Thoughts on the UN Report and What it Shows about October 7 Rape Claims

March 8, 2024

A Report from "the Viagra Lady"

Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict: "Mission report: Official visit of the Office of the SRSG-SVC to Israel and the occupied West Bank" 29 January – 14 February 2024 - PDF link:  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

Press release: ‘Clear and convincing information’ that hostages held in Gaza subjected to sexual violence, says UN Special Representative - UN News, 4 March, 2024 - https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/03/1147217

The UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, "following a 17-day visit to Israel ... reported on Monday that she and a team of experts had found “clear and convincing information” of rape and sexualized torture being committed against hostages seized during the 7 October terror attacks" and also "reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred in multiple locations" during the October 7 attacks themselves. The latter is something I've analyzed here in some detail: Monitor on Massacre Marketing: Words Without Truth: How the New York Times Helped Netanyahu Weaponize Sexual Violence Allegations Against the People of Gaza

It's worth noting how, in 2022, Ms. Paten was caught laundering Ukrainian claims (seemingly recycled from Libya, 2011) that Russian troops were issued a Viagra equivalent to enhance their systematic rape of Ukrainian women. She passed this on as fact, but later admitted it likely wasn't true, and how she was handed these claims and did little or nothing to verify them. "I have an advocacy mandate," she explained. "My role is not to investigate.” Others at the UN did the investigating, and "in their reports so far, there’s nothing about Viagra." 

As then, Paten's mission to Israel "was not investigative in nature." It "was not intended to be, and is not a substitute for, an investigation by relevant United Nations entities mandated for that purpose, nor is it a replacement for criminal investigations and proceedings subject to due process of law." [25] The report also notes "the absence of United Nations entities operating in Israel, as well as the lack of cooperation by the State of Israel with relevant United Nations bodies with an investigative mandate." [55]

Press release: "Ms. Patten’s recommendations include a call for the Israeli Government to grant full access to the UN human rights office (OHCHR) and the Human Rights Council-mandated independent Commission of Inquiry on the occupied territory “to conduct fully-fledged independent investigations into all alleged violations.” 

But so far, they haven't done these things. Instead, it seems Israel only wanted some "advocacy" from "the Viagra lady," as they might have seen it, the one with no power to actually investigate. Interesting. 

But it should be noted that the Mission did apply at least some scrutiny to some of the provided information, even discounting some claims. It could be called an investigation, but technically it isn't. What they collect could be called evidence, but they call it "information." It's handled less formally, and ... something. I don't fully get the distinctions here, but it's discussed in the press conference (video at the top link). Their findings have less authority than those of a proper investigation, for one thing. 

Report Content: Still "No Medical, No Video - Just Words"

The report claims to draw on the mission's 33 meetings with "Israeli representatives," 34 "confidential interviews including with survivors and witnesses of the 7 October attacks, released hostages, first responders and others," and their "examining more than 5,000 photographic images and 50 hours of video footage." Due to the Israeli refusal to cooperate with the UN probes, "information gathered by the mission team was in a large part sourced from Israeli national institutions." [55] 

Right: Paten in Israel, next to Yossi Landau, southern region director of rescue group ZAKA, and a major producer of October 7 atrocity hoaxes (Israel MFA via Electronic Intifada)

The mission heard about alleged Israeli abuses of Palestinians in the West bank since October 7, including threats of rape, beatings in the genitals, unwanted touching, and "inappropriate strip search and prolonged forced nudity." They were not in verification mode for these reports, and made no visit to the Gaza war zone. The report notes that other UN agencies are working on these aspects, and of course they were never the subject of the Israeli pressures that prompted this mission.

The external focus has been on alleged abuses of Israelis by Palestinians, on October 7 and since. As the report concludes, the mission found "clear and convincing information that some hostages taken to Gaza have been subjected to various forms of conflict-related sexual violence," and they had "reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing." This was "based on the first-hand accounts of released hostages," with no supporting evidence mentioned (not that much would be expected).

Released hostages Mia Schem and Agam Goldstein-Almog have given evidence for rape (of someone else), or a culture of it (barely restrained by a jealous wife) under Hamas captivity. But both did so after first speaking in a much different tone, or giving different details, and failing to mention or even hint at this dark side. Other former hostages have said they witnessed someone else being raped or the like, with no differing accounts to contrast. But that doesn't mean they are any more truthful. 

None of them are absolutely, necessarily false, but at least some hostage accounts are quite dubious, and it's quite possible all of them are concocted under pressure - external or internal - from the same "Israeli representatives" pressing for and guiding this UN mission. 

As for October 7 itself, the mission was able to "verify" at least one "incident of the rape of a woman outside of a bomb shelter" but heard "other allegations of rape that could not yet be verified." [13] Perhaps the one case was "verified" as in proven true, and perhaps other cases sit fully ready to join it. But by and large, it seems this comes from a policy of giving supposed witnesses the benefit of the doubt wherever it's possible, not just where it's warranted. It's almost like this is some UN Human Rights mandate - a supposed witness can NEVER lie, unless that winds up undeniably, 100% proven.  

October 7 rape claims are reasonably believable, according to the UN mission, "based on the examination of available information, including credible statements by eyewitnesses" and nothing else they mention. [58] It's not clear how they define a witness statement as "credible," but so far the public has only heard from the other kind. And regarding those they worked with...

"It must be noted that witnesses and sources with whom the mission team engaged adopted over time an increasingly cautious and circumspect approach regarding past accounts, including in some cases retracting statements made previously. Some also stated to the mission team that they no longer felt confident in their recollections of other assertions that had appeared in the media." [64]

Some witnesses changed their stories after theirs and others' were exposed as lies. Indeed, that must be noted.

The report does not mention any autopsies or medical evidence they saw to support the rape claims. It still seems Israel never gathered such evidence at all, perhaps for fear of discovering a negative answer.

The mission's call is also based on no video evidence: "no digital evidence specifically depicting acts of sexual violence was found in open sources" [77] and "in the medicolegal assessment of available photos and videos" - including those provided by Israeli sources - "no tangible indications of rape could be identified." [74] In "5,000 photographic images and 50 hours of video footage," including from Hamas body cameras, there was ZERO "tangible indications of rape" the mission could find. And they tried. So have the Israelis, and they give no indication of having found anything either. 

As I noted before; it's not that this stuff definitely never happened, but it seemingly never happened in front of a camera, which would be odd given the alleged scale of the abuse. It leaves wide open the possibility that all these "credible" but shifting accounts are simply lies.

Some Specific Claims Addressed

"The medicolegal assessment of available photos and videos revealed multiple corpses with injuries, predominantly gunshot wounds, including to intimate body parts such as breasts and genitalia. Because in most instances additional injuries were also seen on other body parts, no discernible pattern of genital mutilation could be established. [76] That's what I was asking, and what Schwartz and crew for the New York Times refused to consider when they wrote of "a video, provided by the Israeli military, showing two dead Israeli soldiers at a base near Gaza who appeared to have been shot directly in their vaginas." I added these injuries were "perhaps among other shots to every part of the body, or perhaps in the targeted way they suggest." The UN Mission found that, for the most part, these were just incidental parts of some body-wide shooting. 

They also considered the reports of a woman found, bound on a bed with a "sharp object" or "knife" left in her vagina, or as the Times put it, citing a provided photo, with "dozens of nails driven into her thighs and groin." All agree she was found in a home in Be'eri that was explosively collapsed, but they agree that had nothing to do with her injuries. In contrast to the Times' reporters, the UN mission found this claim "could not be verified by the mission team due in large part to the limited availability and low quality of imagery." [65] 

They heard from "other credible sources" about women, especially around the Nova music festival, partly or totally naked, "with some gunshots in the head and/or tied including with their hands bound behind their backs and tied to structures such as trees or poles.[58] "The mission team was also able to ascertain that multiple bodies of women and a few men were found totally or partially naked or with their clothes torn, including some bound and/or attached to structures, which – though circumstantial – may be indicative of some forms of sexual violence." [60]

Some went to the rave almost naked and were later found dressed just the same way. Charred, mutilated bodies with torn clothing may indicate Hamas violence or Israeli tank or helicopter fire, which is now understood to kill an unclear but significant number of civilians. Some victims might wind up flung against and then "attached to" some structures, for example. Otherwise, maybe these images (which we haven't seen) do show the results of Hamas raping women and even men, during some breaks in the fighting. Or it seems quite possible some ZAKA types, who would have more time on their hands, stripped some bodies and tied them up to look that way. 

Paragraph 14 and 65 combined explain: "The mission team conducted a visit to kibbutz Be’eri and was able to determine that at least two allegations of sexual violence widely repeated in the media, were unfounded due to either new superseding information or inconsistency in the facts gathered ...  including first responder testimonies, photographic evidence and other information." 

The "sharp objects" claim above is a third claim from Be'eri they could neither confirm nor refute. But they were forced to dismiss these other two claims.

Paragraph 65 continues to specify "the allegation of a pregnant woman whose womb had reportedly been ripped open before she was killed, with her fetus stabbed while still inside her."  It's not explained how they discounted this story, almost as if it were fit to dismiss out-of-hand. And it probably is, but it seems to fall under "inconsistency in the facts gathered" - one of two reasons given to discount two claims. 

This bizarre claim was originally lodged, it seems, by ZAKA's Yossi Landau (to Paten's left in the photo above), and has been debunked by Ha'aretz and others, including (and especially well) by myself, based on inconsistent facts. Most note that no pregnant woman was reportedly killed on October 7, making for an easy case. I was able to add a later report of one pregnant woman that was reportedly killed, and she fit some reported details of this story (aged ~30 & 4 months pregnant), but with a different true story; she was killed randomly in a grenade attack at a roadside shelter after fleeing the Nova rave. She was not slaughtered at a house in Be'eri, where she did not live, nor in front of children that weren't even born yet (that was to be her first). 

Paragraph 65 continues to the second refuted allegation: 

"Another such account was the interpretation initially made of the body of a girl found separated from the rest of her family, naked from the waist down. It was determined by the mission team that the crime scene had been altered by a bomb squad and the bodies moved, explaining the separation of the body of the girl from the rest of her family." 

The Sharabi Girls: Who was Where?

Here we must pause. This almost surely refers to one of the Sharabi sisters, Yahel (13) or Noiya (16), and probably to Yahel. Both were REPORTEDLY seen as apparent rape victims, in the only scene remotely similar to this that has been reported. But in most versions, there were two girls found. 

Military paramedic "G" has claimed to several sources he saw the bodies of two girls in a bedroom, separated from any parents or guardians. One was face-down on the floor with "pajama pants pulled to her knees, bottom exposed, semen smeared on her back," alongside another girl on the bed, with "boxer shorts ripped, bruises by her groin." [NYT] The Times report found these girls had the same ages (13 and 16) as the only sisters reportedly killed in Be'eri, Yahel and Noiya Sharabi.

This paramedic's story is challenged, but in two different ways. One of these versions can hardly be true, but neither can be discounted just yet. 

First, some reports cited by the Gray Zone, then the Intercept, and seemingly supported by the girls' grandparents, have the girls dying in the embrace of their mother, not separated and raped.

The GrayZone cited The Times of Israel:  "Family said that the bodies of the three women, who all held dual UK-Israeli citizenship, were found in an embrace." But for what it's worth, the only family they mention hearing from is "Lianne’s parents, Gill and Pete Brisley."

A BBC report along these lines also heard, exclusively, from the grandparents in Bristol, and they heard this exclusively from "a soldier" who says he found the girls: "Mrs Brisley said they later found out the bodies of their daughter and grandchildren had been found by a soldier "all cuddled together with Lianne doing what a mother would do - holding her babies in her arms, trying to protect them at the end". 

The Intercept would later add how all 3 ladies “were just shot — nothing else had been done to them," according to "their grandmother Gillian Brisley," speaking to Israeli Channel 12. “They were found between the ‘mamad’” — the house’s safe room — “and the dining room and it’s an awful thing to say, they were just shot — nothing else had been done to them. They were shot,” said Gillian Brisley. “A soldier said he saw our daughter” — the girls’ mother — “but she was covering the two girls and they were shot,” added her husband, Pete, the girls’ grandfather." 

Again, this is what the soldier told the grandparents. For all we know, he may be the same soldier/paramedic G, giving them and the outside world two different stories. Or perhaps it's another soldier. But no matter how many sources the claim gets repeated to, it remains questionable, considering there's another version backed, it seems, by the new UN report.

The Intercept, referring to the girls only by initial, noted how "N was initially reported missing for two weeks because her body had yet to be formally identified." This refers to the alternate version where the older sister, Noiya, was considered missing and possibly kidnapped, ten days after the massacre. 

The Sun (UK tabloid), October 17, speaking with family members and visiting the home, reported "It has been confirmed Yahel died alongside her mum Lianne while her sister Noiya, 16, dad Eli, 51 and uncle Yossi, 53 were missing or kidnapped." No third body, identified or not, is mentioned as being found in their home. I had read this as excluding her from the house - she was somewhere else, perhaps abducted to another house with others, where they were killed alongside their captors. But perhaps she was here the whole time and they just thought that was someone else's body?

The Sun: "A hallway where a huge blackened smear of blood appears to be the spot where Lianne died. And upstairs, another bloodstain tells its horror story in a room where Yahel slept — heavily staining the carpet close to a pair of pink pyjamas and vanity case." There's some blood visible on the floor, or at least on a rug edge (?) and some light blue cloth there, despite it being kept mainly off-frame.

Noiya was finally identified a few days after The Sun report, on October 22 (Guardian) or 10/23 (Jewish News).

When he spoke to Republic TV (India), on or by October 25, G might have hinted that one of his "girls" was - or had been - missing (Eylon Levy posting). He specifies "2 girls," but mainly ignores one to focus on "the girl" who was "laying on her bed - on the floor" (correcting himself), left to lie "in the blood of her ... in a pile/puddle of blood." Was he about to say "the blood of her sister," but realized she wouldn't be there? If so, why include her in the scene at all? And either way, it's his later accounts (CNN & NYT in December) that he's plenty clear on both victims being teenage girls, and both being in this room. So maybe I just imagined those clues.

The girls' uncle, Sharon Sharabi, does not come down clearly supporting either story. He told The Intercept “To tell you concretely what happened in Be’eri, or what happened at the house of the Sharabi family, I don’t have an answer for you ... There is certainly no credible information I can give you, only testimonies of ZAKA or of military personnel who arrived at the scene first and saw the atrocities. So any information I might give you is information that I’m not confident about, and therefore I would rather not give it [at all].” 

"He added, “I’ve heard all the versions. What’s the truth? I don’t know.” Sharabi emphasized that he firmly believes there was widespread sexual violence committed during the attacks of October 7," but he won't endorse unreliable information from ZAKA or the IDF. And this is why uncle Sharon doesn't write for the New York Times. 

The rest of us should feel no better informed than he is, and maintain an open mind, for what it's worth, regarding what happened in that house that day.

Kibbutz Be'eri spokesperson Michal Paikin also denied the rape(s), telling The Intercept “the Sharabi girls ... were shot and were not subjected to sexual abuse.” But Paikin did not address this controversy of who was found where.

Finally, the UN report seems to support the sidelined "Sun" version; that a single girl was "found separated from the rest of her family" is presented as a fact, which they have a specific explanation for: "the crime scene had been altered by a bomb squad and the bodies moved, explaining the separation of the body of the girl from the rest of her family." 

Was she found with the others, then moved, and later found separate? But not the other sister? Did they just infer that, or is this based on relevant, factual details they learned? Two reasons are given for dismissing two claims, and this one seem to be due to "new superseding information." New information. Let's take careful note.

And let's ask WHY would a bomb squad be moving bodies around? Does a girl's corpse need carried upstairs before you can be sure there's no tripwire attached?

So now the girl is said to be alone, her sister still downstairs or missing somewhere else. There's still no great reason to believe G's description that included two girls, but let's consider, as this semi-informed new report also states as fact the one was found "naked from the waist down." A story including that also has what seemed to be semen smeared on her backside, in that position. This would mean she - or her body - was raped in that room. And if this rape came after her body was moved there, for whatever reason, by members of an Israeli bomb squad... it might suggest someone on that team, or someone they cover for, raped the girl's corpse. 

One question about the claim arises: If Yahel's body was moved upstairs from an original spot, it seems unlikely that much blood would it shed on the floor upstairs; once the heart stops beating, bodies only bleed passively. 

OR if the other version is true, and she was always cuddled with her mother and unidentified sister downstairs, then whose blood is that visibly on the floor upstairs? Maybe neither story is true, the room is where Yahel was killed, with no cuddling but also no rape.

In that case, the bomb squad story was ... some kind of misunderstanding? It's an awkward story, but it might help cover for an even worse one. Let's consider what if a rescuer with ZAKA or some elite military unit had assaulted the girl's corpse, and this became known to Israeli officials. They might want to back off the rape claim entirely, in the most convenient way - cite that mother's embrace story one of their soldiers originally told. But if they also knew the same body was seen upstairs alone, they might  choose to suggest mother's embrace, so no rape, then moved upstairs and still no rape - obviously, since Hamas was long gone by then. They would be throwing the paramedic's account under the bus, but it seems to be there already, so why not? Then maybe a bomb squad seemed like the best explanation for that move. Although the supposed reasoning isn't clear, I also can't think of anything better.  

Side-note: State of bodies

“Lianne and Yahel could only be identified through DNA samples. Noiya was identified through her teeth only two days ago.”

https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/we-just-buried-a-mother-and-two-daughters-when-the-father-is-missing-i-feel-this-is-a-second-holocaust/

Uncle Sharon Sharabi gave it the other way around, speaking to The Intercept: “Lianne and [Y] were only identified through dental records, and [N] by DNA,” he said. 

Either way, this suggests their bodies were in a poor state that's not clearly explained. Max Blumenthal wondered at the GrayZone "if their bodies were, in fact, burned beyond recognition" and, if so, "how was the paramedic “G” able to detect semen on one of the girls, and bruises on the other, and view their states of undress"? But for what it's worth, in the Sun's photos, the home doesn't appear badly damaged or burned, so that may not be the explanation. This remains another open question about this case.

Words Without Truth: How the New York Times Helped Netanyahu Weaponize Sexual Violence Allegations Against the People of Gaza

October 7 Massacre in Israel, part 7: Words Without Truth

How the New York Times Helped Netanyahu Weaponize Sexual Violence Allegations Against the People of Gaza

January 22, 2024

1) A Propaganda & Genocide Assist from the NYT? 

This post will review the New York Times' December 28 article "‘Screams Without Words’: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7." By Jeffrey Gettleman, Anat Schwartz and Adam Sella, New York Times, December 28, 2023 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/28/world/middleeast/oct-7-attacks-hamas-israel-sexual-violence.html

I've been incredibly slow to decide this was worth finishing and then to assemble it even this well. I was originally content to leave it with the great works of Max Blumenthal and the Gray Zone, among others. But now I'll just start there; with some double-checking and other research of my own, some points and thoughts came up that I think improve the record. So this is a worthwhile read, if I've boiled it down well enough for you.

As the report's opening summary says "A two-month investigation by The Times uncovered painful new details, establishing that the attacks against women were not isolated events but part of a broader pattern of gender-based violence on Oct. 7." This seems to confirm Israeli officials who "say that everywhere Hamas terrorists struck — the rave, the military bases along the Gaza border and the kibbutzim — they brutalized women,"

First of all, even if every claim in this article were true, that would not provide any legitimate legal reason for Israel's current or planned genocide program(s) in Gaza or anywhere else (and it classes as genocide by at least some relevant definitions). The radical Netanyahu government and apparently the majority of Israel's populace seem to feel that the mass rape DOES explain their trajectory just fine; only the details of Hamas' alleged violence need to be considered in deciding the fate of Gaza and its 2 million inhabitants, because international law doesn't apply to Israel, as THE aggrieved victims of a brand new "Holocaust." 

Now that the Jewish state has been provoked ... should they kill some or all of Gaza's people, using bombs, hunger, thirst and disease, or maybe with a nuke, as some inside and outside the government have argued? Or should they simply threaten these in combination as the alternative to a massive "voluntary relocation?" Both notions are floated openly, with expulsion taken as the "logical" and "humane" option. Officially, no such genocide or ethnic cleansing is planned, but the "war" Israel has waged so far leaves these paths wide open by making Gaza essentially a living hell. 

Do Israeli settlements in Gaza return and then expand? Should they just settle the whole strip, and/or shorten the route of their hoped-for Ben Gurion Canal, running it right through Gaza? (see Eurasia Review) Do they take the West Bank too? Then on to the East Bank, into Lebanon, Syria and everything else "God promised them" long ago? It's all in happy discussion, after it was "proven" that - in particular - Israeli babies were beheaded and Israeli women were raped in the genocidal Palestinian incursion of October 7. (it does also count by SOME definitions, but Israelis insist if any one party is guilty of genocide - and they assume just one party CAN be guilty - then it must be Hamas, who they say DELIBERATELY killed babies, and who raped women.)

So the allegations offer no legal justification, but they drive Israelis anyway, and for the rest of us, the truth matters in its own ways. The main question we'll consider here is if the mass rape claims are true, at least judging by the provided evidence. The way it's piled up in the Times report, Hamas mass rape can seem pretty conclusive. But after sorting and considering ... the lodged claims have always been curiously short on supporting evidence, are often dubious or implausible, frequently change over time, and whenever there are enough specifics to compare with other evidence, the rape stories tend to clash with it, and to lose that clash. 

It remains all but impossible to prove a negative, like "rape did NOT happen," but the provided evidence FOR it has been seen to fail. So it seems likely the published stories were partly or entirely invented, probably in order to give Israel its supposed blank check for genocide and ethnic cleansing. This kind of allegation is akin to the "blood libel" long directed at Jews - incitement to communal hatred and perhaps to genocide. Those found guilty of such fabrications to fuel Nazi aggression and the Holocaust were certainly not tolerated by the civilized world, and found guilty of the crimes they encouraged and concealed (see the case of Hans Fritzsche). 

The Israelis would surely know what they're doing spreading such tales against the Palestinians as they set about re-writing Gaza's future. And Gettleman, Schwartz and Sella at the Times likely know what they're doing in assisting this effort, apparently having avoided any kind of second-checking or scrutiny as they essentially megaphoned Tel Aviv's hateful propaganda. 

Maybe they had a lucky break, journalistically, and the claims wound up being true anyway. Let's have a detailed check how likely that is.

2) Evidence Overview: No Medical, No Video - Just Words 

The Times heard from a government official about three women and one man who survived Hamas rape and were in counseling, but “None of them has been willing to come physically for treatment,” let alone to tell their story. After serious inducements to come forward with any story, true or false, this is all they even claim to have. 

Orit Sulitzeanu, executive director of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel told the Times “Many people are looking for the golden evidence" of survivor testimony, but he urged "don’t put this pressure on this woman.” That's fair enough when the PROPER response would include "doubting (questioning) the (alleged) victim" anyway. 

Sulitzeanu says we can leave the survivors alone because “The corpses tell the story” and they tell it widely. But that story was generally not taken down before the bodies were buried. The severe lack of medical evidence has been widely noted. It's not just that images haven't been made public - in many cases, alleged abuses wind up lacking any documentation anywhere. The Times finds no differently, noting the Jewish religious imperative to bury the dead swiftly, and quoted "Moshe Fintzy, a deputy superintendent and senior spokesman of Israel’s national police, said, “We have zero autopsies, zero,” making an O with his right hand." They never did carefully figure out who was killed by Hamas' bullets, blades, or penises as opposed to weapons the IDF was using on the same battlefield. That could only complicate the crucial finding that Hamas killed them all.

And it seems there was an absolute and total failure to check for or against sexual assault. As the Times reported: "The Israeli police have acknowledged that, during the shock and confusion of Oct. 7, the deadliest day in Israeli history, they were not focused on collecting semen samples from women’s bodies, requesting autopsies or closely examining crime scenes. At that moment, the authorities said, they were intent on repelling Hamas and identifying the dead."

A professor reminded the Times how “armed conflict is so chaotic” it's only natural that if the army is dropping bombs, the police forget how to collect evidence, or something like that. 

So negative findings were not risked, and the question of rape was left up to the public's imagination, and of course Israeli officials have tried to lead that imagination. They insist the rapes were real, massive, and systematic and that - despite the almost total lack of evidence - everybody knows that, so that anyone who pretends to have doubts is an antisemite who secretly rejoices in the mass rape of Israeli women and girls (and even men). 

Some of those who handled the bodies have reported consistent clues. Many of them are noted as unqualified to understand what they see, but some are quite imaginative, and get cited like experts in this report and before. Perhaps most prolific is "Captain Maayan," this time telling the Times how one woman had her fingernails pulled out. She and others have spoken of indirect evidence for especially brutal rape, like broken pelvises and legs. They don't say if the whole bodies were damaged like this, after being found in a tank-flattened house or a hellfire-ravaged car, or in the line of Hamas' explosive weaponry, but that seems likely enough. 

In a similar vein, "The Times also viewed a video, provided by the Israeli military, showing two dead Israeli soldiers at a base near Gaza who appeared to have been shot directly in their vaginas," perhaps among other shots to every part of the body, or perhaps in the targeted way they suggest. Still, those were soldiers that, as we all know, Hamas executed at will. And that's still not quite rape. 

"The Times viewed photographs of one woman’s corpse that emergency responders discovered in the rubble of a besieged kibbutz with dozens of nails driven into her thighs and groin." It seems quite possible the house collapse - likely after an IDF tank attack - is what drove nails into this part of her body and perhaps other parts, besides other random cruelties that occur when a house collapses on you. See the example image at right, (NOT the same image the Times saw) and consider how justified the caption would be. Likely all of it was called "torture" in the official investigation; Maybe "Hamas" tore off someone's right arm with a splintered and burning section of support beam, etc..

 

In this case, the Times reporter(s) seem to endorse this reading, having seen the image. But this reading differs from that of 2 rescuers describing what is most likely the same scene, despite the differences. If so, note the variance between the recorded and the remembered. 

A ZAKA rescuer saw with "professional eyes" a naked woman with a single "sharp object" stuck in "the intimate area of her body," along with "part of a ceiling" in "a building that was completely destroyed."  (https://twitter.com/MorHogeg/status/1729140621859049690) Another ZAKA rescuer reports "two women in Be'eri tied to beds, one with a knife in her vagina and her organs removed. After brutally violating these women, Hamas detonated the house on them, so we found them beneath a pile of stones." (MeToo unless you're a Jew - UnHerd) - (MarinaMedvin on X) - "One was sexually terrorised with a knife stuck in her vagina and all her internal organs removed," (BBC 12/5). A knife, some nails, whatever. It was some deliberate Hamas cruelty prior to the house collapse, which Hamas also engineered.

To their credit, the NYT did not include the allegation of some rescuers of a pregnant woman cut open so the terrorists could remove and execute her fetus before her eyes. That was an absolute crock with only the thinnest links to reality, as I established here on December 18. A December 5 BBC report had included it (but differentlty, with "her foetus stabbed while it was inside her.") noting "The BBC has not been able to independently verify this account, and Israeli media reports have questioned some testimony from volunteers working in the traumatic aftermath of the Hamas attacks."

The Times report also noted "Some emergency medical workers now wish they had documented more of what they saw," to bolster their outlandish descriptions. Their "deep respect for the dead" is cited for failing to do so, and also “we are not allowed to take pictures,” as ZAKA southern operations director Yossi Landau said, explaining why he didn't take any. “In retrospect, I regret it.” Others were seemingly allowed, but say they just didn't have the time (see "G" below), or they refused to photograph the evidence because of "personal limits" (Col. Golan Vach, referring to charred and beheaded baby he swears he saw in Be'eri). Any combination of these reasons is sure to explain why they almost never have any visual evidence. 

Widespread, systematic rape as alleged would likely be captured on video in at least a few cases, when Hamas body cameras, common dashboard cameras, security cameras and mobile phones were all widely in play, and used to document quite a few real acts of violence. As the Times report "The Israeli authorities have no shortage of video evidence" from all these sources "showing Hamas terrorists killing civilians and many images of mutilated bodies." If they had ANY footage of a rape or related activities occurring, that's the place it should be mentioned. But it seems even from this large catalog, carefully scrutinized, no such footage was located. I'm not saying this stuff never happened, just that it seemingly never happened in front of a camera anywhere, which is strange in light of the alleged scale of the abuse.

There has been imagery cited as indirect evidence for rape, with at least 3 scenes apparently included in Israel's 43-minute private-screening atrocity video. As I reviewed that in part 4, these scenes were:

* relevant / inconclusive (bloody pants can have a few causes)

* irrelevant / fake (recycled photo of a killed Kurdish fighter - adding BBC 12/5 seems to mention this scene as genuine ("women naked from the waist down, or with their underwear ripped to one side"), shortly after it had been exposed and removed from the Israeli-run Hamas-Massacre.net website and apparently from the IDF's 43-minute video, whereas Jewish News editor Jotam Confino describes it clearly enough as included back in late October ("on the grass" "her panties taken half off"))

* relevant / even worse (a possible Apache helicopter victim, re-posed hours after death to suggest rape).

The latter became central to this Times report as "the woman in the black dress," now identified as Gal Abdush. That story has been central for me as well, but decentralized in coverage - see section 5 below, linking to an earlier post I had included her in. I hope to assemble a dedicated review post, especially now that the alleged rape victim's family is complaining about the Times' part in spreading a bloated myth. They should be better informed than the reporters, and they had no reason to suspect Gal had been raped, until the reporters convinced some of them, then pretended it was the other way around, citing the family as further evidence for rape. Others remain unconvinced and feel misled; Gal's sister Miral Alter put it: "If we knew that it was a headline like rape slaughter, we would never agree. Never.” 

But first, some consideration of two other lines of evidence that were central to the Times report: 

- two pairs of direct (alleged) witnesses (each containing a "security consultant") claiming to have seen rape, murder and mutilation at the rave, and 

- a military paramedic who says he saw 2 teenage sisters who had clearly been raped.

 

Noting that military members and "security consultants" are especially likely to assist in a state-sponsored coverup and propaganda operation, it should be little surprise that their shifting stories clash with the more credible evidence, and of course none of them has a single image to back up any of it. 

3) The "Security Consultant" Witnesses to Rapes at the Rave 

3A) Four Witnesses with Two (Final) Stories

The Times relied heavily on two alleged witnesses, each backed with a more B-list co-witness,  to the rape, murder, torture and mutilation of several young women fleeing the Nova music festival, along highway 232. 

Raz Cohen is "a young Israeli who had also attended the rave and had worked recently in the Democratic Republic of Congo training Congolese soldiers," as the Times notes. Picture caption: "Raz Cohen, a security consultant, survived the Oct. 7 attacks by hiding in a dried-up streambed."  - elsewhere he's noted as "a discharged officer from the Maglan Patrol," an elite reconnaissance unit. (kan.org.il Dec. 14) It's unclear why he was discharged - perhaps partying and drugs.

The Times heard from Cohen in "an hour-and-a-half interview in a Tel Aviv restaurant." He claims he hid in a dry riverbed "along Route 232 ... about a mile southwest of the party area," when he witnessed five Palestinian men in civilian clothes in a white van, "all carrying knives and one carrying a hammer" pull up "maybe 40 yards in front of him." Cohen says he watched the men drag a "young, naked and screaming" woman across the ground to a spot where they gathered. “She’s standing up," he recalled. "They start raping her. I saw the men standing in a half circle around her. One penetrates her. She screams. ... Then one of them raises a knife,” he said, “and they just slaughtered her.” The Times let Cohen provide the article's title, from his poetic line: "I still remember her voice, screams without words.” 

Hiding along with Raz was "Shoam Gueta, one of Mr. Cohen’s friends and a fashion designer" who also spoke with the Times, with a more vague version of the same story. He says the attackers were “talking, giggling and shouting” as they assaulted the woman, "and that one of them stabbed her with a knife repeatedly, “literally butchering her.”" FWIW Gueta might be the one who designed Cohen's cloak for an October 7 propaganda fashion show. (https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1741364790407180448) 

Raz Cohen gets the purpose of these stories and the motive why he might exaggerate or invent one: he said in one interview to Israeli media he plans to re-enlist in the IDF to join the fight in Gaza or wherever, because "I need revenge, to live with myself" after allegedly witnessing those horrors, and being unable to stop or document them. "After this" - including the unsupported story he tells - "Gaza [will] not continue to be [on] the map."

https://twitter.com/Wahb_Allat/status/1712070021999165825

"Sapir," a 24-year-old accountant, "has become one of the Israeli police’s key witnesses," the Times reported. Her name full name is withheld for fear of "hounding." She sounds easy to dox, and perhaps eager for it, thinking herself well-poised for a profile-raising lawsuit. She gave the Times "a two-hour interview outside a cafe in southern Israel" 

Around 8 a.m., Sapir says, "she was hiding under the low branches of a bushy tamarisk tree, just off Route 232, about four miles southwest of the party." From there she saw "groups of heavily armed gunmen" - around 100 in total, some seeming military and some civilian, "rape and kill at least five women" as the Times put it. In the report itself, she describes seeing just two women raped and killed, three others raped but not killed (that she saw), and 3 more perhaps raped, and killed out of her view - she claims she just saw their severed heads. That's for a total of 8 victims spoken of. 

"Yura Karol, a 22-year-old security consultant, said he was hiding in the same spot, and he can be seen in one of Sapir’s photos." He relates the same basic story in a more second-hand way.

Some the twisted details told by Sapir: First rape: "One man pulled her by the hair and made her bend over. Another penetrated her, Sapir said, and every time she flinched, he plunged a knife into her back." Then she claims to have seen "another woman “shredded into pieces.”  While one terrorist raped her, she said, another pulled out a box cutter and sliced off her breast," and started a game of toss-the-severed-breast just for fun, as the rape continued. She says they sliced her face, and then the victim "fell out of view" - likely executed, but she didn't claim to see. "Around the same time, she said, she saw three other women raped and terrorists carrying the severed heads of three more women," killed barbarically after what crimes she could only imagine. 

Just from Sapir's amazing spot, she claims to have witnessed 5+ rapes, 5+ murders, including 3+ beheaded women. As noted above, there are reportedly four rape survivors identified in the whole massacre. There are still zero rapes among the dead actually proven from all that physical evidence Israel had access to. And there are still zero beheaded women actually verified, identified, visually documented or credibly reported. She saw more than everyone else combined! She does suggest it was an unusual spot in this regard: “It was like an assembly point.” And if fighters and civilian rapists knew to congregate their crimes here for Sapir and Yura to see, that might go to show the whole thing was systematic, a planned part of Hamas' campaign of genocide.

In fact, the police have specified that they do NOT have the supporting evidence: According to Mondoweiss, Haaretz reported that “investigators were unable to identify the women who, according to the testimony of [Sapir] and other eyewitnesses, were raped and murdered.” Israeli Police Superintendent Adi Edry told the paper, “I have circumstantial evidence, but ultimately my duty is to find evidence that supports her testimony and to find the victims’ identity. At this stage I don’t have those specific corpses.” (Family of key case in New York Times October 7 sexual violence report renounces story, says reporters manipulated them – Mondoweiss)

So there's no evidence past the words of Sapir and Yura, when there probably should be some. But it was good enough for the New York friggin' Times. 

3B) 4 Witnesses, Zero Visual Evidence 

Both Raz Cohen and Sapir are said to have visually proven their presence at the rave, or along Route 232 north or south of it, during the chaotic efforts to flee. That had become an issue after prolific alleged witness Niko Ostroga was found to have fabricated his presence to witness the killing of 29 friends. (Max Blumenthal on X (twitter.com)) Both witnesses also had a second witness to claim hiding with them to corroborate their stories. But all four of them failed to record - by video, still images, audio, or any form - the rapes they claim to have seen in broad daylight. 

Raz Cohen posted this image of him smiling as he hid from Hamas gunmen in a dry riverbed (on the left, with perhaps Gueta on the right - via Max B. on X - text added by me). This photo could be posed in any old "wadi" (as the Arabs call them), but it's likely enough he was at the rave and this is him hiding, just feeling in no immediate danger. But of course, he posted no image of himself frowning after witnessing a horrific rape, and of course, he posted and presumably took no recording of the event.

"Sapir," as the Times reports, "provided photographs of her hiding place and her wounds, and police officials have stood by her testimony and released a video of her, with her face blurred, recounting some of what she saw." But of course, she had no video of what she saw to prove one bit of the elaborate butchery she reports. She even specifies that she relied only on her eyes and/or imagination: "I looked at all this as if I was photographing them with my eyes, not forgetting any detail. I told myself: I should remember everything." And then she would need to insist that everyone believes those are actual memories, and maybe scream antisemitism if anyone doubts her.

Her co-witness "Yura Karol ... said he barely lifted his head to look at the road but he also described seeing a woman raped and killed." He too had no footage that's mentioned. He could lift his head, "barely," but his camera, not at all.

There are legitimate reasons these four people might all fail to record the events they actually witnessed. But mainly this comes down to the increased danger of being spotted with a raised camera. But the same issue applies to raising their eyes to see, and that was allegedly no problem. 

Furthermore, Cohen and perhaps Karol - as "security consultants" with some military training - might know better than most how to covertly film something without being spotted. Cohen was with the Maglan Unit 212 a reconnaissance unit of the IDF, which "specializes in operating behind enemy lines and deep in enemy territory using advanced technologies and weaponry." Maglan means Ibis, "a bird that knows how to adapt in every situation." Maglan - Wikipedia With the confidence of his training, he was able to take a smiling selfie and some other brief video, and to keep his head and eyes high enough to witness a Hamas rape. But he couldn't figure out how his camera lens could join his eyes there? 

They probably failed to record these rapes because there was nothing to film. They didn't even think to claim or stage anything, probably, because the whole idea emerged later. Either way, it was good enough for New York friggin' Times.

3C) 4 Witnesses with Changing Stories

If any of these people had witnessed these crimes, they would also likely mention them in their emergency calls, which would likely be recorded and might be released as proof. But so far, I'm not aware of any such evidence emerging. Did they fail to report these crimes as well as failing to document them? 

They might mention the crimes in the media interviews, and of course they have. But there are troubling discrepancies. 

The Gray Zone noted how, on Nov. 8th, an unnamed woman told Haaretz she saw just one rape: victim bent over, killed by a shot to the head, and then mutilated. Her unnamed friend “didn’t see the rape,” but heard it and had the visuals described. (https://thegrayzone.com/2024/01/10/questions-nyt-hamas-rape-report/) This is almost certain to be "Sapir" and Yura Karol. BBC, Dec. 5, were shown video of an interview with "witness S" who still describes just one rape victim: "S mimes the attackers picking up and passing the victim from one to another. ... the men cut off parts of the victim's body during the assault. "They sliced her breast and threw it on the street," she says. "They were playing with it." Then "The victim was passed to another man in uniform, she continues. "He penetrated her, and shot her in the head before he finished. He didn't even pick up his pants; he shoots and ejaculates." A few weeks later to the Times, Sapir seems to add a second rape-murder, moving the mastectomy but not the execution to this second victim, and seems to add 3 more rapes, 3 severed heads, more stabbing, and no mention of shooting. Or maybe she just didn't mention those details at first. 

And as the Gray Zone noted, Yura (or the similar co-witness of "S") said in November that he "didn't see the rape" but only heard it. Dy late December he “described seeing a woman raped and killed.” 

Raz Cohen's first media interviews - like his Instagram photo - fail to reflect his most powerful claims. A compilation video by My Lord Bebo on X remains useful; in 4 interviews published October 9 - at least the shared portions - he recalls hiding under the stage and then in the wadi, and seeing people killed including with knives, prior to the army showing up and killing no one that he mentions. (but in one interview, he seem abnormally concerned with or distracted by a helicopter flying nearby.) Nothing related to rape is mentioned. Then on the 10th Cohen gave an interview to PBS News Hour where he suddenly mentions the rape-murder in detail, and it was a main feature of all later interviews. 

The clear impression is he decided or was compelled to add this detail for some reason. 

The Gray Zone's "Screams Without Proof" article took this line, only to learn that it did come up on the first day - but just once, and apparently mentioned off-camera, as related by the reporter, Ariel Oseran. Author Max Blumenthal on X issued an update after seeing the fuller broadcast (from i24) including Oseran's attached "second-hand summary of comments Cohen supplied to him after bolting the interview for "emotional support" at Barzalai Hospital in Ashkelon. According to Oseran, while hiding from infiltrators from Gaza, Cohen claimed to have listened to the sounds of Palestinian infiltrators "raping Israeli women, dead, alive, some injured. He told me he could hear this. ... he chose not to look, but he could hear them laughing constantly."

Some emergency emotional support could help one to go ahead with reporting the actual truth, or to cope with speaking a terrible lie that's meant to justify acts of genocide. He would say the experience of hearing multiple rapes and at least one rape-murder and some necrophilia had kept him from speaking of it until he had some "emotional support," and kept him from saying it on camera until the next day. But by then, he was clear that he visually SAW just the ONE rape-murder he mentions from then on. 

In fact, in a Kan interview, Dec. 18, he says "I couldn't hear her, I think they blocked her mouth." (העד הגלוי הראשון למעשי האונס) But at first he could ONLY hear her, and later to the Times, he painfully recalled her "screams without words." 

Note how Raz Cohen originally had multiple-rape and necrophilia claims ("Israeli women, dead, alive, some injured"), then by October 10th he didn't. He wasn't at Sapir's mythical "assembly point." Sapir and Yura Karol were there, and so from November on, THEY had the multiple-rape and necrophilia claims. It's almost as if the narrative managers transfer atrocity claim files between their fake "security consultant" witnesses whenever they decide to re-organize them. 

Note also: Yura said in November that he "didn't see the rape," but then by late December he decided that he DID see it. Like Raz, he's a "security consultant." Two of two described "security consultant" witnesses wound up switching from hearing the rape(s) to actually seeing them. It's almost as if the narrative managers had their fake "security consultant" witnesses revise their stories to fit Israel's propaganda (or "hasbara") needs: "give us the kind of story after which "Gaza [will] not continue to be [on] the map." It needs to be terrible, and you need to have SEEN it, leaving no doubts."

3D) Some Other Witnesses to Rapes at the Rave

At least two witnesses described to the Times women at the Nova rave seemingly raped and murdered around the site, One was in a rawhide vest, bound and bent over, and another whose "her vagina area appeared to have been sliced open, “as if someone tore her apart.” Both victims were only seen after the fact, if they were seen at all. Again, neither witness - a ZAKA rescuer, and an event organizer - was able to document it. 

There have been others that didn't make it into this report. For example:

On December 3 - as these other stories were coming out louder and thicker, there was at least one other reported by the New York Post which the Times' later report failed to follow-up on - perhaps due to credibility issues, even relative to the cases above, this 39-year-old alleged ravegoer didn't get a long interview in an Israeli cafe

https://nypost.com/2023/12/03/news/horrific-new-stories-of-hamas-rapes-in-israel-surface-including-attack-on-woman-with-face-of-an-angel-who-screamed-to-be-killed/

Yoni Saadon, a 39-year-old father of four and foundry shift manager, spoke to the UK’s Sunday Times, about witnessing two women killed, one after rape and the other for resisting rape.  

first one witnessed "after pulling over him the body of a slain woman who had also been shot in the head — and smearing her blood on himself so it looked like he, too, was dead." 

“I saw this beautiful woman with the face of an angel and eight or 10 of the fighters beating and raping her,” ... “When they finished, they were laughing, and the last one shot her in the head,” he said. “I will never forget her face,” he said. “Every night I wake to it and apologize to her, saying, ‘I’m sorry.’"

"Saadon said he eventually joined others who had fled the site and hid in trees and bushes. That’s when he witnessed two more Hamas gunmen attack another young woman who was resisting being stripped, he said." He wasn't hiding under anyone this time, but was still able to see this without being seen. 

“They threw her to the ground, and one of the terrorists took a shovel and beheaded her,” Saadon told the UK outlet. “And her head rolled along the ground. I see that head, too,” when he wakes up at night, driven almost to madness by these terrible and ever-so-real memories.

Not many witnesses mention decapitation along with rape as something they saw. So is this the same man? BBC, December 5: "One man we spoke to from the festival site said he heard the "noises and screams of people being murdered, raped, decapitated". To our question about how he could be sure - without seeing it - that the screams he heard indicated sexual assault rather than other kinds of violence, he said he believed while listening at the time that it could only have been rape." Is that Mr. Saadon? Did he switch from hearing to seeing, like Cohen and Karol did? Or perhaps the reverse? If he's a "security consultant" like them, it isn't mentioned, but someone might want to check into that.

Again, no camera - Saadon's or any of those he was hiding with in the second spot - was allowed to see the attempted rape or the shovel beheading he describes. A thing like that can only appear in words and, according to those words, in memories - a notoriously malleable medium. - Or - Hamas' most "unspeakable" crimes, somehow can only be spoken, never documented or proven. If you accept that premise, then this Times report and this Gaza genocide might be for you. And here are some more good reasons...

4) A Soldier/Paramedic: Two Teenage Sisters Raped

Again, rescuers claim they saw things. The Times report says "A paramedic in an Israeli commando unit said that he had found the bodies of two teenage girls in a room in Be’eri. One was lying on her side, he said, boxer shorts ripped, bruises by her groin. The other was sprawled on the floor face down, he said, pajama pants pulled to her knees, bottom exposed, semen smeared on her back.” In a surprise move, "Because his job was to look for survivors, he said, he kept moving and did not document the scene."

Importantly, the report adds: "Neighbors of the two girls killed — who were sisters, 13 and 16 — said their bodies had been found alone, separated from the rest of their family."

Max Blumenthal did some research here. Bringing it to the Times report authors in Screams without proof: questions for NYT about shoddy ‘Hamas mass rape’ report - The Grayzone: "That paramedic appears to be the same source CNN relied on in its own special report accusing Hamas of a systematic and deliberate campaign of rape on October 7. He is a supposed paramedic from Israeli Air Force Special Tactics rescue unit 669 identified only as “G.” And like your other sources, he has proven to be an unreliable, if not deeply dishonest, witness." CNN report with the same scene described in the same style, estimating the girls at age 13-14, from "G, a paramedic in Israel's elite 669 special tactics rescue unit," (spoken audio at 6:51 What We Know About Sexual Violence on October 7th - Tug of War - Podcast on CNN Audio)

Max B suspects this G MIGHT be the same person who authored a book about his service in unit 669 as "Guy M," on government orders. If so, he's quite likely Guy Melamed, the son of Sagi Melamed, a self-proclaimed "fundraising sensei" who had promoted the book. Just out of caution, I won't endorse that link without further reading. For now there's Guy Melamed, and then there's the paramedic dubbed "G," perhaps that same Guy, who will here be called "this guy" or "G." 

Furthermore, Max notes: "G" "was previously interviewed by the right-wing Republic TV of India," in a shared video clip. The "Chief sergeant, first class" speaks with his back turned. Max hears "a distinctive Brooklyn accent," FWIW, and it sounds like the voice heard on CNN. He describes the scene in question and also relates finding a dead baby stabbed all over, tossed into the garbage can. But only one baby was clearly reported among the dead on October 7, as Max noted: "Mila Cohen, who was accidentally shot, not stabbed, and who was not found in any garbage can. Once again, the NY Times failed to vet its sources and wound up turning to a proven fabulist for evidence." As we'll see, it seems very unlikely that this guy ever witnessed these two girls either. 

Max Blumenthal aptly concluded that G's claims probably refer to the only two teenage sisters reported as killed in Be'eri, and those were aged 13 and 16 like the neighbors said. So it can hardly be doubted this refers to Yahel and Noiya Sharabi, who were reportedly killed alongside their mother Lianne, while their father and an uncle were kidnapped alive to Gaza. (at right: Yahel, 13 - Lianne, 48 - and Noiya, 16 - as they were in life) 

The Gray Zone refuted the paramedic claim by citing reports that the bodies of Lianne, Noiya and Yahel were found 'cuddled together,' not separated and partly raped. But as mentioned in this BBC report along those lines, that's just what Lianne's parents in Bristol, England, were told. They never made contact that day and "Mrs Brisley said they later found out the bodies of their daughter and grandchildren had been found by a soldier "all cuddled together with Lianne doing what a mother would do - holding her babies in her arms, trying to protect them at the end". She took this as "a small comfort" in light of "horrible images in my mind," and some "soldier" found that for her.

How many different soldiers would have found the girls? Probably just one that's spoken up, and this probably refers to the guy in question. If so, he told grandma Brisley they were all found hugging and implicitly un-raped, and then told the world, by a few sources culminating with the New York Times, that the girls WERE apparently raped. 

Such duplicity would make a certain sense, trying to spare the family from the truth, but letting the world see it so they can understand Israel's war aims. But it seems neither of those stories from the soldier-rescuer(s) is true. 

A more detailed report was run in the UK Sun on October 17 is based on family interviews and photographs from the site. According to this report, "It has been confirmed Yahel died alongside her mum Lianne while her sister Noiya, 16, dad Eli, 51 and uncle Yossi, 53 were missing or kidnapped." How could Noiya be found "cuddled" with the other two - or be seen raped and dead next to her sister - and also be declared "missing?"

Several images of the home are shown in the Sun report, displaying no sign of fire or shelling, suggesting the violence here was all by Hamas, not the IDF. "A hallway where a huge blackened smear of blood appears to be the spot where Lianne died. And upstairs, another bloodstain tells its horror story in a room where Yahel slept — heavily staining the carpet close to a pair of pink pyjamas and vanity case." The family dog was killed, just off frame of the living room photograph. Some blood was shed at least in the pantry, and some bloody blue fabric is seen in the room "where Yahel was slain." The single body is removed by the time of this photo, and the reported bloodstain is left off-frame.

But by this report, Noiya's body was not found anywhere in the house, and she was declared missing as of October 17. Her remains were found, likely somewhere else, and formally identified on October 22. (The Guardian 10/22) Jewish News 10/25: "Noiya was identified through her teeth only two days ago." We just buried a mother and two daughters and the father is missing. This is a second Holocaust' - Jewish News Therefore, it's difficult to see how Noiya can be seen dead "in a room" with her sister, raped or otherwise, in the immediate aftermath. I'm really going to need to see verification for the paramedic's claim. But as it so happens, he failed to document this important crime scene, and no one else got a photo until after the two alleged bodies were removed. 

Still ... it was a good enough story for the New York friggin' Times with its research department and so on. 

Israeli media mouthpiece Eylon Levy cited the Republic interview of this guy G, in a post on X offering to hook journalists up with the witness:  "Israeli special forces paramedic describes the aftermath of the brutal rape and execution of Israeli girls in Be’eri during the October 7 Massacre." Here with translated captions, he describes two girls in "their own bedroom," as usual with one on the bed and one on the floor - then he mentions how "the girl" - not one of the girls - whom he estimated to be aged 14-15, "was laying on her bed - on the floor" (correcting himself), face down, with the signs he describes about the same as above, calling the rape "brutal, brutal." The other "girl" ... he doesn't say here. She wasn't "THE girl" or maybe not a girl at all, but the mother he sometimes calls a girl, and it seems less and less clear that she was raped. "The girl" was left to lie "in the blood of her ... in a pile of blood." He seems to correct himself before specifying WHOSE blood that was. Is that because he learned not to say "sister" and knew not to contradict it either?

Maybe he saw Lianne and Yahel and no third person, and decided both were "girls." But other reports had the two dying on separate floors, not together "in their bedroom." The other reports are preferable, and it seems likely this guy "G" was not even present at the site. He does seem informed, if still confused, about the 2-sisters vs. 2-females issue there, where he plugged his "memories" of Hamas rape evidence. Concurring with Max: "the NY Times failed to vet its sources and wound up turning to a proven fabulist for evidence."

Sagi, if that's your kid ... he's a moron.

P.S. Did G or anyone actually observe semen on the back of 13-year-old Yahel? Perhaps. But if so, the meaning isn't  certain. Hamas invaders or others in their wake are probable culprits, of course - men sometimes rape even without orders. But if some other "rescuers" of the Haredi-staffed agencies ZAKA or United Hatzalah had arrived before him, it might matter that "like with many insular religious communities, the Haredis historically have an enormous sexual abuse problem." It's not limited to the infamous abuser Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, the disgraced and deceased ZAKA founder. (see: "If You Say Anything to Anyone, a Zaka Van Will Run You Over" (thewaywardrabbler.com)) I'm suggesting someone in their ranks might be willing to rape an attractive corpse, if not just for the twisted pleasure of it, then for the propaganda potential of the evidence he would leave behind. But I don't really suspect this; more likely, this rape evidence never existed outside the world of words. With maybe some scattered exceptions, I would guess no one raped anyone in this attack, at least for being far too busy with other things. 

P.S. What happened to Noiya? We can only guess, and so I will. Her mother and sister may have been perceived as offering resistance and swiftly killed, or were killed on accident as the terrorists blasted through some locked door, or the like.  Perhaps they were able to spare Noiya and take her captive, maybe injured. They might take her along with others to another house, where she and the rest were killed - perhaps by Hamas or, quite possibly, in one of the IDF tank and/or helicopter attacks that seemingly collapsed several homes in Be'eri. These mysterious events prevented several dozen abductions by killing the captives along with their captors, and it seems this happened by design. We've heard several accounts and even seen video from just one of these, but there were several others with stories left untold, and Noiya Sharabi's true story quite likely intertwines with one of those.

5) Gal Abdush, Some Video Evidence, and the Misleading of a Family

The Times report led with the case of Gal Abdush, probably because there actually WAS video evidence involved in this rare case. As the Times relates the story, Gal attended the rave with her husband Nagi Abdush, until the attack began just after sunrise. They apparently fled early and made it some ways north on route 232 before they were killed under murky circumstances, leaving behind 2 children. Gal and Nagi Abdush, 34 & 35: Couple were 'best friends' | The Times of Israel

As the Times explained: "That night, Eden Wessely, a car mechanic, drove to the rave site with three friends and found Ms. Abdush sprawled half naked on the road next to her burned car, about nine miles north of the site. ... lying on her back, dress torn, legs spread, vagina exposed." 

In a highly unusual development, Ms. Wessely recorded what she saw in some short videos and then published them. A provided video screenshot relates the familiar scene in a view I had never seen (at right). "When she posted the video of the woman in the black dress on her Instagram story, she was deluged with messages" and it went viral. For example, Daniel Amram, a popular private news blogger in Israel, tweeted the video to Greta Thunberg, claiming that the victim “was raped and burned alive.” (but he thinks it's "this family who just found her sister")  

More importantly "Based largely on the video evidence — which was verified by The New York Times — Israeli police officials said they believed that Ms. Abdush was raped, and she has become a symbol of the horrors visited upon Israeli women and girls during the Oct. 7 attacks." 

Was this conclusion based "largely" or "totally" on this video evidence? Again, nowhere was forensic evidence for or against rape gathered, and no witness claims that I've seen, including in this report, indicates that Gal was raped. So it's not clear what other evidence there would be.

The Electronic Intifada & the Gray Zone (at least by citation) seem to not recognize it; "There is currently no trace of the video on the internet despite the Times claim that it “went viral.”" Perhaps due just to the nudity it includes, the video is not allowed on the usual platforms, but it frequently appears, is scrubbed, and re-appears. Still images and discussion of it abound. Max Blumenthal did well enough discussing the video at one point (recalled now as "I demonstrated months ago that Abdush had been killed by an explosion."). 

I saw the video on Hamas-Massacre.net. The body's pose with spread legs COULD be natural or unrelated to rape, and her lack of underwear with the skimpy dress COULD be her deliberate choice. But between them, I see the suggested rape everyone else does. However ... In part 3, I included some clues that she was killed by an Apache's 30mm cannon shell that somehow tore across her right thigh before detonating on impact with the ground and taking off the back of her head. There are other explanations for the different injuries, including that some are postmortem. But judging by the images alone, she most likely died from the massive head injury (a split scalp and broken edge of her skull near the crown are just visible enough in the video). 

I also argued how it was several hours after her death that Mrs. Abdush's body was moved into the seen pose. If her right arm sticks up like that due to rigor mortis, as I suspect, she was probably in a different position, perhaps face-down and/or in a complex situation, for at least 8-10 hours before this twisted bit of staging. And the burning of her upper left torso, left arm, and face was seemingly done only then, in this final position. 

If the seen pose is the "proof" of Hamas rape and a fit basis for genocide and ethnic cleansing against the people of Gaza ... and someone artificially arranged that pose, perhaps to also conceal another death by IDF "friendly fire" ... well, that would be damn troubling. But the good news would be that, judging by the massive lack of visual evidence for rape, this kind of staging was not widespread.

My next step, maybe taken slowly as well, is to reconsider the physical-visual "OSINT" evidence in light of the new reports and all else, to see if I can confirm that initial view or find an even better explanation that might be of actual help in clearing up this ongoing confusion. I'll be citing some great OSINT work by Michael Kobs at this thread: Michael Kobs on X: "The circumstances of Gal Abdush's death raise very serious questions indeed.) 

But briefly here, from the articles I've read: Gal's last message was at 6:51 am, quoted as "we are at the border, and you can’t imagine sounds of explosions around us." Also given: simply "You don't understand." Her killing was apparently around 7am, as reported then by her husband Nagi - he mentioned how "they" had "shot" Gal, unclear where or with what, and she was "dying" - maybe less suddenly than I would expect by the head wound (and reports I've seen don't have Apache helicopters up quite this early). "They" presumably means Hamas, although it's not clear if he could know just who Gal was "shot" by. Nagi continued sending messages for another 45 minutes before he too was killed, at the end asking his brother to watch out for their kids. Apparently none of the messages mentioned anyone raping Gal, burning her alive, or anything of the sort.

As geolocated by Michael Kobs, they died near the "Mefalsim Battle" as given at Mapping the Massacres (oct7map.com) where Hamas hardly killed or kidnapped anyone as they crumbled under an aggressive defense that day, with a lot of deaths, and some civilian deaths on the highway just after that "dangerous curve." Gal and Nagi at least died there but weren't mapped there. At right, from Michael's thread: the location of Gal's body and the car (Nagi is badly charred and partly missing, on the other side of the car)

Between messages from Gal and Nagi, the police, and everything they knew, the family heard nothing about suspicions or evidence for rape until the Times reporters showed up. 

The report says family members saw the Wessely video of Gal's remains, recognized them, and “feared that she might have been raped.” Perhaps someone was coaxed to agree that though had crossed their mind(s). But the victim's sister Miral Alter stated in a January 2 Instagram comment that she doubted the rape claims and all the reasons given to support them, and complained “the New York Times that came to us indicated that they wanted to do a story in memory of Gal and Nagy and that’s why we approved. If we knew that it was a headline like rape slaughter, we would never agree. Never.” Gal Abdush’s mother Etti Brakha, her sister Tali Barakha, and Nagi’s brother Nissim Abdush have also lodged similar complaints, as compiled at Screams without proof: questions for NYT about shoddy ‘Hamas mass rape’ report - The Grayzone

Some respond to this with a Hebrew-language article at Ynet from December 31, wherein Gal's mother, her brother Rami Bracka, and Nagi's mother now seem to believe that Gal was in fact raped. But they all "learned" this from the Times report and/or its journalists' assurances that, as Gal's mother put it, "they cross-checked the testimonies and said Gal had been sexually assaulted" - somebody witnessed it. But no testimonies that I've seen, and none that the Times shared, sheds any light on Gal's demise, except for Nagi's messages, which of course mentioned no such thing. Did the reporters pull a trick here?

Gals mother, Etti Brakha: "We didn't know about the rape at first, only when the New York Times reporter contacted us did we know. They said they cross-checked the testimonies and said Gal had been sexually assaulted. We still don't know exactly what happened." She also thinks "There is evidence that they saw my daughter's sexual assault." As far as we've seen, there's evidence that Nagi saw no such thing (his failing to mention it), and no other testimony to contradict that. If the reporters suggested otherwise, they might have been dishonest.

Rami Brakha, Gal's brother: "It was only in the New York Times investigation that we understood from the journalists that my sister had been raped. It was hard to know what she went through before she was shot and murdered." But by some magic they still can't explain, Gettleman, Schwartz and Sella had figured it out for the family.

Finally, Nagi's mother recalls "That morning, my son Nagi called us and said, '[they] Kill her, shoot her,' and screamed on the phone on speakerphone. Only now, after hearing what they did to Gal, do I try to think about what my son saw with his own eyes, how his wife was sexually abused, before they shot her and then shot him." It would be easy to not think about it earlier, when Nagi spoke of no such thing. Even now, that should make very limited sense.

So those folks don't seem to feel misled by the reporters, even though they probably should. And I haven't seen Miral Alter, for one, act convinced by the Times' tricks. She was clear in denying Gal's rape even after the report. She knew to cite the timeline of private messages to point out "It doesn’t make any sense that in four minutes, they raped her, slaughtered her, and burned her.” Neither does it make sense that her husband would fail to mention any of that in his final minutes and several communications.

A leading pose and an inspired police reading, and supposedly some other, unseen "testimony" led the Times to decide on rape. The family had no reason yet to form this idea, but when the reporters came in so confident, some members were convinced, if also confused. Of course, journalists are supposed to follow stories, not plant them in their subjects' minds as was seemingly done here, to get them involved and seeming to support the claims. Some of them still do not buy the claims and the rest might, but apparently for no reason past the same journalistic tricks under discussion here.  

See also: Max Blumenthal on X: "The Times must issue a retraction and punish @Gettleman and his colleagues if it can not discredit the IG comment below by Miral Alter (apparent sister of Gal Abdush) At The Grayzone, I demonstrated months ago that Abdush had been killed by an explosion on October 7, and was not…" / X (twitter.com)

On Rising via Max Blumenthal on X

Watch: NY Times "investigation" of mass rape by Hamas falls apart | The Electronic Intifada

Family of key case in New York Times October 7 sexual violence report renounces story, says reporters manipulated them – Mondoweiss

Conclusion: And that, folks, is how the New York friggin' Times crafted its big assist for the Netanyahu regime's ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Who Killed Karina Yershova?

May 11, 2022

Karina Yershova is one of the more famous victims of the Bucha Massacre - a bright beauty of 23 who managed a sushi bar as she saved for college, until she was brutally killed under unclear circumstances. 

Incendiary early reports appeared on April 13, saying Yershova was only 16 years old when she was abducted, raped, tortured and killed by drunken Russian "orc" occupiers. The photograph at right was one of a few widely used.

Her case was one illustration of an alleged system of rape with genocidal intent. Ukraine's ombudsman for human rights Lyudmyla Denisova says they're documenting several such cases, just in Bucha during its one-month occupation: "About 25 girls and women aged 14 to 24 were systematically raped during the occupation in the basement of one house in Bucha. Nine of them are pregnant," she said. "Russian soldiers told them they would rape them to the point where they wouldn't want sexual contact with any man, to prevent them from having Ukrainian children." (BBC)

"Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group" (KPHG) would report: Russian troops "raped and shot her dead, flinging her body into one of the mass graves that these ‘soldiers’ brought with their so-called ‘Russian world’." Alternately, they say her body was "hurled into the mass grave."   

Bucha's City Council posted an account on Facebook that was long on grisly details of what the Russians did. Like the rest, it was short on evidence the Russians actually did it: 

"The girl was caught on the street, tortured and raped, eventually shot in the head." ... "most of her fingernails were missing, as if she was trying to protect herself," even though "her hands were burned to the bone, with the silver rings on her fingers that she always wore" - they cite her stepfather Andriy Derenko as interviewed for the UK Daily Mail to add that her body was covered with cuts.  "A tourniquet to stop bleeding was found on her leg, presumably from an earlier gunshot wound." 

KHPG: "Karina was buried in Bila Tserkva [some 90 km south of Kyiv], with her mother stopped from trying to open the coffin at the funeral.  The Council reports that the police told Karina’s parents that she had been tortured and killed, but omitted some of the most horrific details.  Karina’s stepfather says only that they believe it possible that she was raped, and that they had only been allowed to see the upper part of her body."

Rape sounds assumed, but with signs of struggle supporting it - an apparent gunshot in the legs and cuts all over could both result from shelling and shrapnel - issues with her hands sound relevant but unclear - some victims' fingers and hands shrivel up and appear "burned" somewhat black by frostbite after being left out in the cold, sometimes after a lonely shelling death. But a struggle using the fingernails doesn't fit so well with that.  Whatever the full story, it seems that abuse and likely rape were part of it.  

KHPG wrote "Karina Yershova fled with her parents from the Russians who seized control of Donetsk in 2014." They're ethnic Russians who fled Donetsk - which Russians never seized - either because they didn't approve of the votes for independence cast by their fellow citizens, or to avoid the violence Ukraine perpetrated in response to that vote. 

Still the family had the audacity to keep speaking Russian until Karina was killed. Now her stepfather Andriy Derenko tells Ukraine 24 (via DW - name given wrongly as Dereko) "I'm ashamed to speak Russian. I will learn Ukrainian." 

To KHPG: “We hate them”, Andriy Derenko, Karina’s stepfather, says. “We are from the Donetsk oblast where almost everybody speaks Russian, however I hate Russians for killing a Russian-speaking girl.  I’m now ashamed that I speak Russian [and] hate ‘Russian world’.  The Russian soldiers are not people, they’re beasts.” 

DW: "[Karina's] parents still don't know exactly what happened to her" and have been "left in horrendous uncertainty." Mr. Derenko for one sounds quite sure Russians did it, to the point of rejecting his own Russian identity. But the actual basis for that is not so clear from the outside. It's probably not clear from their "inside" view either, informed as it is by Kyiv's police, in cooperation with the anti-Russian neo-Nazis of the Azov Battalion. 

Chronology

Sources agree pretty well that Ms. Yershova was last seen voluntarily leaving her home, on March 10, in a civilian car, and that there is not a single known fact as to where she was for the next six days. Then a woman thought to be her was brought by Russian soldiers, wounded but alive, to another spot on the 16th. There, in front of witnesses, she was executed, there along with an elderly couple dragged into the picture for unclear reasons. 

In more detail now, let's consider the later killing first.

Kyiv Independent: "Bucha resident Mykola lives nearby. He told the Kyiv Independent that he knows how Karina died. He asked to be identified by his first name only for safety reasons. According to him, on March 16, Russian soldiers brought the already wounded Karina to the house of his neighbors, an elderly couple, Viktor and Natalya Mazokha." 

“They brought a wounded girl to them. I don’t know what happened next, but a soldier unleashed a volley of machine gunfire at the ground, then an officer came and shot all three of them,” Mykola told the Kyiv Independent. 

"Mounting allegations of sexual violence in Ukraine" DW News, May 3, reporting by Rebecca Ritters - short version on Twitter

DW witness Valerii (also just using a surname) says a soldier set down a wounded Karina at his apartment building's entrance, then he took her in his arms and carried her over there (to a small dirt lot across the street, to the north as it turns out) and "then another soldier shot her." He and DW are careful to maintain Valerii wasn't sure if this really was Karina Yershova.

The other executions aren't mentioned, but a shallow grave, perhaps 3 bodies wide, is shown, where "police told Karina's parents they found her body." That should clear up doubts about the murdered woman's identity, assuming this spot really is just north of Valerii's building (it's not easy to geolocate and confirm, like the apartment building was - see below)

Note the sandbags on both sides weren't dug up from the grave. Who buries sandbags? These suggest this wasn't dug as a grave but as a weak foxhole for soldiers to shelter in and fire from. I couldn't say whose side that would be or when, except that implicitly, it was there by March 16.

Next, let's look at the home where Ms. Yershova was last seen before that. KHPG noted "Social media reports asking for help in finding the young woman say that she disappeared on 10 March." The DW report shows a stairwell: "this is the last place we're sure Karina was seen alive - the stairs outside her flat. It was March 10th."  

Her neighbor Vyacheslav Chumak told the Kyiv Independent the last time he saw Karina was in "early March," over a span of days, starting with her on the stairs on the 8th or 9th, and ending on the 10th. 

"He found her sitting in the stairwell. Karina said she couldn’t enter her apartment as she had no keys. Chumak invited her home. He and his wife fed Karina and asked her what happened. She told them that Russian soldiers had stopped her on the street during curfew and detained her. She had to stay overnight in their barracks... In the morning they let her go but took away her phone, Karina told Chumak." Perhaps they also took her keys? 

"Karina’s neighbor went on" with some confusing details about the night: “She told us that they had gotten drunk. One of the soldiers had his leg shot near his ass, the other one was run over by a tank or an infantry vehicle, she said.” The soldiers were drunk after the injuries? Did she get drunk with them? (presumably not, but use of "they" allows for that.) There's no mention of rape at this point, but they took her phone and she seems to be lacking her keys. 

As this story goes, Karina took a short nap at Chumak's place, then somehow "managed to get into her apartment." Then, he told the Kyiv Independent:

In a day or two, a light blue car with the letter “V” – one of the symbols Russian troops put on vehicles in their war against Ukraine – arrived to pick up Karina.

According to Chumak, the driver was an acquaintance of the owner of the apartment Karina rented. 

“She packed her bags into this car and waved my wife goodbye,” Chumak said. 

“We never saw her again.”

That's an interesting detail. She agreed to be driven off by "an acquaintance" of her landlord - maybe put in contact by her landlord who was out-of-town, maybe to help get into her apartment without keys the other day? He (or she?) drove Karina off in a suspicious car that kind of points to Russian evil. 

Questions and Possibilities

DW relates her disappearance on March 10 and adds "after this, everything becomes unclear." Indeed, and that's actually a problem. 

Why would she agree to get in a Russian-marked car, or why was someone she knew and trusted driving one? Maybe he (or she?) said they could get Karina's phone and/or keys returned? Packed bags suggests otherwise, like she was going somewhere else to stay for a while, as if Bucha were now a war zone, which it was, and many people were evacuating in those days, as corridors were first opened on the 10th. FWIW, white armbands are often worn by people escaping in any direction, but a V might help for someone, civilian or otherwise, headed north to pass Russian lines or into Russian arranged corridors. 

Was this acquaintance allied with the Russians, or possibly with the other side, or just with himself? Who in that mix would then abuse her for days, before a couple of apparent Russian soldiers would finish her off in semi-public 6 days later?

Russian links in review, and all just alleged/assumed, based on varying evidence: 

- arrested overnight in early March, swift release 

- a V on the civilian car driven by a civilian of no known link to Russians, except for that implied by a painted letter 

-  Russian soldier and officer placed at her awkward semi-public killing on the 16th. 

- For six days we have no direct evidence where she was, being harmed by whom.

The landlord's acquaintance could be: 

- a Russian accomplice who delivered her back to the Russian soldiers (hence the V)

-  some creepy acquaintance of Karina's landlord who took advantage to kidnap and rape the poor woman - an obvious possibility in general terms, but let's not leap to conclusions (the V might be to help blame his crime on the Russians)

- someone trying to help her evacuate the city and he too was a victim as they were stopped on the road and Russian soldiers detained them (the V worked to their disadvantage)

- or maybe they happened on a Ukrainian force that didn't like that V and opened fire on their car, then maybe rescued her from the scene, stopped the bleeding so she wouldn't die, and then proceeded to abuse her before finally killing her.

- or hey, maybe the above except the Ukrainian saviors then got ambushed by Russians who again detained Karina. But probably not, and the above scenarios seem like the ones to chose from.

Mapping

The DW report from the scenes of the crime allow some geolocation of relevant sites.

First, where she was living until March 10, when she agreed to be driven off 

coordinates: 50.5507567, 30.2268343 - 8, Energetykiv St., northwest corner - pretty well in the center of Bucha, less than one block east of the City Council building. Hat tip to Friedrich for the actual find. 

Next, where she was killed - 50.5507567,30.2268343 - unique arrangement of buildings with same style and color schemes (2 visible in Google maps street view), wrapped around a big parking lot and a consistent cluster of smaller homes - red circle for the entrance where Valerii spoke - grave/foxhole site not clear, but implicitly somewhere north of that building entrance, possibly even off the upper edge of this map. 

Both sites together on the map with areas of control notes:

Control areas are especially unclear in these days around March 12 "when the Russians arrived" suddenly to the city's north - when they had been occupying it already. The reality may even be acknowledged - belatedly, on the 15th - as where Kiev's forces had recently arrived and re-established control over nearly every bit of Bucha (some time between March 9 and 15). Then Russia is shown suddenly back in charge of the entire city on March 16. 

So even with these spots established, the map shows Russia in charge on both relevant dates. But that's just the kind of literal reading you can't do with these maps. It's hard to say just how this fits in the unclear TRUE situation in those days, except we can say it's quite possible the Russians were not in charge. And even if they were, the relevance of that is unclear to one civilian car driving to a selected locale.

It's worth noting 4 alleged executions 2 days later, almost due south on Yablunska street, previously reported as 3/23 but now said to be on the 18th (and likely so, although execution vs. shelling isn't so clear) - Ukrainian prosecutors say by "Russian officer" Sergei Kolosei - who seems to be a Belarussian guy who hasn't left Belarus in 2 years and has never been in the Russian or military or anyone else's military ... but executions are reported, by whoever, allegedly Russian/allied, 2 days after Karina and the Mazokhas. on-site executions by supposed Russians in these few days. Per my inexact information, Ukraine had access to the southeast part of Bucha (including the Yablunska execution site) perhaps the whole time, and to all of the whole east, including Yershova's execution site, by the 19th, with local presence likely enough from 16th forward.