Knesset members from both the coalition and the opposition were outraged Monday morning following statements by the
At a meeting of the Knesset's Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality, State Prosecutor's Office representative Dganit Cohen Williams admitted that no indictments have yet been filed against Hamas Nukhba terrorists who took part in the rapes, tortures, and murders of the October 7 massacre.
"What I can say is that the investigations are being conducted," Cohen Williams said. "Every bit, every tidbit, of information which we can receive and use - that is done carefully."
Committee chairwoman MK Pnina Tamano Shata (National Unity) queried whether there were any indictments filed yet.
"Not yet," Cohen Williams said. "We're not there yet."
She admitted that there are "more than" two teams in the Prosecutor's office working on the matter: one focused on sexual crimes, and the other focused on other legal matters of the issue.
"I can't tell you times and dates" on the investigation," Cohen Williams said.
Tamano Shata responded, "There are things I will do in the private discussion. But we want to know how the investigation has progressed. Time has significance. We want to know that this is progressing."
MK Keti Shitrit (Likud) said, "Perhaps tell us what else you need, after a terrorist sits in front of an interrogator and admits that he raped a woman on October 7, and he even tells you where - what else do you need in order to file an indictment? Tell us the process."
"Who is supervising the timing and the pace of the investigation?" Tamano Shata asked. "The timing has significance. I am not saying that it needs to be negligent because we are shortening the time, but we need to see that this is being watched and that it is progressing seriously."
Cohen Williams said, "It is being carefully watched, both by the State Prosecutor's Office, and by the Southern District Prosecutor's Office."
"The matter of the indictments also - the sexual crimes are part of them. There is a part of a much larger investigation of all the horrors which were committed during those events. At the end of the day, the team is working."
Shitrit noted that "in the meantime, requests are being filed with the Supreme Court demanding that their [prison] conditions be improved," and demanded a timetable for the indictments.
"We want thorough answers," Tamano Shata stressed. "Whatever you cannot say here, you can say in private, but I am telling you that answers that are too general will not help."
"We will do our job of supervising the progress of the investigation," she promised.