Understanding Sexual Violence Debates Since 7 October: Weaponization and Denial

At the beginning of December 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to draw media attention to sexual violence that occurred on 7 October by accusing women's and human rights groups of remaining shamefully silent.¹ He asked whether this silence was because the victims were Jewish, adding, “I say to the women's rights organizations, to the human rights organizations, have you heard about the rape of Israeli women, the horrible atrocities, the sexual mutilation? Where the hell are you?”²

Since 7 October 2023, there have been multiple reports of sexual and gender-based violence committed against Israeli women as part of Hamas’ attack.³ The most pivotal report about sexual violence on 7 October, however, came from the United Nations (UN) in March 2023. The UN team, comprising nine experts and UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, found “reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred in multiple locations, including rape and gang rape in at least three locations in southern Israel.”⁴ It states that at “the Nova music festival and its surroundings, there are reasonable grounds to believe that multiple incidents of sexual violence took place with victims being subjected to rape and/or gang rape and then killed or killed while being raped.”⁵ The UN team also highlighted the need for further investigation to discern the extent of sexual violence and if it was systematic.⁶ In addition to the UN report, the account of Amit Soussana, a released Israeli hostage, provided witness evidence that some of the hostages had suffered and/or were experiencing sexual violence in captivity.⁷

Before the UN report was published, several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and media reports had gone further and claimed that Hamas had systematically used sexual violence against Israeli women on 7 October. The claim that sexual violence was systematic or part of a deliberate strategy was met with skepticism from some pro-Palestinian activists, academics, and organizations due to issues in the testimonies presented in these reports. For instance, Palestinian feminists like Lana Tatour⁸ and Nada Elia criticized the Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) Report released in November 2023.⁹ Tatour wrote that the report is “based on speculations rather than evidence and a flawed methodology that amounts to unethical conduct.”¹⁰ The report, she observed, relies mainly on hearsay from Israeli and foreign media outlets as well as civil society entities tied to the state.¹¹ She also questioned the timing of the report as it coincided with Israel's international campaign accusing Hamas of systematically using rape as a weapon of war.¹² Elia expressed similar concerns for this report and an explosive New York Times story published in December 2023 claiming that Hamas systematically used sexual violence.¹³

In acknowledgement of these criticisms, PHRI issued a clarification in May 2024, expressing regret for including some testimonies that “have been disputed or deemed unverifiable” and explained that due to short-staffing and lack of resources, the organization could not investigate and verify every testimony.¹⁴ PHRI referred people who are interested in understanding sexual violence that happened on 7 October to the above mentioned UN report. Moreover, The New York Times published an article in March 2024 acknowledging that one of the testimonies cited in their original December article claiming that two teenage girls in Kibbutz Be’eri had been subjected to sexual violence was called into question by a video showing “the bodies of three female victims, fully clothed and with no apparent signs of sexual violence, at a home where many residents had believed the assaults occurred.”¹⁵ Furthermore, the family of a key victim cited in the New York Times story also said there is no proof she was raped.¹⁶

The issue with some of the testimonies and evidence is unsurprising. In addition to the fact that the victims were killed and unable to provide direct testimony, the UN report addressed the challenges they faced in gathering the needed data to investigate sexual violence. This included “limited survivor and witness testimony, limited forensic evidence due to the large number of casualties and dispersed crime scenes in a context of persistent hostilities.”¹⁷ It added that in addition to a lack of coordination between various government entities and unprepared volunteers, a large number of the bodies had extensive burn damage, making the identification of CRSV crimes difficult.¹⁸

In contrast with the claims that sexual violence against Israeli women had been systematic, the comparative “silence”¹⁹ in relation to the experiences of Palestinians, both men and women, with sexual violence in Israeli detention after 7 October has begun to emerge as an issue in feminist debates. Addressing these concerns, the same UN report cited above also highlighted that there are “concerns raised over cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of Palestinians in detention, including sexual violence in the form of invasive searches, threats of rape and prolonged forced nudity.”²⁰ In a press release in February, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UHCHR) stated that two Palestinian women reported they had been raped while in Israeli detention.²¹ The Israeli government denied these accusations, calling them “despicable and unfounded.”²²

Another report on the issue of sexual violence against Palestinians was published by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) on April 2024, stating that “Both men and women reported threats and incidents that may amount to sexual violence and harassment by the IDF while in detention.”²³ Detainees, men, and women, were forced to “strip naked in front of male soldiers during searches.”²⁴ Men reported being subjected to “beatings to their genitals,” and there was an incident of forcing a detainee “to sit on an electrical probe.”²⁵ Moreover, women were subjected to “inappropriate touching during searches and as a form of intimidation and harassment while blindfolded.”²⁶ In response to the initial draft of the UNRWA report, the IDF claimed that any type of abuse is “absolutely prohibited.”²⁷ It also denied the sexual violence claims, stating that “concrete complaints regarding inappropriate behavior are forwarded to the relevant authorities for review.”²⁸

Considering these multiple reports about sexual violence since 7 October consuming various activists, academics, and human rights as well as media organizations on both sides, conducting a sober and fact-based discussion on conflict-related sexual violence can be challenging. Indeed, the international community of feminist scholars, which includes Israeli and Palestinian members, is riven on the subject. Does this situation signal a crisis in feminist analysis of wartime sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV)? I argue that understanding both feminist literature on conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) and postcolonial feminist literature on sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) as a colonial tactic to punish and vilify brown and black bodies is imperative for analyzing the responses to the reports of SGBV since 7 October.

CRSV literature indicates that SGBV occurs in multiple contexts and for various strategic and opportunistic reasons, especially where toxic masculinity is reinforced by militarism. At the same time, critical and postcolonial feminist literature points out how SGBV has historically been used to demonize black and brown bodies. The tension between the claims in these two bodies of literature has resulted in extensive debates among feminists regarding SGBV that takes place during conflict. These debates emphasize that SGBV is never detached from national and international security frameworks, and it requires critical examination. The literature also examines how race, colonialism, and orientalism are embedded within these security frameworks, particularly when examining SGBV committed during wartime by the “uncivilized” against the “civilized.”

The case of sexual violence reports on 7 October demonstrates how these security frameworks often use SGBV as a weapon that justifies extreme military responses, thus worsening various forms of violence instead of reducing them. Furthermore, prioritizing state sovereignty and weaponizing certain types of sexual violence sidelines victims and survivors, neglecting their needs and rights. Acknowledging the problematic weaponization of SGBV on 7 October does not serve as a justification for denying the experiences of victims and survivors. As feminist scholars and activists, we should always call out gendered violence in all of its contexts. The challenge is to analyze SGBV and take the experiences of the victims and survivors seriously without providing justifications for further violence.

Critically engaging with the scholarship mentioned above helps us understand how the singular focus on rape at the expense of other forms of gender and sexual violence – such as stripping prisoners to humiliate them, inappropriate searches and touching, verbal gendered abuse, and reproductive – as a mobilization point for international organizations and Western states, securitizes, and politicizes women's experiences, turning them into a tool of national security and colonial practices. Additionally, I shed light on the marginalization of the experience of Palestinian women with sexual violence due to racialized and orientalist hierarchies by situating the current reports in the broader historical context of sexual violence since 1948. This approach can deepen understanding of the reports of CRSV on 7 October and subsequently against Palestinian women in Israeli detention centres.

SGBV and CRSV

SGBV is a broad term that encompasses various forms of violence committed against an individual without their consent, based explicitly on their gender. These violent acts can include sexual assault, physical abuse, emotional manipulation, psychological intimidation, and economic exploitation.²⁹ It is crucial to recognize that SGBV can affect not only women and girls but also men, as well as individuals within the LGBTQ+ community and sexual and gender minorities. This recognition is essential for addressing the diverse experiences of SGBV survivors and providing inclusive support and resources. CRSV, however, is more specific. It refers to sexual violence that happens during times of insecurity/instability and armed conflict globally. The United Nations defines CRSV as:

rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, enforced sterilization, forced marriage and any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity perpetrated against women, men, girls or boys that is directly or indirectly linked to a conflict. That link may be evident in the profile of the perpetrator, who is often affiliated with a State or non-State armed group, which includes terrorist entities; the profile of the victim, who is frequently an actual or perceived member of a political, ethnic or religious minority group or targeted on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity … ³⁰

Even though media attention to CRSV became prominent in the 1990s due to the use of rape in Rwanda and Yugoslavia, sexual violence has been present in various forms and contexts throughout history.³¹ CRSV occurs globally (See Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict [SVAC] dataset).³² In addition to 7 October and the subsequent reports on the Palestinian side, CRSV has also been reported in Haiti, Ethiopia, Sudan, Ukraine, and the Democratic Republic of Congo recently.³³ The UN released a report (A/HRC/55/29) in February 2024 showing that in Sudan, about 118 people have experienced sexual violence, like “rape, gang rape, attempted rape and other forms of sexual violence, including trafficking for sexual exploitation and forced prostitution, by both parties to the conflict and their allied groups.”³⁴ Sexual violence is usually a “silent and hidden” offense during armed conflict due to the stigma that comes with it.³⁵

Sexual violence, already high during peacetime, significantly increases during conflict. The particular focus on CRSV is vital because it directs attention to how identity and ideology play into driving such acts, which requires the dehumanization of the victims.³⁶ It also helps pay attention to the different goals behind it and its manifestations. Research on SGBV during times of conflict explains why specific forces perpetrate sexual violence.³⁷ Often, CRSV is associated with goals different from SGBV in non-conflict settings. Davies and True classify CRSV as a type of political violence multiple state and non-state actors could carry out to pursue a political goal³⁸, ranging from asserting power opportunistically to ethnically cleansing cultures.³⁹ One of the primary objectives of CRSV include humiliating and terrorizing the group.⁴⁰ In conflict settings, Sjoberg argues, women's bodies, and sometimes men's, are viewed “as markers of group feminization,” and targeting their bodies serves as collective and individual victimization.⁴¹ It also manifests in more gruesome acts such as “brutal acts of rape, including in public spaces, with objects and torture.”⁴²

While in some cases, CRSV is conducted systematically and due to military orders, in other cases, it is perpetuated due to the conditions of conflict where intensified masculinity or militarism is combined with chaos, opening a window of opportunity for such acts.⁴³ As highlighted earlier, regarding the recent reported sexual violence on 7 October, different opinions have emerged on the causes and extent of these acts. While the December New York Times story and the report on sexual violence by the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel believe that sexual violence on 7 October was systematic, the UN states that it might take a long time to settle the matter, with the possibility that such assessment may prove challenging or inconclusive. As of 18 April, Rozovsky, a reporter for the Israel newspaper, Ha’aretz, stated that it had conducted a check among multiple security organizations, concluding that Israel currently lacks evidence that Hamas or other groups were explicitly instructed to use rape during the attack.⁴⁴

Securitization of CRSV

The debates on the extent and motives behind the sexual violence against Israeli women are significant as they are central to international legal discussions, particularly concerning frameworks for prosecuting such offenses. In their justification for publishing their earlier report entitled Gender-Based Violence as a Weapon of War during the October 7 Hamas Attacks, which included the disputed testimonies, PHRI wrote, “Considering the gravity and extent, these testimonies could have suggested the potential for war crimes and crimes against humanity.”⁴⁵

Several bodies of international law specifically deal with CRSV. The Geneva Conventions of 1949 and later additions provide protections for women from sexual violence. For instance, the Geneva Convention (IV) Article 27 stipulates that women should be “protected against any attack on their honor, in particular against rape, enforced, prostitution, or any form of indecent assault.”⁴⁶ Depending on the context, the Rome Statute of ICC labels CRSV as crimes against humanity and war crimes.⁴⁷ In relation to 7 October, on 20 May 2024, the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan applied for arrest warrants against Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh. The accusations against them include “extermination, murder, taking of hostages, rape and sexual assault in detention.” ⁴⁸

CRSV could also be described as a crime of torture and genocide.⁴⁹ A particular international focus was directed at rape as a weapon of war.⁵⁰ As Buss explains, “Rape as a weapon of war’ calls attention to rape as instrumental to, rather than a mere by-product of, armed conflict.”⁵¹ We see this focus on rape as a weapon of war in multiple media and NGO reports. Some of the reports use the term weapon in their title. For instance, the December New York Times Story is titled “How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7,” and the title of the PHRI position paper is “Gender-Based Violence as a Weapon of War during the October 7 Hamas Attacks.”

Focusing on systematic rape is important in the context of genocidal violence because it becomes from an individual act to an attack on the whole community or nation, especially when the aim is to impregnate women purposefully. For instance, the strategy of forcing women to get pregnant was a key tool used by the Serbs during the Bosnia–Herzegovina genocide in the 1990s.⁵² However, initial support for viewing rape as a weapon amongst feminist scholars turned into skepticism of the utility of such description and pointed to their negative impact.⁵³

Some feminists worried that labelling and focusing on “mass rape” as an element of genocide would marginalize other types of SGBV that happen during conflict, such as sexual torture and reproductive violence.⁵⁴ Grey (2003) argues in the context of Myanmar's violence against the Rohingya, there is a focus on the number of deaths, destruction of homes, and sexual violence but less focus on acts aimed at limiting births in the targeted group, as highlighted in article 2 (d) of the Genocide Convention which considers “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group” as a genocidal act. Despite this recognition in the convention, this type of violence has not yet led to a successful international prosecution for genocide.⁵⁵ In short, while examining rape is important because it has symbolic and actual implications for the victims, survivors, and their communities, it takes attention away from SGBV, which does not qualify as rape. In this sense, rape becomes the most severe form of SGBV and receives the most scrutiny.⁵⁶

Another issue with centralizing rape and CRSV and portraying them as unique is that these issues become sites of state security, regulations, and policies. This is part of a more prominent pattern of securitizing women's issues, rights, and protections in the international discourse. Hudson (2009) contends that women's rights and gender equality were securitized after the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security in 2000.⁵⁷ The resolution is recognized as essential in the UN peace and security agenda before, during, and post-conflict. In addition, since 2008, the UN Security Council has passed several resolutions on women, peace, and security, primarily focusing on sexual violence in armed conflicts.

Hudson (2009) is likewise cautious about framing women's issues as a security issue because it invokes “a threat-defense logic” that can be militarized.⁵⁸ In Security: A New Framework for Analysis, Buzan, Wæver, and de Wilde argue that by framing an issue as an existential threat, security requires extreme measures.⁵⁹ It is used to justify any actions in the name of maintaining security and prioritizing it because “if we do not tackle this problem, everything else will be irrelevant (because we will not be here or be free to deal with it in our own way).”⁶⁰ The securitization logic aims to create acceptance locally and internationally for these extreme measures to avenge rapes.⁶¹ It allows states and other entities to use brutal acts of rape to justify retaliatory violence and to centre the protection of women around the protection of the nation, which at times comes at the expense of the victims and survivors. For instance, despite the allegations that some of the hostages might be pregnant,⁶² Israeli authorities seem to be prioritizing the military campaign against Hamas over a deal that would release the hostages. As I show in the next section, it is also used to distinguish and draw lines between “us,” the civilized who deserve the support of Western nations, and “them,” the uncivilized, who threaten our Western values.⁶³

Colonialism, Orientalism, and Race

As scholarship in the context of the US has shown us, you cannot talk about rape without addressing race, racism⁶⁴, and colonialism. As Castaneda contends, using the case of sexual violence perpetrated against Amerindian women in California, this violence was deeply rooted in the structures and ideologies of colonialism, serving as a mechanism for ensuring control and compliance.⁶⁵ Moreover, Matthews and Serisier argue that “[i]n colonial contexts, sexual violence is a frequent trope in ‘atrocity stories’ which justify the consolidation of colonial power by mobilizing oppositions between civilized Europeans and barbaric racialized others.”⁶⁶ One example of this, they argue, is the coverage of the 1857 anti-colonial rebellion in India by British media. This coverage included multiple “false, exaggerated, and sensationalized” stories of sexual violence committed against British women, which were utilized to rationalize extensive retaliatory violence against the Indian populace at large.⁶⁷ These depictions were used to discredit the rebellion and showcase it as an uncivilized outburst necessitating suppression.⁶⁸

Additionally, a large body of feminist literature has examined the use of sexual violence and abuse against enslaved men⁶⁹ and women⁷⁰ in the US as a form of control. The scholarship also examines how manufactured threats to White women by Black men were weaponized as part of a racist narrative justifying violence against Black communities between 1881 and 1930. The scholarship reminds us that White sexual fears was a major factor in many lynchings of African Americans in the southern United States.⁷¹ The narrative portrayed lynchings as necessary to defend White womanhood against supposed interracial sexual assaults.⁷² Following the Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan spread a false narrative of Black men raping White women to justify their acts of lynching and garner support from the White community.⁷³ These narratives, as Moorti shows us, are reflected in depictions of rape on television has shown how media coverage of rape centres on the victimhood of white women or points out black masculinity as the driver for rape.⁷⁴ This type of work served as a foundation for postcolonial feminist critiques and distrust of the instrumentalization of sexual violence by colonial states to justify violence against Brown and Black bodies. It also explains the distrust in the 7 October sexual violence reports and the subsequent media coverage of the issues expressed by various Palestinian feminist organizations and their supporters.

Edward Said's work on Orientalism is relevant to the current discussions on the weaponization of sexual violence by Israel.⁷⁵ He explained that Orientalism assumes an “absolute and systematic difference between the West, which is rational, developed, humane, superior, and the Orient, which is aberrant, undeveloped, inferior.”⁷⁶ Those using this insight focus on Western depictions of “rape as a manifestation of Arab male bestiality” and “sexual violence as a product of Arab Islamic culture.”⁷⁷Additionally, more recent scholarship addressed the role of orientalism and racial binaries in the War on Terror, specifically in Afghanistan.⁷⁸ According to Khalid (2011), various binary oppositions were established during the War on Terror that positioned the West against the East.⁷⁹ These include “good vs. evil, civilised vs. barbaric, rational vs. irrational, progressive vs. backward.”⁸⁰ These orientalist binaries, she argues, draw lines between the West and East based on gender and sexuality. She suggests that these gender binaries portray “our men” as guardians of women, while “barbaric men” are depicted as irrational hateful of women.⁸¹ It is not a surprise then that during Netanyahu's Conference in December, where he called out women and human rights groups for not talking about the sexual violence that happened on 7 October, he used the term civilized when he stated, “I expect all civilized leaders, governments, nations to speak up against this atrocity.”⁸²

Sexual violence has become a topic of intense international scrutiny, with campaigns against it often serving to sustain white Western hegemony.⁸³ In this sense, the presence of gender and sexual violence is interpreted as a sign of the risk posed by terrorists, and therefore, it is believed that military intervention is required to address this danger.⁸⁴ After 9/11 and the War on Terror, international players turned sexual violence into a spectacle for White and Western audiences to devour.⁸⁵ Western audiences are encouraged to “save” brown women, especially from their racialized brown men.⁸⁶ This “spectacularization” of sexual violence, according to Zalewski and Runyan, has been linked to “the spectacle of terrorism in the post-9/11 era.”⁸⁷ Therefore, they enjoin caution about aligning sexual violence and terrorism more closely.

In a more recent edited volume by Lila Abu-Lughod, Rema Hammami, and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, using multiple cases from the Middle East and South Asia, the contributors problematize feminist “success” in bringing attention to and enshrining protections for gender-based violence in international law.⁸⁸ They highlight how the securitization of gender-based violence in international legal frameworks is “often tied to ‘the Muslim question,’ including by racializing Muslims as particularly violent.”⁸⁹

Understanding the complexities of wartime sexual violence, how it has been framed, and its connection to racism and Orientalist colonial stereotypes is crucial for comprehending the debates about rape and sexual violence against Israeli and Palestinian women that have arisen since 7 October. CRSV literature focusing on sexual violence during war or conflict tells us that reports of sexual violence on 7 October should not be surprising because patriarchy and militant masculinity are present in every conflict. However, the literature on the historical weaponization of rape stories against white women using manufactured stories to justify repression gives a glimpse into the reasons why Palestinian feminists and their supporters have been asking for an independent investigation and questioning statements coming from Israeli officials and any institutions viewed as tied to them. Finally, the critiques of CRSV literature from postcolonial and critical feminist perspective provides the tools to critique the weaponization of these accusations while leaving room to acknowledge that there needs to be accountability for the victims of sexual violence on 7 October.

Weaponization of Sexual Violence

To begin unpacking the discourse around sexual violence, this section examines statements issued by Palestinian and pro-Palestinian organizations as well as statements made by Israeli officials and entities associated with them in Israel and the US.

Multiple Palestinian feminists and organizations focused on the racialized elements of weaponizing rape accounts. Perhaps one of the most revealing statements came from the Palestinian Feminist Collective, which highlighted how sexual violence was used to create an image of the “uncivilized Other” and to justify military actions taken after 7 October. The statement says:

we have witnessed the resurgence of liberal, Orientalist, and colonial feminist tropes by Zionist leaders, Western media outlets, and liberal feminists dehumanizing the entire population of Gaza. Within this context, Palestinian men have been depicted as lascivious, brutal aggressors and sexual predators, and loveless fathers who use their children as human shields. The Zionist regime has instrumentalized these racialized sexual discourses to justify its accelerated genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, and while committing acts of gender and sexual violence through a campaign of mass arrests and sexual humiliation and torture across Palestine.⁹⁰

After the reports of sexual violence on 7 October, various individuals and organizations denied or questioned the rape allegations⁹¹ or labelled them as “fake news” meant to justify Israel's actions in Gaza, from the weaponization of food, demolition of homes, universities, and schools, and targeting of hospitals, as well as the infliction of mass causalities. Also, the spread of false stories such as beheaded babies⁹²and the problematic reporting⁹³ on the issue by the New York Times contributed to feeding into such denials. Feminists like Abdel-Fattah wrote in response to the New York Times Story,

It is urgent that we call out rape atrocity propaganda and remind that this stratagem has historically been one of the most potent weapons used by White power to discredit, demonize, diabolize, and destroy Black and Brown men and to deflect sympathy from those resisting oppression to the actual oppressors, and finally to justify lethal responses.⁹⁴

Various sources have questioned the source of testimonies⁹⁵ and “evidence”⁹⁶ presented in the influential New York Times story. Additionally, others have highlighted the lack of qualifications and the motivations of Anat Schwartz, one of the authors, who tweeted that Israel has to “turn the strip into a slaughterhouse.”⁹⁷ The lack of professionalism in reporting the story led to more than 60 journalism professors signing a letter asking the New York Times to conduct an independent review of its story claiming that members of Hamas committed systematic sexual violence on 7 October.⁹⁸ The story was also the basis for a documentary entitled Screams Before Silence, led by Sheryl Sandberg, about sexual violence on 7 October.⁹⁹ The Electronic Intifada deemed the film as “the latest attempt to revive Israel's debunked and discredited Oct. 7 ‘mass rapes’ atrocity propaganda.”¹⁰⁰ It also adds, “But it is a total fraud. Seven months after that day, Israel has still not identified a single survivor of the alleged mass rapes on 7 October, nor a single credible eyewitness.”

Although it is legitimate to ask for an independent investigation, it is important to consider the various challenges that come with documenting instances of sexual violence in general and conflict-related sexual violence in particular, as highlighted in the CRSV literature mentioned earlier. These challenges include the stigma associated with discussing sexual violence, the death of victims, difficulties in collecting evidence when such instances are part of larger attacks that involve multiple casualties, a lack of attention and training by volunteers who work with victims and survivors to collect evidence, and the eroding of evidence due to the intensity of the attack.

Additionally, Hamas denied these accusations and condemned media in the West for playing into Israel's agenda of demonizing and thus supporting Israel's war crimes in Gaza.¹⁰¹ In this context, denying the accusations and using the reports questioning the available evidence was used by Hamas to discredit the Israeli narrative. All these factors made it easier to discredit any official Israeli statements, therefore marginalizing the survivors and victims of such violence, who are viewed as an instrument of the state's violence and political agenda.

It also does not help that multiple Israeli officials and pro-Israel groups used rape and sexual violence to push against a ceasefire.¹⁰² This weaponization can be seen in various statements by Israeli officials on the issue. For example, Israel's government spokesperson at the time, Eylon Levy, tweeted on 8 December 2023, thanking the United States of America for vetoing a UN Security Council resolution aimed at keeping “Hamas’ rapist regime in power.”¹⁰³ Likewise, in response to South Africa's International Court of Justice Genocide case, Levy stated in an interview with i24News English that “We hold South Africa criminally complicit with the Hamas rapist regime.”¹⁰⁴ Also, linking to a report released on February 2024 by the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel (ARCCI), AIPAC tweeted, “A ceasefire now keeps these rapist monsters armed and in power in Gaza.”¹⁰⁵

On 3 March 2024, the New York Times reported that an unpublished investigation by UNRWA (which was later published in April) accuses Israel of mistreating numerous Gazans captured during the conflict with Hamas.¹⁰⁶ In response, the IDF denied allegations of sexual abuse. A day later, on 4 March, the IDF released audio recordings of two UNRWA employees allegedly involved in misconduct on 7 October.¹⁰⁷ In the conversation, one of the individuals refers to capturing a “sabaya,” a term used to describe female hostages.¹⁰⁸ IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari commented on the term, stating, “The most difficult use of ‘sabaya’ was by ISIS terrorists, who called the captured Yazidi women this.”¹⁰⁹ This serves as a part of a more extensive campaign to push for defunding UNRWA and discrediting the entire organization based on allegations that a few employees participated on 7 October.¹¹⁰

We also see mobilization by public figures ranging from Cheryl Sandberg, the former Meta executive, to Hillary Clinton, the Former US Secretary of State, to highlight sexual violence on 7 October and call out the perceived silence of the international community on this issue.¹¹¹ On 4 December 2023, Hillary Clinton, speaking at the UN session on SGBV violence on 7 October hosted by Israel's Permanent Mission to the UN, said “As a global community, we must respond to weaponized sexual violence wherever it happens with absolute condemnation. There can be no justifications and no excuses. Rape as a weapon of war is a crime against humanity.”¹¹² She added, “Organizations, governments, and individuals who are committed to a better future for women and girls have a responsibility to condemn all violence against women. It is outrageous that some who claim to stand for justice are closing their eyes and their hearts to the victims of Hamas.” ¹¹³

This focus on sexual violence on 7 October, which Palestinian feminists view as a tool for justifying violence against Palestinians in Gaza, emphasizes critiques they already had about liberal feminists that Clinton and Sandberg represent. Shalhoub-Kevorkian expressed how many Palestinian feminists feel about liberal feminism and international law when she states that feminism for Palestinians “entails understanding the nature and significance of solidarity with the dispossessed, something that global feminism, international law, and Israeli feminism have so far failed to do.”¹¹⁴ Some feminist activists argue that sexual violence against Palestinians has not received sufficient media coverage or international outrage. For example, Matthew and Serisie point out that when Josh Paul, a former State Department official, revealed to CNN in December that Israel declared a charity a terrorist organization after the State Department reported a rape allegation of a 13-year-old Palestinian boy in Israeli detention, the incident did not lead to widespread international condemnation.¹¹⁵

We also see a particular focus on sexual violence as a policy driver in the decision of the European Union (EU) on 12 April 2024 to sanction Hamas's and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad's military wing for “their responsibility for widespread SGBV in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.”¹¹⁶ Using sexual violence as justification for the sanctions relates to feminist literature on the hypervisibility of SGBV as a point of policy making.

In this context, SGBV is most typically paid attention to when it is committed by the “Other,” the “uncivilized,” against the “civilized.” The hypervisibility of sexual violence when it is done by “uncivilized” men against “civilized” communities could be seen in the deep history of inaction when it comes to Palestinian women experiencing SGBV at the hands of Israeli security officials in detentions and at checkpoints without any international condemnation of it.

Palestinian Women and SGBV in a Historical Perspective

Except for rape that occurred in 1948,¹¹⁷ Madar (2023)¹¹⁸ notes that feminists, such as Wood,¹¹⁹ Nitsán,¹²⁰ and MacKinnon,¹²¹ concluded that Israeli male soldiers do not systematically use sexual violence against Palestinian women. Wood claims that “it is unlikely that the apparent absence of sexual violence in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict reflects underreporting, given the scrutiny of violence there by domestic human rights groups and international actors.”¹²² However, shame and honour play a factor in the under reporting. It is hard to document cases of SGBV committed against women in general. Still, it is more complex in a socially conservative context where this could bring shame or be considered a dishonour to the family, community, and nation. As Madar (2023) notes, the absence of women's testimonies or access to them does not necessarily mean they do not happen. Women may not report sexual violence due to fear of retaliation or shame. For instance, the news of the rape incidents in 1948 spread quickly and caused fear among the Palestinians, which according to Morris (2004), led to the evacuation of women and girls from combat zones and the flight of villages and urban neighbourhoods from April 1948 onwards. As Humphries and Khalili (2007) state, these incidents were silenced due to the notion of “honor – and fears of loss thereof – silenced narratives about rape for a great many victims.”¹²³ Also, Al Issa and Beck (2020) noted that certain women who encountered sexual harassment while visiting their relatives in detention opted not to report it due to concerns that the prison guards might retaliate and revoke their visiting privileges.¹²⁴

Shame and honour were apparent in a recent incident of reported rape in Gaza, which was eventually retracted by Al-Jazeera and denied by Hamas. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Jamila al-Hissi, who was in the Al Shifa complex during the two weeks siege, claimed that women were raped in the area surrounded by al Shifa hospital; in passing in a live interview.¹²⁵ While the news spread widely and created an outrage leading to protests in Jordan,¹²⁶ the brother of al-Hissi and Hamas denied the accusations that Israel raped women in al-Shifa Complex.¹²⁷ This is interesting because one would expect Hamas to strategically use these accusations, whether false or true, to mobilize support and further increase international outrage against the offensive in Gaza. However, the framing of the denial and the responses to them provides the cultural context and taboos on rape. As the analyst Muhammad Shehadeh stated on X (formerly Twitter), “Hamas has a vested interest for domestic political reasons in denying the IDF rape of Gazan women on their watch to avoid public blame.”¹²⁸ He adds, “For Palestinians, rape is a matter of utmost shame & disgrace. It can dishonour a family for generations if their women were raped & they failed to stop it or avenge it. That's why most Palestinian victims of Israeli sexual violence NEVER speak up & this topic is a great taboo.”¹²⁹ Moreover al-Hissi's brother, Ayman, tweeted in Arabic denying the cases of rape “against the pure women” of Gaza.¹³⁰ Jihad Helles, a writer and preacher from Gaza with over 198,000 followers, tweeted in Arabic, “In all my life, I have never heard of a single case of rape of a woman in Gaza. That's because the women of Gaza are strong and honorable to the extent that they would prefer death a thousand times over anyone touching their dignity or honor.”¹³¹ The responses to the reported rape in Gaza, including the claim that women would prefer to die rather than be raped, and the subsequent denial by Hamas and others, highlights the cultural context and taboos surrounding rape in Palestinian society, which can contribute to the underreporting of sexual violence in the region regardless of the perpetrator.

Additionally, Madar points out that the reason behind the claims that the Israeli military does not use sexual violence against Palestinian Women is due to a narrow focus on rape as opposed to other types of sexual violence and the focus on men who are soldiers as the main perpetrators.¹³² She stated, “the carefully chosen category of rape (as opposed to sexual violence), Palestinian women (as opposed to Palestinians as a whole), and male Israeli soldiers (as opposed to members of Israeli security forces, both male and female), marginalize many forms of Israeli state sexual violence.” ¹³³ Recent research has shown that sexual violence against Palestinian women is prevalent in prisons, interrogation spaces,¹³⁴ and checkpoints.¹³⁵ Palestinian women and girls in detention have also reported being subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, including rape and threats of rape and sexual violence. Weishut (2015) examined sexual violence as a torture tactic.¹³⁶ Palestinian women report experiencing sexual violence during interrogations in the form of “threats of rape and unwanted and forced touch, by both female and male interrogators, as well as rape.”¹³⁷ Some reports go back to 1969.¹³⁸ This was also found in recent testimonies of Palestinian women who were detained in Israel since 7 October.¹³⁹ In an OHCHR report, the UN stated that Palestinian women and girls in detention reported having “been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers. At least two female Palestinian detainees were reportedly raped while others were reportedly threatened with rape and sexual violence.”¹⁴⁰

Additionally, the war has placed women at a significant risk for sexual and reproductive violence. According to the UN, as of 6 May 2024, out of the 34,844 fatalities reported, 4959 identified women were killed.¹⁴¹ The war left 19,000 children without parents.¹⁴² Women who survived have had to endure displacement, losing a husband, and a threat of starvation. Since the beginning of the war, around 50,000 Palestinians were pregnant. The targeting of the hospitals, scarcity of medical resources, and access to needed health facilities placed these women and 20,000 newborns at risk. Around 183 are delivering without pain management on a daily basis. Moreover, “babies have died because of a lack of electricity to power incubators.”¹⁴³ We also see a 300 percent increase in miscarriages as well as a shortage of menstrual hygiene products, which prevents girls and women from managing “their menstrual cycle in privacy and with dignity.”¹⁴⁴ Clean water is not easily available to over one million people, which is essential for breastfeeding mothers and pregnant women. The reproductive violence women in Gaza are experiencing was cited in South Africa's Genocide case against Israel to the International Criminal Court of Justice. South Africa accuses Israel of hindering Palestinian births under Article 2(d) of the Genocide Convention.¹⁴⁵ Israel's attacks on medical infrastructure and shortages of resources are cited as indirect measures that obstruct Palestinian births. ¹⁴⁶ However, as Moaveni writes, “With key spaces at the UN and substantial amounts of humanitarian assistance budgets now devoted to preventing or investigating rape, conflicts where women experience other forms of sexual and reproductive harms are seen as less deserving of support from Western governments.”¹⁴⁷

Conclusion

Paying attention academic debates on CRSV is crucial to understanding debates about sexual violence on 7 October. The scholarship on CRSV shows that sexual-based violence during conflict happens in multiple contexts and is committed against women from multiple backgrounds. The literature focuses on the motives, drivers, and effects of sexual violence on affected women, their families, and their communities. However, there is a debate in the literature on the utility of securitizing women's issues and placing special emphasis on rape as a weapon of war. We also see the literature intersecting with postcolonial literature on sexual violence as a colonial tool to maintain existing global hierarchies and, at times, justify aggressive military actions.

It is imperative to view these current debates on sexual violence in a broader historical context since 1948 and the lack of attention and visibility of this violence by Western states. It also must be seen in the context of long feminist scholarship on how SGBV cannot be understood outside of patriarchal, colonial, imperial, capitalist, and international security relations more generally, or diminished without critique of these forces wherever at play. Focusing on rape to the exclusion of other forms of sexual violence against the “civilized” serves as a mobilization point for the West, which securitizes and politicizes select women's experiences while marginalizing the sexual abuse experienced by “Other” men and women. This selectivity de-centres the victims of sexual violence, making them a tool of national security and serving as a justification for more violence. Furthermore, the prevalence of SGBV within domestic societies, groups, and families is widespread. The selective failure to address this issue while using it as a tool against external enemies highlights the disingenuous and problematic nature of this kind of politicization. It undermines efforts to combat sexual violence in Palestine, Israel, and other regions.

By examining how gender and sexual-based violence becomes central to national security, aggressive military responses, and creating the image of the “uncivilized Other,” this essay aims to explain the denial and marginalization of Israeli and Palestinian women's experiences of sexual violence. However, this does not mean that the denial is justified. It actually could result in doubling down on weaponization to highlight how pro-Palestinian activists in the West are disregarding Israeli women's experiences of sexual violence and thus promoting the hypocrisy they claim to counter. As Amit Soussana, the released hostage and another Israeli witness to sexual violence on 7 October, stated in a recent documentary,¹⁴⁸ the reason why they decided to speak about the issue publicly is due to the attempts of some organizations and activists to deny it happened. Every victim and survivor of sexual violence deserves justice, and all who commit these acts must be brought to trial.

Acknowledgment

I would like to express my gratitude to the journal editors, Atina Grossmann, Lana Tatour, Lihi Ben Shitrit, Anne Runyan, and Diana Greenwald for reading earlier versions of this article and providing valuable feedback.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anwar Mhajne

Anwar Mhajne is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Stonehill College. She specializes in international relations and comparative politics. Her research focuses on gender, feminist security studies, cybersecurity, and Middle Eastern politics. She is the coeditor of Critical Perspectives on Cybersecurity (Oxford University Press 2024). Her writing has been featured in the Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, The International Feminist Journal of Politics, Political Research Quarterly, Religion and Politics, Culturico, The Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Conversation, Times of Israel, Haaretz, Middle East Eye, +972 Magazine, Quartz, The Defense Post, The Jerusalem Post, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Albawaba, the New Arab, and the National, among others.

Notes

1 “‘Where the Hell are You?’ Netanyahu Pans Rights Groups for Silence on Hamas Rape,” Times of Israel, 5 December 2023. https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/where-the-hell-are-you-netanyahu-pans-rights-groups-for-silence-on-hamas-rape/.

2 Ibid.

3 See United Nations Women. 2023. “UN Women Statement on the Situation in Israel and Gaza.” 1 December. https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/statement/2023/12/un-women-statement-on-the-situation-in-israel-and-gaza; The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel. 2024. “Silent Cry: Sexual Crimes in the October 7 War.” 21 February. https://www.gov.il/en/pages/arcci-submits-first-report-to-un-21-feb-2024#.; OHCHR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights). 2024. “UN Experts Demand Accountability for Victims of Sexual Torture and Unlawful Killings During 7 October Attacks.” Press release, 8 January 2024. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/01/un-experts-demand-accountability-victims-sexual-torture-and-unlawful.; Physician for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel). 2023. Gender-Based Violence as a Weapon of War during the October 7 Hamas Attacks | Position Paper. November. https://www.phr.org.il/en/gender-based-violence-eng/.

4 UN News, “‘Clear and Convincing Information’ that Hostages held in Gaza Subjected to Sexual Violence, says UN Special Representative.” https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/03/1147217.

5 United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence. “Mission report: Official visit of the Office of the SRSG-SVC to Israel and the occupied West Bank, 29 January – 14 February 2024.” 4.

6 Ellen Ioanes, “What the UN Report on October 7 Sexual Violence Does – and Doesn't – Say.” Vox, 8 March 2024, https://www.vox.com/world-politics/24093631/un-israel-october-7-sexual-violence.

7 Patrick Kingsley and Ronen Bergman. “Israeli Hostage Says She Was Sexually Assaulted and Tortured in Gaza.” New York Times, 26 March 2024.

8 Lana Tatour, “How Human Rights Organizations are Aiding the Israeli Assault on Gaza,” Mondoweiss, 12 December 2023. https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/how-human-rights-organizations-are-aiding-the-israeli-assault-on-gaza/.

9 Nada Elia. “Weaponizing Rape,” Jadaliyya, 19 January 2024, https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/45725.

10 Tatour, “How Human rights Organizations are Aiding the Israeli Assault on Gaza.”

11 Ibid.

12 Ibid.

13 Jeffrey Gettleman, Anat Schwartz, and Adam Sella, “'Screams Without Words’: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7,” New York Times, 28 December 2023.

14 Physicians for Human Rights Israel. “Clarification on the Organization's November 2023 Position Paper on Sexual Violence,” May 2024. https://www.phr.org.il/en/clarification/.

15 Adam Rasgon and Natan Odenheimer, “Israeli Soldier's Video Undercuts Medic's Account of Sexual Assault,” The New York Times, 25 March 2024.

16 The Short String. “Family of Key Case in New York Times October 7 Sexual Violence Report Renounces Story, Says Reporters Manipulated Them,” Mondoweiss, 3 January 2024. link:https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/family-of-key-case-in-new-york-times-october-7-sexual-violence-report-renounces-story-says-reporters-manipulated-them/

17 United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence. “Mission report: Official visit of the Office of the SRSG-SVC to Israel and the occupied West Bank, 29 January – 14 February 2024.” Published 4 March 2024. https://news.un.org/en/sites/news.un.org.en/files/atoms/files/Mission_report_of_SRSG_SVC_to_Israel-oWB_29Jan_14_feb_2024.pdf., 3.

18 United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence. “Mission report: Official visit of the Office of the SRSG-SVC to Israel and the occupied West Bank, 29 January – 14 February 2024.”

19 Lina AbiRafeh, “I condemn your silence: Sexual violence against Palestinian women,” Medium, 25 February 2024, https://linaabirafeh.medium.com/i-condemn-your-silence-sexual-violence-against-palestinian-women-d8e3b8d240f3.

20 UN News.

21 OHCHR. 2024. “Israel/oPt: UN Experts Appalled by Reported Human Rights Violations Against Palestinian Women and Girls.” Press release, 19 February 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/02/israelopt-un-experts-appalled-reported-human-rights-violations-against

22 Julian Borger, “Claims of Israeli Sexual Assault of Palestinian Women are Credible, UN Panel Says.” The Guardian, 22 February 2024.

23 UNRWA, “Detention and Alleged Ill-Treatment of Detainees from Gaza During Israel-Hamas War,” 16 April 2024. https://www.unrwa.org/sites/default/files/content/resources/summary_on_detention_and_alleged_ill-treatment.pdf.

24 UNRWA, “Detention and Alleged Ill-Treatment of Detainees from Gaza During Israel-Hamas War.”

25 Ibid.

26 Ibid.

27 Monika Pronczuk and Patrick Kingsley. “U.N. Aid Agency Researchers Allege Abuse of Gazans in Israeli Detention,” New York Times, 3 March 2024.

28 Ibid.

29 International Rescue Committee, “What is Gender-Based Violence – and How do we Prevent it?,” 22 August 2023, https://www.rescue.org/article/what-gender-based-violence-and-how-do-we-prevent-it.

30 “Conflict-Related Sexual Violence.” United Nations Peacekeeping. https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/conflict-related-sexual-violence.

31 See Elizabeth D. Heineman, ed., Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones: From the Ancient World to the Era of Human Rights (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011); Regina Mühlhäuser, Sex and the Nazi Soldier: Violent, Commercial, and Consensual Encounters during the War in the Soviet Union, 1941–45, trans. Jessica Spengler (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020); Atina Grossmann, “A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers,” October 72 (1995): 43–63.

32 “Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict (SVAC).” http://www.sexualviolencedata.org.

33 Kathleen Kuehnast. “Sexual Violence Is Not an Inevitable Cost of War,” United States Institute of Peace. 7 December 2023. https://www.usip.org/publications/2023/12/sexual-violence-not-inevitable-cost-war.

34 A/HRC/55/29, p.8

35 Sara Davies and Jacqui True, “The Politics of Counting and Reporting Conflict-Related Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: The Case of Myanmar,” in The Difference that Gender Makes to International Peace and Security, ed. Sara Davies, Nicole George, and Jacqui True (London: Routledge, 2018), 4–21.; Megan Mackenzie, “Securitizing sex? Towards a Theory of the Utility of Wartime Sexual Violence,” International Feminist Journal of Politics 12, no. 2 (2010): 202–21.

36 Carlo Koos. “Sexual Violence in Armed Conflicts: Research Progress and Remaining Gaps,” Third World Quarterly 38, no. 9 (2017): 1935–51.

37 Cynthia Cockburn, “War and Security, Women and Gender: An Overview of the Issues,” Gender & Development 21, no. 3 (2013): 433–52.; Ragnhild Nordås and Dara Kay Cohen, “Conflict-Related Sexual Violence,” Annual Review of Political Science 24 (2021): 193–211; Dara Kay Cohen, “Explaining Rape During Civil War: Cross-National Evidence (1980–2009),” American Political Science Review 107, no. 3 (2013): 461–77; Laura Sjoberg, “Gender-Based Violence in War,” in Handbook on Gender and War, ed. Simona Sharoni, Julia Welland, Linda Steiner, and Jennifer Pedersen (Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016), 175–19.; Rosemary Grey and Laura J. Shepherd, “‘Stop Rape Now?’ Masculinity, Responsibility, and Conflict-Related Sexual Violence,” Men and Masculinities 16, no. 1 (2013): 115–35; Thomas Plümper and Eric Neumayer, “The Unequal Burden of War: The Effect of Armed Conflict on the Gender Gap in Life Expectancy,” International Organization 60, no. 3 (2006): 723–54; Elisabeth Jean Wood, “Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and the Policy Implications of Recent Research,” International Review of the Red Cross 96, no. 894 (2014): 457–78.

38 Sara Davies and Jacqui True. “Reframing Conflict-Related Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Bringing Gender Analysis Back in.” Security Dialogue 46, no. 6 (2015): 495–512.

39 Cockburn, “War and Security, Women and Gender.”

40 See Mackenzie, “Securitizing Sex? Towards a Theory of the Utility of Wartime Sexual Violence”; Koos, “Sexual Violence in Armed Conflicts.”

41 Laura Sjoberg. “Seeing Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in International Security,” International Journal 70, no. 3 (2015): 434–53, 441.

42 Koos, “Sexual Violence in Armed Conflicts: Research Progress and Remaining Gaps,” 1936.

43 Anne-Kathrin Kreft, “Civil Society Perspectives on Sexual Violence in Conflict: Patriarchy and War Strategy in Colombia,” International Affairs 96, no. 2 (2020): 457–78.

44 Liza Rozovsky. “15 Witnesses, Three Confessions, a Pattern of Naked Dead Bodies. All the Evidence of Hamas Rape on October 7,” Haaretz, 18 April 2024.

45 Physicians for Human Rights Israel, “Clarification on the Organization's November 2023 Position Paper on Sexual Violence.”

46 International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). “Practice Relating to Rule 93. Rape and Other forms of Sexual Violence.” Customary IHL Database, Version 2. International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Available online: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v2/rule93

47 International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). “Five Things to Know About Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones.” ICRC. 17 June 2022. https://www.icrc.org/en/document/five-things-know-about-sexual-violence-conflict-zones#:~:text=Rape%2520and%2520other%2520forms%2520of,violence%2520constitutes%2520a%2520war%2520crime.

48 Ivana Kottasová and Madalena Araujo, “Exclusive: ICC seeks arrest warrants against Sinwar and Netanyahu for war crimes over October 7 attack and Gaza war,” CNN, 20 May 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/20/middleeast/icc-israel-hamas-arrest-warrant-war-crimes-intl/index.html.

49 See Rosemary Grey, “A Legal Analysis of Genocide by ‘Imposing Measures Intended to Prevent Births’: Myanmar and Beyond,” Journal of Genocide Research (2023): 1–22.; Caroline Kapp, “The Devastating Use of Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War,” Think Global Health, 1 November 2022, https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/devastating-use-sexual-violence-weapon-war#:~:text=The%20Rome%20Statute%20classifies%20rape,or%20an%20act%20of%20genocide.; Kateryna Busol, “When the Head of State Makes Rape Jokes, His Troops Rape on the Ground: Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Russia's Aggression Against Ukraine,” Journal of Genocide Research 25, nos. 3–4 (2023): 279–314.

50 Beverly Allen, Rape Warfare: The Hidden Genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia (Minnesota: U of Minnesota Press, 2005); Elisabeth Jean Wood, “Armed Groups and Sexual Violence: When Is Wartime Rape Rare?,” Politics & Society 37, no. 1 (2009): 131–61; Catharine A. MacKinnon, “Turning Rape Into Pornography: Postmodern Genocide,” Ms. July/August 1993: 24-27; Ruth Seifert, “War and Rape: A Preliminary Analysis,” in Mass Rape: The War Against Women in Bosnia-Herzegovina, ed. Alexandra Stiglmayer (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1994), 54–72.

51 Doris E. Buss. “Rethinking ‘Rape as a Weapon of War’,” Feminist legal studies 17 (2009): 145–63, 148.

52 Allison Ruby Reid-Cunningham, “Rape as a Weapon of Genocide,” Genocide Studies and Prevention 3, no. 3 (2008): 279–96.

53 Buss, “Rethinking ‘Rape As a Weapon of War.’”; Paul Kirby,. “The Body Weaponized: War, Sexual Violence and the Uncanny,” Security Dialogue 51, no. 2–3 (2020): 211–30.

54 Rhonda Copelon, “Surfacing Gender: Reconceptualizing Crimes Against Women in Time of War,” in Mass Rape: The War Against Women in Bosnia-Herzegovina, ed. Alexandra Stiglmayer (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1994), 197–218.

55 Aldo Zammit Borda, “Putting Reproductive Violence on the Agenda: A Case Study of the Yazidis,” Journal of Genocide Research 26, no. 1 (2024): 94–114.

56 Grey, “A Legal Analysis of Genocide by ‘Imposing Measures Intended to Prevent Births.’”

57 Natalie Florea Hudson, “Securitizing Women's Rights and Gender Equality,” Journal of Human Rights 8, no. 1 (2009): 53–70.

58 Hudson, “Securitizing Women's Rights and Gender Equality.”

59 Barry Buzan, Ole Wæver, and Jaap De Wilde, Security: A New Framework for Analysis (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1998).

60 Ibid., 24.

61 Paul Roe. “Securitization and Minority Rights: Conditions of Desecuritization,” Security Dialogue 35, no. 3 (2004): 279–94

62 Snejana Farberov, “Israeli hostages impregnated by Hamas rapists will decide whether to keep babies upon release,” New York Post, 24 January 2024, https://nypost.com/2024/01/24/news/pregnant-hamas-hostages-will-be-offered-abortion/.

63 Ibid.; Jeff Huysmans, “The Question of the Limit: Desecuritisation and the Aesthetics of Horror in Political Realism,” Millennium 27, no. 3 (1998): 569–89.

64 Joanne Belknap. “Rape: Too Hard to Report and Too Easy to Discredit Victims,” Violence Against Women 16, no. 12 (2010): 1335–44.

65 Antonia I. Castañeda, “Sexual Violence in The Politics and Policies of Conquest: Amerindian Women and The Spanish Conquest of Alta California,” in Building with Our Hands: New Directions in Chicana Studies, ed. Adela de la Torre and Beatriz M. Pesquera (University of California Press, 1993), 15–33.

66 Heidi Matthews and Tanya Serisie. “Bombing Gaza Isn't Fighting Sexual Violence,” Counter Punch, 16 January 2024. https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/01/16/bombing-gaza-isnt-fighting-sexual-violence/.

67 Ibid.

68 Jenny Sharpe, Allegories of Empire: The Figure of Woman in the Colonial Text (Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1993).

69 Thomas Foster. “The Sexual Abuse of Black Men Under American Slavery,” Journal of the History of Sexuality 20, no. 3 (2011): 445–64.

70 Rachel A. Feinstein, When Rape Was Legal: The Untold History of Sexual Violence During Slavery (New York: Routledge, 2018).

71 Mattias Smångs, “Race, Gender, and the Rape-Lynching Nexus in the US South, 1881-1930,” Social Problems 67, no. 4 (2020): 616–36.

72 Ibid.

73 Angela Y. Davis, “Rape, Racism and the Capitalist Setting,” The Black Scholar 9, no. 7 (1978).

74 Sujata Moorti, Color of Rape: Gender and Race in Television’s Public Spheres (Albany: SUNY Press, 2002).

75 Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New York: Pantheon Books, 1978).

76 Ibid., 300.

77 Paula Abood, “The Arab as Spectacle: Race, Gender and Representation in Australian Popular Culture” (PhD diss., University of New South Wales, 2007).

78 Maryam Khalid, “Gender, Orientalism and Representations of the ‘Other’in the War on Terror,” Global Change, Peace & Security 23, no. 1 (2011): 15–29; Maryam Khalid, “‘Gendering Orientalism’: Gender, Sexuality, and Race in Post-9/11 Global Politics,” Critical Race & Whiteness Studies 10, no. 1 (2014); Michaele L. Ferguson, “Feminism and Security Rhetoric in the Post-September 11 Bush Administration,” in W Stands for Women: How the George W. Bush Presidency Shaped a New Politics of Gender (2007): 191–220; Christina Ho, “Responding to Orientalist Feminism: Women's Rights and the War on Terror,” Australian Feminist Studies 25, no. 66 (2010): 433–39.; Gargi Bhattacharyya, “Dangerous Brown Men and the War on Terror,” in Thinking Thru’Islamophobia: A Symposium, CERS e-Working Paper, no. 12 (2008): 18–21.; Marysia Zalewski and Anne Sisson Runyan, “‘Unthinking’ Sexual Violence in a Neoliberal Era of Spectacular Terror,” Critical Studies on Terrorism 8, no. 3 (2015): 439–55.

79 Khalid. “Gender, Orientalism and Representations of the ‘Other’in the War on Terror,”

80 Ibid., 15.

81 Ibid.

82 The Times of Israel, “‘Where the Hell are You?’”

83 Ibid.

84 Khalid, “Gender, Orientalism and Representations of the ‘Other’ in the War on Terror.”

85 Zalewski and Runyan, “‘Unthinking’ Sexual Violence in a Neoliberal Era of Spectacular Terror.”

86 See Gayatri Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” in Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, ed. Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988), 271–313.

87 Zalewski and Runyan, “‘Unthinking’ Sexual Violence in a Neoliberal Era of Spectacular Terror.”

88 Lila Abu-Lughod, Rema Hammami, and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, eds., The Cunning of Gender Violence: Geopolitics and Feminism (Durham: Duke University Press, 2023).

89 Mariam Syed. “Do Muslim Women Still Need Saving? How Lila Abu-Lughod Interprets Today's Political Reality,” Interview with Lila Abu-Lughod, Columbia Journal, 5 February 2024.

90 Palestinian Feminist Collective. “Shut Down Colonial Feminism on International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women,” November 2023. https://palestinianfeministcollective.org/shut-down-colonial-feminism-2023/

91 Nick Burbank. “We Deserve the Truth About What Happened on October 7,” Mondoweiss. 1 February 2024. https://mondoweiss.net/2024/02/we-deserve-the-truth-about-what-happened-on-october-7/.

92 Anwar Mhajne and Alexandra Trantos. “Weaponising Social Media May Be Counterproductive in Hamas-Israel Conflict,” Binding Hook, 16 February 2024. https://bindinghook.com/articles-hooked-on-trends/weaponising-social-media-may-be-counterproductive-in-hamas-israel-conflict/

93 Daniel Boguslaw and Ryan Grim. “New York Times Puts ‘Daily’ Episode on Ice Amid Internal Firestorm over Hamas Sexual Violence Article: As the Times Faces Scrutiny for Its Coverage of Israel's War on Gaza, It Has Capitulated to the Pro-Israel Media Watchdog CAMERA,” The Intercept. 28 January 2024. https://theintercept.com/2024/01/28/new-york-times-daily-podcast-camera/.

94 Randa Abdel-Fattah. “A Critical Look at The New York Times’ Weaponization of Rape in Service of Israeli Propaganda,” Institute for Palestine Studies.14 January 2024. https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1655054

95 The Short String. “ZAKA is not a trustworthy source for allegations of sexual violence on October 7,” Mondoweiss, 30 December 2023. https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/zaka-is-not-a-trustworthy-source-for-allegations-of-sexual-violence-on-october-7/.

96 Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim. “Kibbutz Be’eri Rejects Story in New York Times October 7 Exposé: ‘They Were Not Sexually Abused’,” The Intercept, 4 March 2024. https://theintercept.com/2024/03/04/nyt-october-7-sexual-violence-kibbutz-beeri/.; The Short String, “Family of Key Case in New York Times October 7 Sexual Violence Report Renounces Story, Says Reporters Manipulated Them.”

97 Jeremy Scahill, Ryan Grim, and Daniel Boguslaw. “Between the Hammer and the Anvil: The Story Behind the New York Times October 7 Exposé,” The Intercept, 28 February 2024. https://theintercept.com/2024/02/28/new-york-times-anat-schwartz-october-7/.

98 “60+ Journalism Profs Demand Investigation into Controversial NYT Article Alleging Mass Rape on Oct. 7,” Democracy Now!, 8 May 2024. https://www.democracynow.org/2024/5/8/nyt_investigation#:~:text = A%20group%20of%20more%20than,sexual%20violence%20on%20October%207.

99 Anat Stalinsky, director, Screams Before Silence, film, released April 2024, https://www.screamsbeforesilence.com. Produced by Sheryl Sandberg.

100 Ali Abunimah. “Debunking ‘Screams Before Silence,’ Sheryl Sandberg's 7 Oct. ‘Mass Rape’ Film,” Electronic Intifada, 4 May 2024. https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/debunking-screams-silence-sheryl-sandbergs-7-oct-mass-rape-film.

101 Ahram Online. “Hamas Condemns New York Times Allegations on Sexual Violence on 7 October,” Ahram Online, 31 December 2023. https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/514907.aspx.

102 See Anwar Mhajne, “Gender and Sexual Based Violence,” MENA POLITICS: Newsletter of the Middle East and North Africa Politics Section of APSA 7, no. 1 (Spring 2024): [57–61], https://www.examplelink.com, ISSN: 2996-491.

103 Eylon Levy [@EylonALevy]. (8 December 2023). “Thank you to the United States for vetoing a UN Security Council resolution designed to keep the Hamas Rapist Regime in power,” [Tweet]. X. https://twitter.com/EylonALevy/status/1733239832288059428?lang=en-GB.

104 24NEWS English, “‘We Hold South Africa Criminally Complicit with the Hamas Rapist Regime’,” interview with Eylon Levy, published on YouTube, 2 January 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FVsyq5CViA.

105 AIPAC [@AIPAC]. (2 February 2024). “A ceasefire now keeps these rapist monsters armed and in power in Gaza,” [Tweet]. X. https://twitter.com/AIPAC/status/1760341184344395812.

106 Pronczuk, and Kingsley, “U.N. Aid Agency Researchers Allege Abuse of Gazans in Israeli Detention.”

107 Israel Defense Forces [@IDF]. (5 March 2024).”Over 450 @UNRWA employees are military operatives in terror groups in Gaza … This is no mere coincidence, this is systematic. There is no claiming: ‘we didn't know.’“ [Twitter]. X. https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1764954449955484133.

108 Ibid.

109 Ibid.

110 Michelle Nichols, “UNRWA head warns of concerted campaign to end its operations,” Reuters, 4 March 2024. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/unrwa-head-warns-concerted-campaign-end-its-operations-2024-03-04/

111 Belinda Luscombe. “Sheryl Sandberg Calls for More Outrage Over Attacks on Women on Oct. 7,” Time, 4 December 2023. https://time.com/6342428/israel-hamas-sheryl-sandberg-oct-7/

112 National Council of Jewish Women. “Press Releases: At Special Session on Sexual Violence Against Israelis, Speakers Call on Women's Organizations, the UN, and the World to Speak Out,” 4 December 2023. https://www.ncjw.org/news/at-special-session-on-sexual-violence-against-israelis-speakers-call-on-womens-organizations-the-un-and-the-world-to-speak-out/

113 Ibid.

114 Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian. “Palestinian Feminist Critique and the Physics of Power: Feminists Between Thought and Practice,” feminists@ law 4, no. 1 (2014): 13.

115 Heidi Matthews and Tanya Serisie, “Bombing Gaza Isn't Fighting Sexual Violence.”

116 Reuters. “EU Sanctions Hamas Wings over Sexual Violence on Oct. 7,” 12 April 2024. https://www.reuters.com/world/eu-sanctions-hamas-wings-over-sexual-violence-oct-7-2024-04-12/.

117 Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003); Laleh Khalili and Isabelle Humphries, “The Gender of Nakba Memory,” in Nakba: Palestine, 1948 and the Claims of Memory, ed. Ahmad Sa’adi and Lila Abu-Lughod (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007), 207–27; Susan Slyomovics, “The Rape of Qula, a Destroyed Palestinian Village,” in ibid.,, 27–51.

118 Revital Madar. “Beyond Male Israeli Soldiers, Palestinian Women, Rape, and War: Israeli State Sexual Violence against Palestinians,” Conflict and Society 9, no. 1 (2023): 72–88.

119 Elisabeth Jean Wood, “Variation in Sexual Violence During War,” Politics & Society 34, no. 3 (2006): 307–42; Elisabeth Jean Wood, “Armed Groups and Sexual Violence: When Is Wartime Rape Rare?,” Politics & Society 37, no. 1 (2009): 131–61; Elisabeth Jean Wood, “Sexual Violence During War: Toward an Understanding of Variation,” in Gender, War, and Militarism: Feminist Perspectives, ed. Laura Sjoberg and Sandra E. Via (London: Bloomsbury, 2010), 124–37.

120 Tal Nitsán, “Controlled Occupation: The Rarity of Military Rape in the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict” (Jerusalem: The Shaine Center for Research in Social Science, 2007).

121 Catherine MacKinnon, “נשים, זנות ואי שיוויון” [Women, Prostitution, and Inequality], lecture, Israel Association for Feminist and Gender Studies, Israel, 25 August 2014. [In Hebrew].

122 Elisabeth Jean Wood. “Armed Groups and Sexual Violence: When is Wartime Rape Rare?,” Politics & Society 37, no. 1 (2009): 131–61, 133.

123 Khalili and Humphries, “The Gender of Nakba Memory,” 212.

124 Ferdoos Abed-Rabo Al Issa and Elizabeth Beck. “Sexual Violence as a War Weapon in Conflict Zones: Palestinian Women's Experience Visiting Loved Ones in Prisons and Jails,” Affilia 36, no. 2 (2021): 167–81

125 TOI Staff. “Al Jazeera report alleging IDF rapes in Shifa Hospital retracted,” The Times of Israel, March 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/al-jazeera-report-alleging-idf-rapes-in-shifa-hospital-retracted/.

126 See Gianluca Pacchiani. “Shaken by Daily Mass Protests on Gaza, Jordan Accuses Infiltrators of Stoking Unrest,” The Times of Israel, April 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/shaken-by-daily-mass-protests-on-gaza-jordan-accuses-infiltrators-of-stoking-unrest/.

127 See Yasser Abu Hilalah [@abuhilalah] (24 March 2024). “□️ □ ️ تبين من خلال تحقيقات حركة حماس إن قصة اغتصاب النساء في #مستشفى_الشفاء مختلقة، طبعا العدو لم يتورع عن جريمة إبادة . □ ️ □ ️بررت السيدة التي تحدثت عن الاغتصاب مبالغتها وحديثها غير الصحيح بأن الهدف أستثارة حمية الأمة ونخوتها ! وكأن أكثر من ثلاثين ألف شهيد وتسعين ألف جريح ونحو مليون نازح والدمار الشامل غير كاف !” [Tweet]. X. https://twitter.com/abuhilalah/status/1771996521312973088

128 Muhammad Shehadeh [@muhammadshehad2] (26 March 2024). “Hamas has a vested interests for domestic political reasons in denying the IDF rape of Gazan women on their watch to avoid public blame.” [Tweet]. X. https://twitter.com/muhammadshehad2/status/1772678643078045796

129 Muhammad Shehadeh [@muhammadshehad2] (26 March 2024). “Hamas has a vested interests for domestic political reasons in denying the IDF rape of Gazan women on their watch to avoid public blame.” [Tweet]. X. https://twitter.com/muhammadshehad2/status/1772678643078045796

130 Ayman Abed [@ayman_abed93 (25 March 2024). “ حجم الألم الذي عاشته أسرتي لأيام طويلة من حصار ودمار في جوار مستشفى الشفاء ننفي أن يكون هناك حالات اغتصاب لحرائر غزة للنساء الطاهرات لا نبرر للعدو اجرامه لكن هذه الكلمات خرجت من اختي ضمن حديث ١٠ دقائق للجزيرة وتحدثت بلسان مرتبك خرج من الموت للتو .” [Tweet]. X. https://twitter.com/ayman_abed93/status/1772206422203285589

131 Jihad Helles [@Jhkhelles] (24 March 2024). “ ي حياتي كلها لم أسمع بقضية اغتصاب واحدة لسيدة في غزة، ذلك لأن نساء غزة قويات عفيفات لدرجة أنهن يفضلن الموت ألف مرة ولا يمس أحد عرضهن أو يتعرض لشرفهن، ويا ويل من فكر في ذلك !! فهل أدركتم حجم القهر الذي نعيشه والألم الذي نذوقه !! اللهم استر عورات نساء غزة واحفظ عليهن أعراضهن !!”. [Tweet]. X. https://twitter.com/Jhkhelles/status/1771944061156446449

132 Madar, “Beyond Male Israeli Soldiers, Palestinian Women, Rape, and War.”

133 Ibid., 76.

134 Al Issa and Beck, “Sexual Violence as a War Weapon in Conflict Zones”; Kathryn Medien, “Israeli Settler Colonialism, ‘Humanitarian Warfare,’ and Sexual Violence in Palestine,” International Feminist Journal of Politics 23, no. 5 (2021): 698–719.

135 Rema Hammami. “Destabilizing Mastery and the Machine: Palestinian Agency and Gendered Embodiment at Israeli Military Checkpoints,” Current Anthropology 60, no. 19 (2019): 87–97.

136 Daniel J.N. Weishut. “Sexual Torture of Palestinian Men by Israeli Authorities,” Reproductive Health Matters 23, no. 46 (2015): 71–84.

137 Madar, “Beyond Male Israeli Soldiers, Palestinian Women, Rape, and War,” 75.

138 Nehad Khader. “Rasmea Odeh: The Case of an Indomitable Woman,” Journal of Palestine Studies 46, no. 4 (2017): 62–74.

139 See OHCHR, “Israel/oPt: UN Experts Appalled by Reported Human Rights Violations Against Palestinian Women and Girls,” Press release, 19 February 2024. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/02/israelopt-un-experts-appalled-reported-human-rights-violations-against; UNRWA. “Detention and Alleged Ill-Treatment of Detainees from Gaza During Israel-Hamas War,” 16 April 2024.

140 OHCHR, “Israel/oPt.”

141 OCHA OPT, “Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel – reported impact | Day 215.” 8 May 2024. https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-reported-impact-day-215?_gl=1*1qyp20n*_ga*MjA1MTQyODk5My4xNzE1MDA3NTQx*_ga_E60ZNX2F68*MTcxNTQzNjg5NS4yLjEuMTcxNTQzNzU5Ny4zNi4wLjA.

142 UN Women. Press Release. “Six months into the war on Gaza, over 10,000 women have been killed, among them an estimated 6,000 mothers, leaving 19,000 children orphaned. More than one million Palestinian women and girls in Gaza have almost no access to food or safe water, with disease growing amidst inhumane living conditions.” 16 April 2024. https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/press-release/2024/04/six-months-into-the-war-on-gaza-over-10000-women-have-been-killed.

143 OHCHR, “Onslaught of violence against women and children in Gaza unacceptable: UN experts.” Press release, 6 May 2024. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/05/onslaught-violence-against-women-and-children-gaza-unacceptable-un-experts#:~:text=They%20noted%20that%20women%2C%20girls,are%20estimated%20to%20be%20female.

144 OHCHR, “Onslaught of violence against women and children in Gaza unacceptable: UN experts.”

145 Ruby Mae Axelson and Prachiti Venkatraman, “Reproductive Violence in Palestine: The Need for a Feminist Approach to Justice.” Opinio Juris, 1 February 2024. https://opiniojuris.org/2024/02/01/reproductive-violence-in-palestine-the-need-for-a-feminist-approach-to-justice/.

146 Ibid.

147 Azadeh Moaveni. “What They Did to Our Women,” London Review of Books 46, no. 9 (9 May 2024).

148 Stalinsky, Screams Before Silence.