By: Fern Sidman – Jewish Voice News

A United Nations official has sparked outrage after publicly claiming that no sexual violence occurred during the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, directly contradicting an extensive UN-verified report and multiple Israeli investigations documenting widespread sexual assault, rape, and gender-based atrocities committed by terrorists during the massacre.

According to a report that appeared on Saturday at World Israel News, Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, wrote on social media Friday that “no independent investigation found that rape took place on October 7.” Her comments immediately drew condemnation from Israeli officials, human rights organizations, and even UN-affiliated experts who had participated in the official investigation into the atrocities.

Alsalem further claimed that “no Palestinian applauded rape in Gaza,” comments she made while weighing in on the ongoing legal case involving Israeli soldiers accused of abusing a detainee at the Sde Teiman detention facility.

Her remarks — coming less than a year after Hamas’ unprecedented assault on Israeli communities near the Gaza border — are in direct conflict with verified findings released by UN-appointed investigators, as well as independent Israeli forensic, medical, and testimonial evidence that documented sexual crimes committed during the massacre.

As World Israel News reported, this is not the first time Reem Alsalem has faced scrutiny for statements widely perceived as biased or uninformed regarding Israel.

In March 2024, Alsalem stated publicly that she was “unaware that Israel had been subjected to repeated rocket attacks” from Hamas and Hezbollah, even as both terrorist groups carried out ongoing strikes against Israeli civilian areas. Her comments drew criticism from Western diplomats, who questioned her credibility as an impartial UN official tasked with addressing gender-based violence in conflict.

Alsalem also co-authored a February 2024 UN report with Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, who has frequently been accused of harboring anti-Israel bias.

That report alleged that Israeli forces had sexually abused Palestinian women detained during counterterrorism operations — claims based largely on anecdotal testimony and reports from Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, an organization chaired by Richard Falk, a former UN official known for advancing anti-Israel conspiracy theories. Falk has previously accused Israel of orchestrating the Boston Marathon bombing and has publicly defended Hamas as a “legitimate resistance movement.”

In an interview with Israel’s Channel 13 earlier this year, Alsalem defended her methodology, asserting that her conclusions were based on “reasonably credible information” supplied by unnamed “international sources.” However, as the World Israel News report noted, she failed to address why her office had ignored the mounting body of photographic, forensic, and testimonial evidence confirming the systematic sexual violence carried out by Hamas on October 7.

In stark contrast to Alsalem’s assertions, an official UN delegation led by Pramila Patten, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, conducted a months-long investigation into the events of October 7 and reached unequivocal conclusions.

As World Israel News reported, Patten’s team — which included forensic analysts, gender-based violence experts, and legal investigators — reviewed over 50 hours of video footage, thousands of photographs, and conducted dozens of interviews with survivors, first responders, and military personnel who witnessed the aftermath of the Hamas assault.

Their findings, released earlier this year, confirmed “clear and compelling evidence” that Hamas fighters committed acts of rape, gang rape, sexual mutilation, and other forms of sexual torture during the attack.

The UN team’s report, which has since been submitted to the UN Security Council, documented multiple confirmed cases of sexual assault in specific locations including: The Nova music festival, where women were raped and murdered in the open; Route 232, where survivors reported seeing bodies of women who had been assaulted before execution; and Kibbutz Re’im, where investigators found victims bearing signs of severe genital mutilation consistent with sexual torture.

According to the information provided by World Israel News, the Patten report described a deliberate pattern of gender-based violence used as a weapon of terror, noting that “the sexual violence was not random but organized, systemic, and accompanied by extreme brutality.”

Separate Israeli investigations have reached parallel conclusions, corroborating the UN team’s findings in detail.

The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel (ARCCI) — an umbrella organization representing 16 crisis centers across the country — undertook a comprehensive review of the October 7 attacks, drawing upon survivor testimonies, witness statements, and first responder interviews.

According to the World Israel News report, the ARCCI’s findings included multiple cases in which Hamas terrorists raped women in front of family members, sometimes using victims’ own phones to film the assaults before murdering them.

One first responder described seeing “bodies of women naked from the waist down, hands tied, shot in the head.” Another testified to finding a woman’s body showing clear signs of “sexual mutilation and torture.”

The organization’s report concluded that “rape and sexual violence were an integral part of the terrorist operation,” and called for international recognition of these crimes as violations of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions.

Alsalem’s denial of these crimes has prompted widespread condemnation from Israeli and international officials. According to the information contained in the World Israel News report. diplomats from multiple Western countries have called her remarks “disgraceful,” with one senior European envoy stating that her comments “undermine the credibility of the entire UN human rights system.”

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat criticized Alsalem’s statement as “an appalling act of denial,” accusing her of “whitewashing crimes against humanity committed by Hamas.”

“The evidence is overwhelming,” Haiat said, as reported by World Israel News. “There are testimonies, forensic reports, and UN documentation. To deny these atrocities is to re-victimize the women who suffered them.”

Human rights advocates likewise condemned Alsalem’s comments, with several NGOs calling for her resignation. The World Israel News report cited advocacy groups arguing that Alsalem’s remarks perpetuate a broader pattern of anti-Israel bias within the United Nations, noting that the organization has consistently failed to apply equal scrutiny to Palestinian groups responsible for terrorist violence.

For survivors and rescue workers, Alsalem’s remarks were not merely offensive but deeply traumatic.

Several survivors quoted in the World Israel News report said her comments represented a “second assault” — erasing the suffering of women whose bodies bore the marks of the brutality inflicted upon them.

One paramedic who arrived at the Nova music festival hours after the attack described the scene: “We saw women’s bodies mutilated and bound, men shot trying to protect them. It was obvious what had been done. How can anyone deny that?”

Israeli forensic pathologists have documented multiple cases of genital injuries consistent with rape and torture, findings later confirmed by both international and UN-appointed experts.

Alsalem’s comments are the latest in a long series of controversies surrounding the UN’s treatment of Israel. According to the report at World Israel News, Israel has repeatedly accused the organization’s special rapporteurs of institutional bias and selective reporting, particularly on matters involving terrorism and women’s rights.

In 2023 and 2024, Israel formally lodged complaints with the UN over statements made by Francesca Albanese and other officials who appeared to justify or minimize Hamas’ atrocities, even as mounting evidence confirmed deliberate targeting of civilians.

Israeli officials have also criticized what they view as the UN’s failure to properly condemn sexual violence committed by Hamas while simultaneously amplifying unverified claims against the IDF.

As reported by World Israel News, the controversy surrounding Alsalem’s remarks has reignited debate over the credibility of the UN’s human rights apparatus and the impartiality of its special rapporteurs.

Analysts note that while independent investigators such as Pramila Patten have documented the atrocities of October 7 in detail, other UN officials — including Alsalem — appear to have dismissed or ignored the findings of their own colleagues.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry has reportedly demanded that the UN clarify whether Alsalem’s comments represent her personal views or the organization’s official position.

Meanwhile, families of victims continue to call for justice. “Our daughters, our mothers, our sisters were raped and murdered,” one bereaved father told World Israel News. “To deny it is to kill them again.”

For now, the UN faces renewed scrutiny not only over how it investigates war crimes but also how it responds to the truth when the evidence lies before it.