The U.N. on Monday heard accounts of sexual assaults during Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel. Speakers criticized the U.N. and others for failing to promptly investigate and condemn sexual crimes. Former Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg, who helped organize the event, was a key speaker. Hillary Clinton sent in videotaped remarks. President Biden on Tuesday condemned Hamas for the alleged attacks, which the group has denied. The nonprofit Physicians for Human Rights–Israel last month released a report detailing survivor accounts of sexual assaults, which it said were “widespread” on October 7. This is Orit Soliciano, head of Israel’s Association of Rape Crisis Centers.
Orit Soliciano: “Most of the people, I assume, that have passed this kind of terror are dead, because they were shot. There are — there is information from people who saw what happened, but everybody should understand: There should not be any anticipation that the survivors will come and speak out loud with their face. It’s not like #MeToo. This is a horrible and different thing.”