Did Palestinian fighters rape and sexually assault Israelis on 7 October?

The devastating Israeli war on the Palestinian people in Gaza didn’t only reveal the hypocrisy of the West, but also debunked the Western media’s claims that they abide by the rules of professionalism and neutrality in covering events.

We have previously said Western media is biased to the Israeli narrative at the expense of the suffering of Palestinians. However, in the current Israeli aggression we witnessed a new level of bias with renowned Western media outlets complicit in promoting false accusations against the Palestinian people and their struggle for freedom.

On 28 December, the New York Times published what can only be described as a misleading investigative report claiming that Palestinian fighters committed the crimes of rape and sexual violence during their military operation – codenamed Al-Aqsa Flood Operation – on 7 October.

Entitled ‘Screams Without Words’: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7’ the writer, Jeffrey Gettleman, drew readers in with his compelling title. But, when looking into the details of the report and the events of 7 October, it is easy to realise how such a report was misleading, inflammatory and inline with the Israeli agenda which demonises the Palestinian people and dehumanises them to justify its genocidal campaign in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.

The New York Times report did not have a response from the Palestinian side and relied entirely on Israelis who claimed to have witnessed the alleged crimes. It was based solely on the testimonies of civil servants who were at the scene on the day, or from Israeli women who heard stories second and third hand.

Four victims were said to have survived the attacks, but none were interviewed to give their story. Israel claims their health doesn’t allow them to speak to the media.

None of this is conclusive evidence.

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Furthermore, the report failed to investigate the whole events of 7 October to provide a real assessment of if such crimes were committed.

It also failed to mention the testimonies of a number of Israeli women who spoke to the media about the events of 7 October and who did not make any such accusations.

What the world did see was how female prisoners of war held by the Palestinian resistance in Gaza for weeks said they were treated respectfully and that their captors were eating the same food and lived in the same conditions they were in. The entire world saw first hand how the resistance fighters treated the female Israeli prisoners of war in Gaza.

These testimonies had no place in the writer’s assessment.

Decent people know the values of freedom fighters and their message and goal, while also taking into consideration that their religion, values and culture forbid such acts.

As a Palestinian who spent most of his life in Gaza, we never heard of a single “rape case” that was filed in Palestinian courts against any citizen. Gaza was free from such crimes. So, did the fighters who carried out Al-Aqsa Flood Operation come from outside the Strip? Were they mercenaries? No such questions were asked in the article.

The writer appears to have ignored the Palestinian realities that pushed those people to carry out their operation and what they hoped to achieve from it.

Gettleman appears to also have ignored how long the operation took. It was over in a matter of hours with most of the fighters back in Gaza, except those who were killed or arrested. Would they have had enough time to rape and sexually abuse people, especially when they know of the might of the Israeli military which would be coming to get them after they infiltrated the fence?

It is for these reasons and many more that the Palestinian resistance groups have voiced support for an international inquiry into these claims, though Israel has not shown promise of such a probe being allowed.

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.