Senior UN official to visit Israel, collect info about claims of sexual violence during Oct. 7 attack

UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten is expected to visit Israel and the West Bank later this month to collect information about claims of sexual violence against Israeli citizens committed by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7.

Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson for UN Sec.-Gen. António Guterres, announced that Patten's visit is intended to "gather information on sexual violence reportedly committed in the context of the attack on October 7 and its aftermath."

Some 3,000 Hamas terrorists and their accomplices invaded Israel on Oct. 7 and massacred more than 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians including women, children and elderly citizens.

The UN spokesperson emphasized that Patten would not be conducting an investigative mission.

"The mission is not intended – nor is it mandated – to be investigative in nature," Dujarric stated, adding that the UN General Assembly's subsidiary "COI (Committee on Information) has a mandate and I think that they would welcome to be invited in by the Israeli authorities."

Dujarric stressed that the upcoming visit by the senior UN official would ultimately focus on the use of sexual violence in war situations.

"[Pattern] will report back on what she will see and hear, but also about her advocacy against the growing use of sexual violence in combat. [This] will give a UN voice to what happened on October 7 and its aftermath," Dujarric stated.

Patten is expected to meet with Israeli survivors and witnesses of Hamas' unprecedented terror attack and “to identify avenues of support” for the victims of sexual violence.

Since November, Israeli police investigators have been building legal cases against the terror group's use of sexual violence against Israeli women on Oct. 7 and in the aftermath of the war.

In late December, a captured terrorist from Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a Hamas ally, confessed that his unit had attacked and raped Israeli women during the Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel border communities near Gaza. Other captured Gazan terrorists have admitted that sexual violence was systematically used to spread horror and fear among the Israeli civilian population.

Critics in Israel and abroad have criticized the UN for its slow and inadequate response to Hamas atrocities committed on Oct. 7.

In early December, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan blasted the United Nations for its indifference towards the many Israeli women who were raped and murdered by Hamas terrorists.

“Sadly, the very international bodies that are supposedly the defenders of all women showed that when it comes to Israelis, indifference is acceptable. To these organizations, Israeli women are not women, the rape of Israelis is not an act of rape. Their silence has been deafening!” Erdan stated.