“This violence targets beyond the individual victim—it strikes an entire community, turning a symbol of life into one of death,” said retired district court judge Nava Ben-Or, a co-author of the Dinah Project report on the severe sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas terrorists, during a Wednesday morning interview with Ynet.

Reflecting on her career handling grave cases, she described the report’s compilation as uniquely challenging. “It’s profoundly different because the phenomenon itself is distinct,” she said. “Sexual violence in war zones fundamentally differs from ‘ordinary’ sexual violence. It’s aimed not just at the victim but at their entire community.”

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On Hamas’s use of sexual violence as a tactical weapon, Ben-Or emphasized it was clearly systematic from the outset. “As soon as reports, rumors and statements emerged, and evidence from the ground accumulated, it was evident,” she said.

This was corroborated by a UN under-secretary-general’s report on sexual violence in war, which identified a recurring pattern across multiple sites, ruling out isolated incidents. “This wasn’t a sporadic attack by an individual during the invasion of Israel,” she noted.