Israel’s authorities says about 1,200 Israelis died within the ambush as militants infiltrated the nation’s south by land and air, catching many — together with Israel’s navy — without warning.
The report is the rights group’s most in depth allegation of conflict crimes within the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas and 4 different armed Palestinian teams, together with the al-Quds Brigades, the militant wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The killing of civilians and the taking of hostages have been “central goals of the deliberate assault, and never actions that occurred as an afterthought,” the report discovered.
Hamas wrote in an April reply to questions from Human Rights Watch that it had instructed militants to not goal civilians, and blamed unaffiliated Gazans it stated had seized the chance to wreak havoc in Israel. The inflow of unaffiliated Palestinians and different armed teams “led to many errors,” Hamas wrote, in accordance with the report.
The report comes because the conflict in Gaza — Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 assault — continues to kill Palestinian civilians, with Israeli forces alleged to have dedicated conflict crimes within the enclave. Greater than 38,700 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, in accordance with the Gaza Well being Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants however says the vast majority of the lifeless are ladies and kids.
The Israel Protection Forces on Tuesday claimed to have killed or apprehended 14,000 militants and to have killed half of Hamas’s navy leaders because the begin of the conflict. The figures couldn’t be independently confirmed.
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Final week, the IDF launched the findings of its first inside probe into its response on Oct. 7, saying that it did not defend Kibbutz Beeri, a city close to the border with Gaza. It admitted to “extreme errors and errors” in its response there, however it stopped in need of condemning particular person commanders.
Amid ongoing investigations into the deaths of civilians in crossfire between IDF troops and Palestinian militants on Oct. 7, the Human Rights Watch report discovered no less than two cases of militants utilizing civilians as “human shields,” an act the group stated is a conflict crime.
Militants additionally tortured civilians, the report discovered, together with actions akin to dragging ladies by their hair and hitting and kicking individuals they kidnapped.
The report discovered proof of “sexual and gender-based violence” by militants akin to compelled nudity and the posting of “sexualized pictures” on social media. But it surely was “not capable of collect verifiable data” about alleged rape on Oct. 7. The rights group stated the Israeli authorities denied its request for data on such violence.
The group stated that though it was unable to “doc any instances of rape,” that didn’t imply that rape didn’t happen on Oct. 7. The total extent of sexual violence that day “will doubtless by no means be absolutely recognized,” the report stated, citing dynamics akin to stigma and trauma surrounding rape and the truth that many such victims have been most likely killed.
