An Israeli women's rights campaigner and lawyer has told reporters that, based on evidence she has seen, Hamas had a premeditated plan to use sexual violence as a weapon of war during its 7 October attack on Israel.
Prof Ruth Halperin-Kaddari says she had seen footage of women in several locations whose condition left her in "no doubt" that they had been raped.
She says she saw several first-hand, eyewitness accounts, for example of one survivor who hid in the bushes and saw a woman next to her being raped by several men.
Israeli police say they have so far gathered more than 1,500 testimonies from witnesses and medics, with a range of violence from gang rape to the sexual mutilation of murdered victims being investigated.
Hamas denied carrying out sexual violence during the 7 October attacks.
[Source: BBC]
