Several dozen people rallied in London on Sunday to draw attention to the women still being held hostage by Hamas and to the issue of Hamas’ sexual violence, AFP reported.
Jerusalem deputy mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum said that between 17 and 20 women and girls are still being held by Hamas after its October 7 attack on Israel.
"All we know is that every day that they remain in captivity their condition gets worse and there's less of a chance that they'll come out," she said, adding that she has met mothers of captives who fear that after 18 weeks some may be pregnant from rapes they might have been subject to.
"We need to get them out now so that we can do something about it," said Hassan-Nahoum.
Banners saying that "rape is not resistance" were waved at the rally, which was held near the offices of the BBC. Organizers of the demonstration feel the network hasn't done enough to cover alleged sexual violence during Hamas' October 7 attack.
Experts at the United Nations recently said that crimes committed against civilians during Hamas' October 7 attacks on Israel amounted to war crimes and could qualify as crimes against humanity.
The experts — Alice Jill Edwards, a special rapporteur on torture and other punishment, and Morris Tidball-Binz, a special rapporteur on "extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions" — called for full accountability for the widespread killings and sexual torture by the Hamas terrorists.
After weeks of ignoring Hamas’ sexual violence during the October 7 attack, UN Women issued its first condemnation of the brutality in early December.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also waited nearly two months before he finally acknowledged that Hamas committed acts of sexual violence during the attack.
Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said in response, “The Secretary-General's words only sharpen the fact that when it comes to Israeli women, sexual violence that has been proven by state authorities still needs to be ‘investigated.’ For him, when it comes to Israeli women, you can doubt the facts and wait 55 days to call an unknown party to conduct an ‘investigation.’ He does not acknowledge that Hamas committed these crimes!”