NYT refutes previous claim of ‘Hamas rape’ on 7 Oct

News Desk - The Cradle

Israel's claims that Hamas committed mass rape and sexual violence on 7 October continue to prove false

An Israeli soldier walks by a house destroyed by Hamas militants in Kibbutz Be'eri. (Photo credit: Baz Ratner/AP)

A new video has emerged refuting claims previously published by the New York Times alleging that Hamas fighters raped two young Israeli girls during the Operation Al-Aqsa Flood attack on Israel on 7 October.

The NYT claimed in a report in December that its investigation had discovered “a broader pattern of gender-based violence on Oct. 7.”

However, the NYT report provided no evidence of Hamas carrying out mass rapes as Israel claimed and was quickly debunked by The Grayzone.

The NYT report included claims from an anonymous Israeli military paramedic who said that “he discovered the bodies of two partially clothed teenage girls in a home in Kibbutz Be’eri that bore signs of sexual violence.”

However, the NYT acknowledged on 26 March that the claims of the paramedic are likely false after the paper reviewed video footage taken by an Israeli soldier on 7 October from the home where the two girls were allegedly raped.

The soldier showed the footage to residents of Kibbutz Be’eri as well.

The video shows the “bodies of three female victims, fully clothed and with no apparent signs of sexual violence, at a home where many residents had believed the assaults occurred.”

The NYT identified the victims as two sisters and their mother after speaking with kibbutz members who knew them.

Kibbutz members first became aware of the video on 12 February when soldiers in the unit that had found the girls’ bodies returned to Be'eri for a tour led by kibbutz members.

“What happened to them was horrifying, but it was a great relief to find out they weren’t sexually assaulted,” Bar Sinai, a resident of the kibbutz, stated.

It is unclear how the mother and her two daughters were killed.

Some of the 1,200 Israeli soldiers and civilians who were killed on 7 October were killed by Hamas, while others, perhaps the majority, were killed by Israeli forces using attack helicopters, tanks, and drones to repel the Hamas attack and prevent Israelis from being taken captive back to Gaza.

At least 97 civilians were killed in Be'eri on 7 October.

Israel has used false allegations that fighters from Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, carried out mass rapes on 7 October to deflect from the Israeli army’s ongoing military assault on Gaza. Israel’s bombing and siege of Gaza is widely viewed as genocide and has killed over 13,000 Palestinian children. 

At the same time, Israeli forces have “systematically sexually abused Palestinian women,” according to a US State Department official.