Biden calls on world to condemn Hamas sexual violence, blames terrorist group for ceasefire collapse
President Biden said on Tuesday that Hamas had repeatedly raped women and mutilated their bodies during the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel, citing accounts from survivors and witnesses of the attacks.
During a political fundraiser in Boston, the president called on the world to condemn the “unimaginable cruelty” of Hamas’ sexual violence “without exception.”
“Reports of women being raped, raped repeatedly, and their bodies mutilated in life, of women’s corpses desecrated, of Hamas terrorists inflicting as much pain and suffering on women and girls as possible and then murdering them. It’s appalling,” she said. Biden. , according to Reuters.
Israeli police are investigating possible sexual crimes committed by some of the few hundred Hamas members they arrested after the October 7 attack. Israel’s Justice Ministry said that “the victims were tortured, physically abused, raped, burned alive and dismembered.”
WOMEN’S GROUPS FACE OUTRAGE FOR SILENCE OVER HAMAS CRIMES: ‘IT’S TIME FOR PEOPLE TO SAY THIS IS WRONG’
President Biden speaks during an event at CS Wind in Pueblo, Colorado, on Wednesday, November 29, 2023. (Daniel Brenner/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In a statement on its Telegram channel, Hamas said it was denouncing Biden’s “attempt to falsely accuse” its fighters of committing sexual violence and rape on October 7.
The Palestinian terrorist group accused Biden and Israel of covering up war crimes in Gaza and spreading misinformation to influence public opinion.
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Israeli girl captured by Hamas terrorists and taken to the Gaza Strip. (FoxNews)
Israel hosted an event at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Monday to expose the sexual violence against women that took place during the October 7 attack. Last week, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for an investigation into reports of rape and sexual assault by Hamas after weeks of silence on the issue, which Israel strongly condemned.
Israeli officials on Monday shared their experiences recovering women’s bodies after the October 7 massacre, showing girls with broken pelvises; women and girls without clothes and covered in blood; bodies of women and girls with gunshot wounds directed at sexual organs; breast amputations; naked women and girls in showers with their hands tied behind their backs; additional genital amputation and more.
SHERYL SANDBERG DEMANDS CONDEMNATION OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST JEWISH WOMEN BY HAMAS
A woman holds an Israeli flag and a portrait of Alma, 13, held hostage in Gaza since the October 7 attack by Hamas militants in southern Israel, during a protest calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Tel Aviv in November. Accessed January 25, 2023. (GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP via Getty Images)
“As a global community we must respond to gun sexual violence, wherever it occurs, with absolute condemnation. There can be no justification or excuses. Rape as a weapon of war is a crime against humanity,” said former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. in a pre-recorded video played at the Israel event.
More than 700 ambassadors and diplomats, representatives of UN agencies, Jewish organizations and civil society organizations attended the event on Monday.
On Tuesday, Biden also blamed Hamas for breaking a ceasefire agreement with Israel, telling donors that the terrorist group’s “refusal to release the remaining young women is what broke this agreement.”
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman and Reuters contributed to this report.
