First Lady Michal Herzog slams global women's rights organizations for failure to act

Israel's first lady, President Isaac Herzog's wife Michal, spoke out on Thursday about the importance of a special report released this week by the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel that compiled testimonies and evidence of widespread, brutal, and systematic rapes and sexual assaults carried out by the Hamas terrorists who stormed into Israel on October 7.

Speaking at a meeting with UCLA students and faculty who were on a solidarity visit to Israel, Michal Herzog said that Israeli and Jewish women felt "betrayed by the deafening silence" of human and women's rights organizations around the world, which chose not to respond to or address the attacks in any way.

"I hope that with the backing of such reports and evidence from very brave people … we will move the needle so that the world understands what went on," she said.

The report found that the Hamas attacks included numerous brutal, systematic, and sadistic sexual assaults deliberately carried out against Israeli civilians, and that there is a "high likelihood" that the hostages still being held by Hamas, female and male alike, are at risk of sexual abuse at any moment.

Numerous testimonies

It said that numerous testimonies and information, not all disclosed publicly, "present a clear picture of identical patterns of action repeated in each of the attack zones" on Oct. 7, with violent rapes, often carried out in groups, accompanied by armed threats and often perpetrated in front of the victim's families and friends "in a manner intended to increase the pain and humiliation of all present."

"Hamas terrorists hunted young women and men who fled the Nova festival, and according to testimonies, dragged them by their hair, amid screams. The actions targeted women, girls, and men. In most cases, the women were killed after or even during the rape," the report said.

It also said the terrorists "employed sadistic practices" aimed at intensifying the terror and humiliation of the victims, and many bodies had been found bound and shackled. Genitals of both women and men were mutilated, and "sometimes weapons were inserted into them," the report said. 

It said the international silence over the assaults was "incomprehensible," especially in light of the MeToo movement of recent years.

"When most of the victims of sexual assaults are murdered, we have a moral and humanitarian obligation to amplify their silent cry," the report said.