Israel expects trial of Oct. 7 Hamas terrorists to be most important since Eichmann
The New York Times recently published a lengthy report noting how Hamas terrorists weaponized sexual violence as a central component in its unprecedented massacres
Israeli officials expect the trial against Hamas terrorists who committed the Oct. 7 massacres of 1,200 Israelis to be the nation’s “most significant since Eichmann,” according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The Israeli officials spoke to the paper on condition of anonymity.
In 1960, Israel's Mossad spy agency operatives brought the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann from his hideout in Argentina to the Jewish state where he was put on trial for his crimes against humanity during the Holocaust.
Israeli judges eventually sentenced Eichmann to death for his instrumental role in implementing the systematic murder of six million Jews in Europe during the Second World War.
Roi Scheindorf, a former deputy of the Israeli attorney general, emphasized the unprecedented scale of the Hamas crimes against the Jewish people in the post-Holocaust era.
“The State of Israel has never before dealt with crimes and an investigation on this scale,” Sheindorf said. “This will be one of the most important trials to take place in Israel,” he added.
On Oct. 7, some 3,000 terrorists from Hamas and other radical groups invaded southern Israel, bringing death and destruction to the civilian Jewish population living close to the Gaza Strip border.
The New York Times recently published a lengthy report noting how Hamas terrorists weaponized sexual violence as a central component in its unprecedented massacres of more than 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilian women, men, children and the elderly. Hamas crimes against Israeli civilians included violent rapes, pedophilia, necrophilia and genital mutilation.
The Wall Street Journal report confirmed the severity of the crimes committed by Hamas terrorists and their accomplices.
"The Journal saw images taken by a first responder of a naked woman with a knife and three nails in the crotch area, women whose clothing was partially or entirely removed and women with blood from the crotch area. In another image provided by the first responder, a woman’s breast was almost entirely sliced off. Her shirt was ripped away and she had a knife wound in the neck. In two other photos, a naked man was found gagged and shot and one photo showed a man’s eyeball had been removed."
Israeli police investigators are in the process of establishing rape cases and cases of other violent crimes Hamas terrorists perpetrated on what Israelis now refer to as the Black Shabbat of Oct. 7. The process of building the crime cases is lengthy due to the scope of the crimes. In many cases, identifying victims was complicated because of the severe condition of their mutilated bodies.
One captured terrorist from Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), another terrorist organization and a Hamas ally, recently admitted that his terror squad committed rape against Israeli women during the Oct. 7 invasion. Several other captured Gazan terrorists have already revealed that sexual violence was systematically used as a tool to spread destruction and fear among the Israeli civilian population.
Many international organizations including the United Nations have been reacting slowly to Israel's call to respond to the brutal attack, despite the severity of the Hamas crimes.
United Nations Sec.-Gen. António Guterres initially appeared to justify the Hamas-led massacres by linking them to the Israeli “occupation.”
“It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,” the UN chief stated in October, adding that Gazans have been living for “56 years of suffocating occupation.”
The provocative statement by Guterres did not merely reveal a lack of moral clarity but also a deliberate omission of key facts. Israel unilaterally left 100% of the Gaza Strip in 2005 and uprooted thousands of Israelis who previously lived in the coastal enclave. There was no Israeli “occupation” of Gaza on Oct. 7.
The current blockade is due to Hamas leadership, which won the local elections in 2007, and their desire to build a state that openly threatens the Israel and its civilian population.
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.