect for international humanitarian and international human rights law,” UN women says.

Israeli officials have been furious at global human rights groups and women’s activist groups who have consistently dismissed evidence and testimony over sex abuse crimes carried out during the Hamas onslaught against southern Israel last month. Israeli women’s rights groups have slammed their international counterparts for ignoring the mounting evidence of such allegations.

Earlier this week, Sarah Hendriks, deputy director at UN Women, was pressed in a CNN interview about the group’s silence on the issue.

Hendriks said that the agency is “deeply alarmed at the disturbing reports of gender-based and sexual violence on October 7,” adding that “we absolutely unequivocally condemn all forms of violence against women and girls.”

CNN anchor Bianna Golodryga asked Hendriks why the group has failed to “specifically call out Hamas” in the wake of “mounting evidence now over seven weeks” from Israeli investigators about such crimes on October 7. In her response, Hendriks again failed to name Hamas and said the agency always supports an “impartial, independent investigation.”

Last week, the UN office for women’s issues was slammed for posting and then deleting a condemnation of “the brutal attacks by Hamas on October 7.”

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