An investigation by the New York Times has revealed more new details and evidence that Israeli women have been subjected to **, mutilation, and extreme brutality in Hamas's attacks on Israel. This article was originally published on December 28, 2023. 
"Wordless screaming".Everyone's initial impression of her was "a woman in a black dress".
In a vague **, you can see her lying on her back, her clothes torn, and her double *** exposed. Her face was burned beyond recognition, and her right hand covered her eyes.
A woman looking for her missing friend filmed this in the early hours of October 8 at the festival site in southern Israel, where Hamas had visited hundreds of young Israelis.
* Went viral, with thousands of people desperate to know who the woman in the black dress was, if it was their missing friend, sister, or daughter. One family recognized her – Gal Abdush, a mother of two from a working-class town in central Israel, who disappeared with her husband that night in the festival.
Ms. Abdush was stranded on the highway surrounded by a line of young men who had escaped from the festival. As she approached, her last WhatsApp message to her family was "You guys don't understand. ”
According to the New York Times, Israel **concluded on the basis of ** evidence that Ms. Abdush was **, which also became a microcosm of the horrific treatment of Israeli women and girls during the October 7 attacks.
Israel says women have been brutally treated in every place Hamas*** has attacked — festivals, military bases near Gaza and kibbutzims.
The New York Times' two-month investigation revealed more harrowing details that determined that attacks against women were not isolated but widespread gender-based violence on October 7. By referencing snippets, cell phone GPS data, and interviews with more than 150 people, including witnesses, medical personnel, soldiers, and counselors, The New York Times determined that the crimes and physical assault against Israeli women and girls had occurred in at least seven locations.
Four witnesses described in detail witnessing the killing of women at two different locations along Route 232, where Ms. Abdush's half-naked body was found at a third location on the same road.
The New York Times interviewed multiple soldiers and volunteer medics who mentioned the bodies of more than 30 women and girls found in two kibbutz at and around the festival site, in conditions similar to those of Ms. Abdush — with torn clothes and signs of abuse.
Much of the narrative and intuitive evidence is unacceptable. Take, for example, the ** of a woman's body, whose body was found in the rubble of a besieged collective farm, with dozens of nails driven into her thighs and groin.
The New York Times also ran a paragraph provided by the Israeli military showing the death of two Israeli female soldiers at a base near Gaza who appeared to have been shot directly.
Hamas has denied these allegations of sexual violence. Israeli activists are outraged that UN Secretary-General António Guterres and UN Women did not admit the allegations until weeks after the attack.
Investigators at LAH** 433, Israel's highest national police force, are still collecting evidence, but have not yet released a specific number of women who have been ******. They said that the vast majority of the women who were ** had died and were buried. No survivors have spoken out publicly at this time.
Israel** admits that they did not pay attention to collecting samples from women's bodies, requesting autopsies, or scrutinizing the crime scene when they were in shock and chaos on October 7, the most tragic day in Israel's history. At that time, the authorities said their goal was to repel Hamas and identify the dead.
The combination of confusion, grief, and Jewish religious teachings led to a hasty burial of many bodies, most of them unexamined. In some cases, such as the festival site, more than 360 people were dragged away in pickup trucks within hours.
This makes it impossible for the Israeli authorities to fully explain to their families what happened in the last moments of their lives. For example, Ms. Abdush's relatives have not yet received a death certificate and are still looking for answers.
Experts say it is difficult to gather sufficient forensic evidence in cases of widespread sexual violence that occurred during the war.
Armed conflict is chaotic," said Adil Haque, a law professor at Rutgers University and an expert on war crimes. ”
He said sex crimes are often prosecuted years later based on victim and witness testimony.
It is also possible that the witnesses do not know the names of the victims," he added, "but it is enough if they can testify that 'I saw a woman being killed by this armed group'." ”
Surveys
The Israeli authorities do not lack the most important evidence of the October 7 attacks. They collected hours of footage from Hamas body cameras, dashcams, security cameras and cell phones, including images of Hamas *** killing civilians and many mutilated bodies. But Moshe Fintzy, the deputy chief of police and senior spokesperson for the Israel National Police, said that "our autopsy results are zero, zero" and made an "O" with his right hand. After the attack, forensic examiners were sent to the Shura military base to assist in the identification of hundreds of bodies — Israel said about 1,200 people died that day. The inspectors worked quickly to give the distressed families of the missing a sense of closure by determining who had died and who had been held hostage in Gaza through the method of exclusion. According to Jewish tradition, the funeral was held immediately. As a result, many of the bodies with signs of waiting were buried without medical examination, meaning that potential evidence is now buried in the ground. Forensic experts say it is possible to find some evidence from the body, but it is very difficult. Finzy said Israeli security forces are still looking for photographic evidence of the cruelty to women. In a police building in Jerusalem, Fintzy sat at his desk, turned on his phone, and found that two soldiers had been shot, which he said had been recorded by Hamas and had recently been found by Israeli soldiers. Police Chief Mirit Ben Mayor, a colleague sitting next to him, believes that violence against women is a combination of two ** forces, namely "hatred of Jews and hatred of women." Some emergency medical personnel now want to be able to record more of what is seen. They said in the interview that the bodies had been moved, zippers had been cut and the big ** scene had been cleaned up. In the interest of honoring the deceased, they inadvertently destroyed the evidence. Many of the volunteers of the emergency response team, Zaka, are devout Jews who follow strict canons and have a deep respect for the dead. "I didn't take pictures because we couldn't," says Yossi Landau, a volunteer at ZAKA, "and I regret it in retrospect." Gil Horev, a spokesman for Israel's Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs, said at least three women and one man had suffered and survived. "They were reluctant to come and accept ** in person, and two ** divisions said they were ** a woman who was raping ** and that she was not able to speak to investigators or journalists at this time. According to several counselors, the trauma caused by the offender is so severe that survivors often avoid talking about it for years. "A lot of people are looking for hard evidence that women are trying to testify about what happened to them. Don't do that, don't put this pressure on her," said Orit Sulitzeanu, executive director of the Israel ** Crisis Center Association, "The corpse will speak for itself. ”Woman in black
The last photo of Ms. Abdush was captured by a security camera installed on her front door, showing her leaving home with her husband Nagi to attend the festival at 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 7.
He was dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt, and she wore a short black skirt with a black shawl tied around her waist and military boots on her feet. Before heading out, she picked up her cup and took a big sip (her brother-in-law remembered it was Red Bull and vodka) and smiled.
Her sister recalls that Ms. Abdush's motto was: live every day as if it were the last moment in your life and enjoy the moment.
As soon as the sky was hazy, hundreds of *** surrounded the scene of the ** festival from several directions, blocking the high-speed exit. The couple jumped into their Audi and sent a quick string of messages as they went.
We're at the border," Ms. Abdush sent to her family, "to leave." ”
*。At 7:44 a.m., her husband personally called the family and left a final voice message for her brother Nissim: "Take care of the kids, I love you." ”
Gunshots rang out, and the news came to an abrupt halt.
That night, Eden Wessely, an auto mechanic, drove to the festival with three friends and found Ms. Abdush lying half-naked on the road, next to her burned car, about 9 miles north of the festival, and no body of Mr. Abdush was found.
She saw other burned cars and bodies and photographed them in the hope of helping people find their missing loved ones. She posted the ** of the woman in the black dress on her Instagram story and received a large number of comments.
Hey, is that woman in a black dress you are talking about, her hair is blonde? A message has been read.
Eden, you said the woman in the black dress, do you remember the color of her eyes? Another message.
Abdush's family saw another version of this filmed with Wessely's friends. They then suspected that the body belonged to Ms. Abdush. Based on what the body looked like when it was found, they were concerned that she might have been **.
But they still have a glimmer of illusion that this is not true.
These ** also caught the attention of Israel** - they soon began collecting evidence of atrocities after October 7. They included footage of Ms. Abdush's body in their display to foreign ** and ** organizations as a typical representation of the violence against women that day.
A week after her body was found, three social workers showed up at their doorstep in the small town of Kiryat Ekron, in central Israel, to announce that Ms. Abdush, 34, had been killed.
The only document the family received was a one-page letter from Isaac Herzog in Israel, sending condolences and condolences. Two days later, the body of Mr. Abdush, 35, was identified. Already badly burned, investigators identified him based on a DNA sample and his wedding ring.
The couple have been together since they were teenagers. For the family, time seems to have frozen in yesterday: the husband is about to leave for work with a tool bag (he is a water heater repairman); His wife is making mashed potatoes and steaks for her two youngest sons, 10-year-old Eli** and 7-year-old Refael.
The two children were orphaned on the night their parents were killed, staying at their aunt's house. Grandpa applied for permanent guardianship, and everyone took care of them as much as they could.
Every night, Grandma Eti Bracha would put the two children to bed by the bedside. A few weeks ago, she was quietly walking out of the bedroom when she was stopped by Refael:
Grandma, I want to ask you something. ”
Baby, what do you want to ask? Ask".
Grandma, how did Mom die? ”