Visiting UN official say she’s haunted by
accounts of Hamas atrocities
Pramila Patten can’t sleep after hearing and seeing the terrorists’ massacres and sexual violence on October 7.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
After spending over a week hearing and seeing testimony of Hamas atrocities especially directed at women during its terrorists’ surprise invasion of Israel on October 7, a United Nations official said she now could not sleep at night, Ynet reported Monday.
Pramila Patten, special representative of the UN secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict, concluded her visit Monday, whose purpose was to “gather information on sexual violence, reportedly committed in the context of the attacks of Oct. 7 and its aftermath,” as a UN statement put it.
One of the first things she did was watch the 47-minute video compilation of the barbarities of the Hamas invaders made by the IDF shot by the terrorists themselves as well as CCTV footage at the murder sites.
“Only after I saw the video did I understand things that I didn’t understand before in terms of the magnitude of the disaster that happened,” she admitted, adding that she hadn’t slept since then.
Patten also visited the largest murder site, where more than 360 partygoers were murdered at a Nova dance rave, many of them having been brutally raped first. She toured Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the hardest-hit kibbutzim in the Gaza envelope, hearing the stories of a survivor of the slaughter and a first responder on the scene, and it shocked her.
“The world outside cannot understand the magnitude of the event,” she said. “I myself also internalized the magnitude of the event just by being here myself.”
Besides asking for witnesses and victims to come forward, she and her team of ten medical and legal experts spoke to doctors who are treating Hamas’ victims both physically and psychologically, those providing government support, and other relevant professionals.
Much of Patten’s team is staying for at least another week to continue their evidence-collection for a report she is expected to release on sexual violence in many countries, including Israel, later this month.
The Mauritanian lawyer had gained instant infamy in Israel after being confronted at a UN event on January 20 about the international body’s long silence over Hamas terrorists’ widespread, brutal rapes of women during their attack.
Lawyer and actress Linor Abargil, a rape victim herself, had expressed her disappointment over Patten “not condemning all the abuse that happened to our women,” and asked why she wasn’t taking immediate action. Patten responded, “Maybe you should have all the facts.”
She did not relate to the points that her condemnation had come a full two months after the atrocities had been committed, and that the UN had not acted in any way against the terror organization.
Perhaps to counteract the sense of betrayal that Israelis and their supporters around the world still feel over the world’s silence, Patten said in a meeting with President Isaac Herzog and his wife Michal last week, “I want to say that survivors and victims, we owe you all more than solidarity. We want to ensure that you have justice.”
That would be nice for a change!
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Israeli officials confirm the death of 32 hostages,
20 more reported dead
Jerusalem was also assessing unconfirmed reports indicating that at least 20 additional captives may no longer be alive.
By JNS
At least 32 of the remaining 136 hostages captured by Hamas during its Oct. 7 terrorist onslaught are confirmed to have died, The New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing a confidential Israel Defense Forces intelligence assessment.
Their families have been updated, according to four IDF military officials who spoke anonymously to discuss classified information.
Jerusalem was also assessing unconfirmed reports indicating that at least 20 additional captives may no longer be alive, the officials said.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents relatives of the captives, on Tuesday evening confirmed the deaths of 31 people held in Gaza.
“According to the official data we have, there are 31 victims,” the forum said in a statement. “Before the article was released, an official message was given to all the families of the abductees by the liaison officers that there is no change in the situation assessment.”
Hamas abducted more than 240 people during its bloody rampage across the northwestern Negev, in which some 1,200 people were murdered and thousands more wounded.
One hundred five hostages, mostly women and children, were released last year as part of a ceasefire deal, which Hamas broke when it refused to hand over the last group of captives. Four more were released by Hamas before the ceasefire, while one hostage was rescued by Israeli troops.
The figure of 32—or possibly even 52— dead captives is significantly higher than previously thought and would mean that more than one-fifth of the remaining hostages have been killed. Last month, Jerusalem said Hamas was believed to be holding 28 bodies in Gaza.
The terror group has also been holding the bodies of slain IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014, as well as two living Israeli civilians suffering from mental illness, Avera Mengistu, who crossed into Gaza in 2014, and Hisham al-Sayed, who entered Gaza in 2015.
Asked for comment by the Times, the IDF said it was still “deploying all available resources to locate and retrieve as much information as possible regarding the hostages currently held by Hamas.” Most of the dead are believed to have been murdered on Oct. 7, the army added.
Hamas is expected to turn down an offer for a hostages-for-ceasefire deal with Israel along the lines of the November agreement, the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya news channel reported on Sunday night.
The terrorist group is demanding that Israel release more Palestinian security prisoners in exchange for each of the remaining hostages. Hamas is reportedly insisting that Israel free terrorists arrested on Oct. 7.
Hamas is also seeking guarantees for the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and a total end to the war—a stance that is incompatible with Israel’s stated goal of destroying the terrorist group.
“The efforts to free the hostages are continuing at all times,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told journalists on Sunday. “However, we will not agree to every deal, and not at any price.”
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