“We saw the attack on this weekend in the Al Shifa Hospital and the numerous sources have reported that many women were raped in that hospital facility under the very eyes of their children. They were also tortured.”
“We are gravely concerned by the rape of Palestinian women.”
UN Watch Response
These accusations by Algeria and Bolivia repeat the false claim published and then retracted by Al Jazeera.[1] Al Jazeera had quoted a Palestinian woman claiming that Israeli soldiers had “raped women, kidnapped women, executed women, and pulled dead bodies from under the rubble to unleash their dogs on them” during their March 2024 operation against Hamas in Al Shifa hospital.[2] However, the woman herself later admitted she had lied.[3]
The fact that this malicious lie was cited at the UN Human Rights Council signifies that the truth does not matter to these countries, and that they will use any fake news to attack Israel. Furthermore, that they ignore the actual mass rape and sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas against Israeli women on and after October 7th is evidence of a deeply troubling trend of Hamas atrocity denial and inversion. Even the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence affirmed Hamas’ sexual crimes against Israelis in her March 2024 report.[4]
[1] @abuhilalah, Twitter (March 24, 2024, 4:24 PM), https://twitter.com/abuhilalah/status/1771996521312973088.
[2] Al Jazeera takes down video falsely alleging IDF rapes in Shifa Hospital, Times of Israel (March 25, 2024), https://www.timesofisrael.com/al-jazeera-report-alleging-idf-rapes-in-shifa-hospital-retracted/.
[3] Hamas admits women not raped by IDF at Shifa hospital, following deleted Al Jazeera report, I24 News (March 25, 2024), https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel-at-war/artc-hamas-admits-women-not-raped-by-idf-at-shifa-hospital-following-al-jazeera-report.
[4] Mission Report: Official visit of the Office of the SRSG-SVC to Israel and the occupied West Bank 29 January – 14 February 2024, UN (March 4, 2024), https://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/report/mission-report-official-visit-of-the-office-of-the-srsg-svc-to-israel-and-the-occupied-west-bank-29-january-14-february-2024/20240304-Israel-oWB-CRSV-report.pdf.
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