Hamas victims showed 'systematic genital mutilation', says IDF volunteer | Israel-Hamas war

good evening I want to start tonight with the horrific accounts of sexual assault allegedly perpetrated by Hamas during the October the 7th attacks on Israel and one account in particular that of reservist Sharie Mendes she's not a forensic scientist not an expert but a volunteer whose primary job was to identify and prepare female soldiers for burial she describes seeing blooded underwear faces repeatedly shot she says she tried to give these women the respect they didn't receive when they were murdered the Israeli governments say they're preparing to make their evidence public and the United Nations has urged any remaining living victims to come forward but too much time has passed with no International investigation and that's been the same for so many other conflicts in Ukraine in Ethiopia in Sudan tonight we'll discuss why there's been no concerted Global effort to seek Justice For Those raped and assaulted during war but let's begin with shar's memories of those days in October and a warning that she does describe in detail how women's bodies were mutilated our unit was activated immediately on October 7th my shift came in on Sunday morning October 8th I got to the base and it was unimaginable in two ways it was unimaginable in terms of scale the numbers there were body bags everywhere they were lining the corridors they were lining up in refrigerated trucks coming into to this shura army base where our unit is is is focused um every single victim of the of the October 7th Massacre was brought to to this space so it was unimaginable in the sense that this is a large facility and the Halls were lined to the ceiling with body bags they the smell was unimaginable I I can't tell you enough the shock and despair that that struck all of us and what were you seeing you know as you say there were there were body bags the horror of it in terms of the women that were coming through some of the women that that were coming in what were you seeing there they were shot so many times in the head that that in many in many cases it was like there was um a a purposeful obliteration of women's faces we also saw uh women came in not very dressed and they had often very bloody clothing bloody if they had any clothing they had very bloody underwear women were shot our team has seen women shot in the crotch in the uh genitals women were shot in the breast um you were seeing you saw this our team saw this yes yes um women had legs cut off um there was a lot of um it seemed like there was a systematic genital mutilation of women in the women we saw um sometimes we were told to to run run and part of what we did was uh ACC company these women that was part of our purpose and we never wanted to leave them alone but they they they told everyone who was working on the base you have to get out there's a danger and what was it um people were coming in booby trapped and sappers had to come in and clear clear the situation so that we could go back in I mean the things you're describing totally horrific you've said you're not a forensic expert but you were witnessing some of these Horrors against the women that were coming in what were the forensics experts saying were they were they asking you to collect the the the sort of the clothing and some of the body parts I mean what was the kind of exchange of information that you would you would had with the forensics team so the purpose of our our unit was actually more a Jewish religious role we were there to we were in the examination room because our we were there to accompany these women we often opened body bags we washed jewelry of blood to give back to families of of the deceased I remember one woman had um her arm and her leg were was broken in so many places that it was like handling marbles or sand and at a certain point we said we'll just put a white sheet on top of her in the examination room we did not do any there were experts in that room we were there to accompany the people but then we moved to a room a separate room that was more for us it was a a burial preparation for burial room and in there it was just our team women dealing with women and it was a different atmosphere it was less rushed we are not forensics experts but we felt very strongly that we wanted to give these poor women some respect that they didn't get when they were horribly murdered and mutilated and disfigured and it was our job to to honor them to they could have been our daughters they were the same ages as our children and we we really we figured we might be we probably would be the last people to ever see them so just for a moment we love them um there's lot of conversation around rape sexual violence being used as a weapon of war and as you say you're not an expert you were dealing with the bodies but I guess this is also now part of the the conversation around this as Israel collects the information and the data and the evidence um for this there's also people questioning um you know the the kind of evidence I mean what would your response be to that I would have to say that this is still very early Israel is still um Rockets are still flying at us we are still in very early stages of an investigation we're still in shock we're still in a deep state of trauma 1,200 people were murdered we still have 136 hostages people can come to their own conclusions about whether or not physically from the testimony I'm giving you what happened to them there's an awful lot of eyewitness testimony that that saw rape there was a time in not too recent history when I witness testimony and there's an awful lot of it was enough I'm the child of Holocaust Survivors and all we ever had to know what happened to most of our family my mother survived with her parents almost all of our extended family was murdered we knew what happened to every one of them from eyewitness testimony that may be the best we'll do I mean that's the thing when you see conflict women are the first to be impacted they're the first to disappear in times of War they're the first to to sort of be impacted women and children by conflict and yet their their testimonies and their experience isn't necessarily acknowledged in a lot of places around the world we've seen that happen time and time again especially when it's come to rape being used as a weapon of War if people are not believing them it's hard enough to come forward if the world believes you and Embraces you and rape victims need to be believed if these women are being questioned about the veracity of their claims why should they come forward and I think we have to be patient they're very traumatized and it may take time we're very 117 days into this war it may take a lot of time for these women to to speak out if they ever do Sher thank you so much for your time thank you y thank you

Channel: Sky News

Views: 788,326

Keywords: SKY NEWS, SKY, NEWS, MIDDLE EAST, ISRAEL, GAZA, WEST BANK, JENIN, GAZA STRIP, ISRAELI, IDF, TROOPS, COMMANDOS, PALESTINIANS, PALESTINE, HAMAS, ATTACK, MEDICAL, DOCTORS, WAR, SOLDIERS, ISRAEL DEFENCE FORCES, DRONE, JORDAN, AIR STRIKE, US, UNITED STATES, IRAQ, IRAN, IRANIAN, MILITIA, TERROR, TERRORIST, TERRORISM, BLINKEN, BIDEN, AMERICA, DRONE STRIKE, UK, SYRIA, WEAPONS, JERUSALEM, HOSTAGES, OCTOBER 7TH, MEDICS, MILITARY, PEACE, TWO-STATE SOLUTION, sexual crimes, hamas sex crimes, Shari Mendes

Id: cP_oTVyrdxE

Length: 8min 15sec (495 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 31 2024