Until Justice is Done

"The report presents the truth as it is -- shocking painful, but vital and necessary." 

"On behalf of all those who were harmed, we are committed to continuing to fight until their cry is heard everywhere and until justice is done." 

"There was an expectation that women around the world would understand and support us, like in other conflicts. The feeling of their backs turned on us was painful."

"As Israeli women, we need to scream for those who cannot anymore and bring them justice."

Israeli First Lady Michal Herzog

 

"We say this [that sexual violence in conflict is systematic rather than random] in a clear voice: sexual violence in conflict is a weapon. It is not random, it is not directed only at the individual and it is not done without direction from above."

"It is time for the international community to treat this phenomenon as such."

Professor Ruth Helperin-Kadri 

The authors of the Dinah Project's report on sexual violence on and since October 7 are pictured with First Lady Michal Herzog (center) at the President's Residence, Jerusalem, July 8, 2025. (Itzik Biran)

 

On Tuesday a legal report was presented to the wife of Israel's president.  That ground-breaking report presents as the first comprehensive framework to enable the prosecution of Hamas and other Palestinian  terrorists for their systematic pre-planned use of sexual violence as a weapon of war, as seen by the agonized savagery on display during the October 7, 2023 invasion by Palestinian terrorists into southern Israel, where thousands of terrorists led by the Hamas ruling group committed mass rape, sadistic torture and massive bloodshed, taking the lives of 1,200 Israeli children, women, the elderly and foreign farm workers, along with a smaller number of Israeli soldiers.

 

The report in its 84 pages -- written by professor Ruth Halperin-Kadri, retired district judge Nava Ben-Or, and Col. (res) Attorney Sharon Zaggi Pinhas, former chief military prosecutor of the Israel Defense Forces -- is the most extensive legal and factual documentation at this point, of sexual crimes committed during the assault on Israeli border communities adjacent Gaza. The report is part of "The Dina Project", analyzing dozens of sources, establishing clear patterns of systematic sexual violence.

 

Outlined are clear and consistent patterns of sexual violence committed by Palestinian terrorists both at murder scenes and upon Israeli hostages in captivity. Gang rape, public humiliation, forced nudity genital abuse and direct shooting of intimate body parts -- all are documented. Accounts from abductees describing repeated sexual assaults, threats of 'forced marriage', and attempts to erase sexual identity are accounted for, including violent sexual attacks perpetrated on men.  

 

Memorials at the Nova music festival site in May 2024.  Leo Correa / AP

 

 Investigators discovered recurring descriptions of half-naked female bodies some of whom had been tied up to buildings and trees. Reports from personnel identifying casualties from military bases were also included. The unequivocal conclusion of the authors was that Hamas made use of sexual violence representing an integral portion of an overall plan of terror, collective humiliation and dehumanization of Israeli society. During interrogations, several Palestinian terrorist captured by Israel, admitted having raped and sexually abused women.

 

Testimony from Ilana Gritzewsky who survived 55 days of captivity in Gaza was included in the presentation. She spoke of her experience of sexual abuse: "On October 7, I was in my house, in Kibbutz Nir Oz, with my partner, Matan (Zangauker). And suddenly -- noise. Explosions, Screams. Then a door was broken open. We were kidnapped." 

 

Security forces at the Nova music festival site in Kibbutz Re'im, Israel, on Oct. 12, 2023.  Leon Neal / Getty Images file 

"When I woke up, I was half-naked. Surrounded by terrorists. They beat me, touched me. I didn't know what happened to my body in those lost minutes. But my soul already knew: nothing would be the same."

"I was released after 55 days. But I'm not really free. Because true freedom only exists when no one has to go through what I went through."

"Almost two years later, there are those who still ask if this really happened. I’m here to tell you that it did and it’s still going on."

"My Matan is still there. I don’t know what they’re doing to him, but I know what they did to me. I wake up every morning with the fear that he is experiencing what I did."

Ilana Geritzewsky  

"Sexual crimes during war are — forgive me — a ‘perfect crime."

"[Amid the chaos of war], perpetrators can rely on the silence of their victims, either because they murder them, which was the case for most of the victims who were assaulted on October 7, or for the survivors. There is so much trauma and shame unique to the crime that they often won’t talk about it."

IDF Col.(ret) Attorney Sharon Zagi-Pinhas