On October 7th, evidence surfaced that Hamas militants had systematically employed brutal sexual violence and torture as weapons of war against Israeli civilians - both women and men. Horrifyingly, Hamas members recorded many of these barbaric acts on body cameras which were then posted on Telegram, leaving no doubt as to the atrocities committed.
Despite this unambiguous proof, the global response was overwhelmingly muted. Many denied the rapes had even occurred, while the United Nations initially refused to issue any condemnation whatsoever.
As reported by JPost, this institutional silence represented a fundamental betrayal, according to Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, who had served 12 years on the UN's Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. Halperin-Kaddari stated she felt "completely betrayed" by the international women's rights organizations she had collaborated with for decades due to their abject failure to speak out against the rapes, kidnappings, mutilations and other grotesque crimes perpetrated by Hamas.
It was this appalling lack of global response that inspired Sheryl Sandberg to direct the documentary 'Screams Before Silence' - a grueling and uncompromising look at the atrocities. The film's title refers to the fact that few victims came forward, as most were murdered following their assaults, sometimes even during the act itself. Comprised of firsthand accounts and irrefutable evidence, the documentary amplifies the silenced voices while underscoring the sheer depravity of the events. Though it depicts no explicit visuals out of respect for the victims, Sandberg herself has called it "an extremely disturbing film and difficult to watch."
The accounts from first responders on the ground are indeed soul-shattering. Photos show many female victims with nails and shards of metal savagely driven into their vaginas. Others had been shot at point-blank range in their genitals. Responders recounted finding one woman whose foot had been severed, and another who was stabbed so ferociously that her internal organs had been cut out.
Simcha Greinman, a ZAKA volunteer emergency responder, admitted "I don't have the words to explain what we saw." His colleague, Haim Otmazgin, echoed this, stating "When you see one woman and another and another all with signs of abuse in the groin area, you understand that this wasn't a random thing." The pattern of deliberately inflicted mutilations to the female genitals made it undeniable that Hamas was wielding systematic sexual violence as a tactic.
Israeli farmer Rami Davidian described coming across dozens of nude women bound to trees, their bodies bearing unmistakable signs of being raped and mutilated before ultimately being murdered in grisly fashion.
Shari Mendes, an IDF reservist stationed at the Shura base, reiterated that the sexual violence seemed systematically implemented, describing rooms crammed from floor to ceiling with body bags. "And we never knew what we would see, what the level of the atrocity would be inside," he said, mentioning women whose faces had been so ravaged by gunfire that identifying them became impossible. There were clear indications, according to Mendes, of "directly targeted sexual violence" against female victims, many found partially clothed or naked and soaked in their own blood.
For Sheryl Sandberg, creating 'Screams Before Silence' to document these unimaginable horrors was "the most important work of my life...maybe everything I've done has led to this moment."
Though it finally issued a "tepid statement" condemning the atrocities in March 2024, the United Nations' initial refusal to speak out, coupled with the shocking silence from international women's rights groups, represented an unforgivable dereliction that will be remembered as a moment of profound moral failure on a global scale.