UN Rights experts demand accountability for sexual torture victims of Hamas

Top rights experts on Monday demanded prompt investigations and accountability for victims of sexual torture in the 7 October Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel.

Some 1,200 Israeli and foreign nationals were killed in the surprise attacks across 22 villages and thousands more injured. An estimated 240 adults, children and infants were also taken hostage by militants from Hamas and other Palestinian extremist groups.

In a statement on Monday the rights experts - who are not UN staff and who report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva – also called for justice relating to other grave crimes committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since the war in Gaza began – a likely reference to spiking violence in the West Bank including East Jerusalem that has left more than 300 Palestinians dead since 7 October.

“Investigators must be given the necessary resources, support and access required” to explore all alleged crimes,” the experts said, as they called on Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the de facto authorities in Gaza to cooperate fully with any probes.