Israeli police investigators have collected testimony of rapes committed by Palestinians during the October 7 attack.
Eyewitness accounts published by local media reveal harrowing accounts of crimes committed against women during the Hamas-led invasion of the Jewish state.
One survivor of the Supernova music festival massacre described the sexual assault of her friend in comments reported by the Jerusalem Post.
“As I am hiding, I see in the corner of my eyes that [a terrorist] is raping her," she said.
“She was alive beforehand; she stood on her feet, bleeding from her back. But then the situation was that he was pulling her hair. She had long, brown hair."
In an account published by Ha'aretz, another witness recounted a gang rape, saying: “They bent someone over. I realised he was raping her and passing her on to someone else also in uniform.”
The aftermath of the Hamas infiltration in Kibbutz Be'eri, Oct. 25, 2023 (Photo by Edi Israel/Flash90)
The attacker is said to have then shot the young woman in the head, before her body was mutilated by other terrorists.
Previous claims of rape have been released by Zaka, Israel's largely Orthodox emergency group that identifies corpses from the scenes of terror attacks.
Discussing the attack against kibbutz Be'eri, Itzik Itah, who leads the emergency responders, told journalists he had not been able to get the scenes he saw out of his mind.
"In one [house] there was a couple tied to each other with their clothes down, and you can see definitely, that the woman underwent rape," he said.
"When she is naked faced down, and her clothes had clearly been taken off not by her, that's a woman who underwent rape."
In an account published by the American Jewish magazine Tablet, one rave massacre survivor said they saw women “raped next to the dead bodies of their friends”.
The survivor said that several of the victims appeared to have been executed later, with others were taken to Gaza.
Another survivor returned to the scene later in the day to look for his friends and spoke, of seeing cold and mutilated bodies, mainly of young women.
He said he saw scantily clad corpses, many of whom appeared to have been shot at point-blank range.
Israeli prosecutors reportedly plan to charge each captured Hamas terrorist with all crimes committed during the October 7 attack.
Burnt out cars at the scene as Israeli soldiers continue to search for ID and belongings among the cars and tents at the Supernova Music Festival site on October 12, 2023 in Kibbutz RE'IM, ISRAEL. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
A lack of evidence pining specific attackers to specific crimes has hampered efforts to charge the infiltrators individually.
Speaking to Ha'aretz, a senior police source said most suspects have already admitted their guilt, while comparatively few have denied taking part in atrocities.
One commander from Hamas's Nukhba Force in Shin Bet custody has reportedly said that he had trained for the invasion for years.
According to Ha'aretz, Hamas gave explicit religious permission to kill children because "they'll grow up to be soldiers".