HRW report: Hamas-led groups committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during October 7 attack

Palestinian militant teams, led by Hamas’s armed wing, dedicated “quite a few” warfare crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity of their October 7 assault on southern Israel, Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated in a 236-page report launched on Wednesday.

For the report, titled “I Can’t Erase All of the Blood from My Thoughts’: Palestinian Armed Teams’ October 7 Assault on Israel,” HRW interviewed 144 individuals—together with witnesses, victims’ households, first responders, and medical consultants—and verified and analyzed over 280 pictures and movies. They concluded that Hamas and at the very least 4 different Palestinian armed teams dedicated “quite a few” warfare crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity of their assault, together with, however not restricted to: abstract killings, hostage-taking, rape and sexual violence, and wrongful imprisonment. 

“Human Rights Watch analysis discovered that the Hamas-led assault on October 7 was designed to kill civilians and take as many individuals as doable hostage,” stated Ida Sawyer, disaster and battle director at HRW. “The October 7 atrocities ought to spur a worldwide name to motion for an finish to all abuses in opposition to civilians in Israel and Palestine.”

The report documented the occasions of October 7, when the teams focused residential communities and social occasions in southern Israel in a “coordinated” assault. The targets included greater than 20 cooperative communities, the cities of Sderot and Ofakim, two music festivals, and a seashore social gathering. The teams fired on civilians, attacked individuals making an attempt to flee, hurled grenades and fired rocket-propelled incendiaries into houses, set homes on hearth, engaged in sexual violence, and took individuals hostage.

One of many individuals interviewed, Sagi Shifroni, stated that attackers tried to knock down his door after which began taking pictures the hinges. He described his home being set on hearth:

It was fairly clear that we couldn’t keep right here. If we stayed, we’d be useless. At this level I made a decision to get out, it was extra like an intuition. I opened the door of the protected room a bit and noticed the entire home was on hearth, so I turned to the window and opened it. I noticed that the entire patio space exterior was additionally on hearth.

As a result of it was the Jewish vacation of Simchat Torah, many troopers have been on go away. This, mixed with “disrupted and destroyed communications and surveillance tools,” led to a delayed response, with the preventing persevering with in lots of locations properly into the day.

By the tip of their assault, the teams killed 1,195 individuals, together with 815 civilians and 36 kids. The vast majority of the victims have been Jewish Israelis, however 79 overseas nationals have been killed as properly. HRW famous that the dimensions of the assaults made it troublesome to retrieve and determine our bodies, which led to the next preliminary estimate earlier than authorities and media have been capable of confirm the casualties. As well as, the teams took over 251 individuals hostages, 116 of whom stay in Gaza. The opposite hostages have both died, been rescued, or been launched.

Utilizing logos on attackers’ headbands, HRW recognized 5 Palestinian teams that participated within the assaults: Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas’s armed wing), Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, Nationwide Resistance Brigades and Al-Quds Brigades.

Battle crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity are outlined below worldwide legislation by the Geneva Conventions and their Protocols, in addition to different treaties just like the Rome Statute of the Worldwide Prison Courtroom (ICC). The report stated that, below these agreements, Palestinian teams’ violations included deliberate or indiscriminate assaults on civilians and the killing of civilians or captured combatants in custody, torture and ill-treatment in opposition to people captured, rape and different extreme types of sexual violence, hostage-taking, pillage, looting, destruction of property, and crimes in opposition to humanity.

Victims’ households beforehand filed an ICC grievance alleging warfare crimes and genocide, resulting in the ICC Prosecutor’s first go to to each Israel and Palestine. The Prosecutor later sought arrest warrants in opposition to three Hamas leaders.

Israel has been accused of a number of human rights abuses, together with warfare crimes and genocide, in its response to the October 7 assaults. Gaza has been decimated within the 9 months of warfare. Experiences from the BBC and the Guardian present that at the very least half of the buildings within the enclave have been broken or destroyed, together with total neighborhoods. Israeli strikes have hit locations like medical amenities and refugee camps, and human rights teams have condemned Israel’s mass evacuation orders, assaults on journalists and the press, and therapy of prisoners. Practically 2 million individuals, 85 p.c of the territory’s inhabitants, have been displaced by the violence and greater than 38,000 individuals have been killed—principally civilians.

The Worldwide Courtroom of Justice ordered Israel to “take all measures inside its energy” to stop a “believable” genocide in Gaza and later issued emergency provisional measures to handle the escalating humanitarian disaster. The ICC Prosecutor has additionally sought arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister and Protection Minister.

HRW referred to as for the discharge of the remaining hostages taken from Israel and held by Hamas and for the worldwide neighborhood to carry perpetrators accountable for atrocities dedicated in Israel and Palestine. “Atrocities don’t justify atrocities,” Sawyer stated. “To cease the infinite cycle of abuses in Israel and Palestine, it’s important to handle root causes and maintain violators of grave crimes to account. That’s within the pursuits of each Palestinians and Israelis.”