New York-based global rights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a new report on Wednesday, said that Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups had committed 'hundreds' of war crimes when it launched a surprise attack on Israel in which it killed around 1,000 people and abducted around 250.
Hamas, however, reacted angrily to the report and asked HRW to withdraw the report and "apologise". Israel, in retaliatory attacks for the past ten months, has killed over 38,000 Palestinians, including some 16,000 children, apart from flattening most of Gaza and pushing the small enclave's 2.3 million population to starvation. Moreover, recent reporting in Israeli media has uncovered that Tel Aviv instituted the Hannibal Directive on October 7, shortly after Hamas launched the pre-dawn raid across the heavily guarded fencing that effectively turns Gaza into an open-air prison.
The report claimed that Hamas had committed a host of war crimes on October 7 but said it was impossible to "put a number on the specific instances" of war crimes. HRW Associate Director Belkis Wille said the number of incidents is in the hundreds.
The crimes HRW accused Hamas of committing include deliberate and indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian objects; wilful killing of persons in custody; cruel and other inhumane treatment; sexual and gender-based violence; hostage taking; mutilation and despoiling (robbing) of bodies; use of human shields; and pillaging and looting."
This is not the first time that Hamas has been accused of allegedly perpetrating sexual violence during the October 7 attacks. Subsequent investigations, however, failed to find substantial evidence of allegations to prove it.
HRW, however, claimed to have found evidence of Hamas fighters perpetrating acts of sexual or gender-based violence, including forced nudity and posting on social media sexualised images without consent.
The report also quoted a team of UN special representatives on sexual violence in conflict who claimed to have interviewed witnesses to the alleged "rape and gang rape" in at least three locations where Hamas had attacked. But the report said that the full extent of sexual and gender-based violence "will likely never be fully known" as victims had died, or stigma would stop them from talking out, or Israeli first responders "largely" did not collect relevant evidence."
Whether the HRW accusation was based on any new evidence remains to be seen.
Wille, however, went on to say that Hamas and Islamic Jihad, along with other militant groups, were responsible for the attack, but civilians from Gaza did not perpetrate the worst abuses.
HRW said Hamas and its accomplices fired directly at civilians, often at close range or as they tried to flee, and at people who were simply driving by the areas under attack.
Hamas was also accused of targeting safe rooms in houses where Israelis sought shelter. "They hurled grenades and shot into safe rooms and other shelters and fired rocket-propelled grenades at homes."
HRW also accused Hamas of setting some houses on fire, burning and suffocating people to death. Those who were taken alive were either taken hostage or killed.
This, however, is not the first time that Hamas has been accused of perpetrating war crimes in its attack on Israel on October 7.
Earlier in the year, as the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor sought arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he also sought warrants for the arrest of Hamas' political leader Ismail Haniyeh and Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar on charges of perpetrating war crimes.
Israel pounds Gaza as Netanyahu vows more pressure
On Wednesday, Israel continued to pound Gaza after having dropped massive bombs on tents in the Al Mawasi refugee camp. Israel claimed to have been pursuing a single Hamas target in the attack that left 200 dead.
The Israeli military said it had carried out 25 strikes in 24 hours, targeting "military structures, terrorist infrastructure, terrorist cells and rigged structures". The health ministry in Gaza said that the strikes had left at least 52 people dead.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, vowed to ramp up the pressure on Hamas as he promised to bring home all the hostages. Around 116 of the 250 hostages are believed to be still in Gaza, with some 40 believed to have been killed in Israeli strikes or by Hamas. The rest were released as part of a deal in November.
"We have got them by the throat; we are on the road to absolute victory," Netanyahu said in Israeli parliament.
Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh accused Israel of deliberately undermining negotiations for a truce and hostage release deal because it did not want to end the war.
Efforts made by Egyptian and Qatari mediators in indirect negotiations between the foes have made no headway.
Netanyahu is expected to travel to the US later in the month and address the lower and upper houses of US Parliament.