Palestinian Terrorist Groups Excelling in Committing Atrocities

More than 360 civilians were killed at the Supernova music festival on 7 October  EPA

"[The terrorists committed a crime against humanity because they launched a] widespread attack directed against a civilian population."

"The killing of civilians and taking of hostages were all central aims of the planned attack, and not actions that occurred as an afterthought or as a plan gone awry or as isolated acts, for example, perpetrated by unaffiliated Palestinians from Gaza." 

"That [the claim that random Palestinian civilians took part in the attack] was a claim that was made very early on, it was made by Hamas in order to distance its own fighters from the abuses, and it was made by Israel to justify attacks on civilians in Gaza."

"The intentional killing and  hostage-taking of civilians was planned and highly co-ordinated."

Belkis Wille, associate director, Human Rights Watch

Palestinian militants move towards the border fence with Israel from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 7.   Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images

 

It has taken almost a year, but finally Human Rights Watch -- never a friend of Israel -- issued a report affirming the sadistic savagery visited upon Israeli civilians on October 7 of 2023 was a deliberately planned mass slaughter of devastating proportions. Palestinian terrorists killed some 1,200 people, kidnapping over 250 people of all ages, taking them to Gaza as human pawns, some 120 of whom remain in Hamas' hands.

Human Rights Watch has declared that the attack met the international legal definition for crimes against humanity and war crimes. Still in Gaza are 115 of the 251 abducted during the fateful early October day of dread infamy. Still being held for 'trade' agreements are 42 dead Israelis, among them soldiers captured by the terrorists on their crossing into southern Israel, who manned Israeli border observation posts. 

According to the HRW report, five different Palestinian armed terrorist groups engaged in war crimes, violating international law by killing, torturing, taking hostages, looting and committing crimes involving sexual and gender-based violence, primarily the mutilation of girls and women before they were raped and murdered. All the groups were led by the Hamas Qassam Brigades.

 

Photographs of some of those taken hostage by Hamas during the October 7 attack on Israel are seen in Tel Aviv, Israel on October 18.   Leon Neal/Getty Images

 

HRW researchers relied on a report by a special United Nations envoy who had found "reasonable grounds" to believe Hamas committed sexual violence during the attack, while claiming its own researchers had been unable to independently verify claims of sexual violence and rape. Somewhat akin to Medecines sans Frontieres claiming that since it had not actually witnessed these atrocities, it could not subscribe to their condemnation.

At 230 pages in length, the report focused on the October 7 attacks without examining actions taken by Hamas or Israel linked to the subsequent war brought to Gaza. As the terrorists launched a "widespread attack directed against a civilian population, theirs was a crime against humanity". HRW's Belkis Wille had arrived in Israel mere days following the October attack, spending  a month in research with local staff.

Palestinian terror attacks at 26 civilian sites were examined by the researchers, who spoke with close to a hundred survivors, along with 50 experts and first responders to the violent tragedy. The conclusion was reached by the researchers that following their review of hundreds of photos and videos the majority of the Palestinians taking part in the atrocities were terror-group affiliated, not random civilians who had taken advantage of the open fence.

 

A family photo hangs on the wall inside a burned-out house in Kibbutz Be'eri in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 assault by Palestinian armed groups on southern Israel, October 14, 2023. Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times

Footage of the events observing the terror operatives included those who wore civilian clothing, communicating via walkie-talkies, taking orders from commanders, which led the researchers to conclude the operatives who carried out the worst abuses, particularly in the early hours of the attack, belonged to 'armed factions'. 

Hamas issued a nine-page response to the report, elucidating that the Qassam Brigades had planned and led the attack, and the Hamas political movement was not involved; operatives, they claimed were instructed to avoid targeting civilians. A claim that even HRW found "false". The organization concluded their report by calling on Hamas to release the 120 hostages immediately, along with bodies of hostages remaining in Gaza.

Israeli soldiers inspect houses that were destroyed in a battle between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants on Saturday's Hamas attack on a kibbutz in Be'eri, Israel, on October 14.

Amir Levy/Getty Images