[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 620 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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118th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. RES. 620
Demanding that the international community hold accountable those who
perpetrated acts of sexual violence and sexual torture during and after
the attack on the State of Israel on October 7, 2023.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
March 22, 2024
Mr. Graham (for himself, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mrs. Britt, Ms. Collins, Mr.
Blumenthal, and Ms. Ernst) submitted the following resolution; which
was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Demanding that the international community hold accountable those who
perpetrated acts of sexual violence and sexual torture during and after
the attack on the State of Israel on October 7, 2023.
Whereas, on October 7, 2023, Hamas launched an unprovoked attack against the
State of Israel, brutally murdering more than 1,200 innocent men, women,
and children while injuring thousands more;
Whereas, from January 29, 2024, to February 14, 2024, at the invitation of the
Government of the State of Israel, United Nations Special Representative
of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (SRSG-SVC)
Pramila Patten, along with technical experts, led an official visit to
the State of Israel to gather information in order to verify allegations
of sexual violence and sexual torture committed during and after the
October 7 attack;
Whereas the SRSG-SVC and technical experts conducted a total of 33 meetings with
personnel from Israeli national institutions and visited the Israeli
National Center of Forensic Medicine, the Shura military base, the
morgue where bodies of victims have been transferred, and four locations
attacked on October 7;
Whereas the SRSG-SVC and technical experts reviewed more than 5,000 photographic
images and approximately 50 hours of footage of the October 7 attack and
conducted confidential interviews with a total of 34 interviewees
impacted by the attack, including survivors, witnesses, released
hostages, first responders, and health and service providers;
Whereas the SRSG-SVC and technical experts were made aware that there are
victims still undergoing treatment for the severe mental distress and
trauma endured as a result of the sexual violence committed against them
both during and after the October 7 attack;
Whereas, on March 4, 2024, the SRSG-SVC released a report containing the
findings of the official visit;
Whereas, according to the report released by the SRSG-SVC, ``there are
reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence
occurred during the 7 October attacks in multiple locations across Gaza
periphery, including rape and gang rape, in at least three locations'',
with most victims first being raped and then murdered;
Whereas, according to the report released by the SRSG-SVC, there are ``accounts
of individuals who witnessed at least two incidents of rape of corpses
of women'' and other accounts that describe ``multiple murdered
individuals, mostly women, whose bodies were found naked from the waist
down, some totally naked, with some gunshots in the head and/or tied
including with their hands bound behind their backs and tied to
structures such as trees or poles'';
Whereas, according to the report released by the SRSG-SVC, there were multiple
incidents of sexual violence, including the rape of multiple women,
along Road 232, one of the main roads along which attendees of the Nova
music festival and other locals fled during the October 7 attack;
Whereas, according to the report released by the SRSG-SVC, in Kibbutz Re'im,
there were multiple incidents of sexual violence, including the rape of
a woman outside of a bomb shelter, and two women were found on the floor
naked inside a home with gunshot wounds to their heads;
Whereas, according to the report released by the SRSG-SVC, in Kibbutz Be'eri,
credible information was received that bodies were ``found naked and/or
tied, and in one case gagged,'' in destroyed houses and the surrounding
area;
Whereas, according to the report released by the SRSG-SVC, in Kibbutz Kfar Aza,
first responders reported finding women naked with their hands tied
behind their backs and with gunshot wounds to the head, indicating
sexual violence and sexual torture;
Whereas, according to the report released by the SRSG-SVC, at Nahal Oz military
base, seven soldiers were discovered to have ``gunshot wounds around the
genitalia and/or buttocks'';
Whereas, according to the report released by the SRSG-SVC, ``the mission team
found clear and convincing information that some [hostages taken to
Gaza] have been subjected to various forms of conflict-related sexual
violence including rape and sexualized torture and sexualized cruel,
inhuman and degrading treatment and it also has reasonable grounds to
believe that such violence may be ongoing'';
Whereas, despite the overwhelming evidence that sexual violence was committed
during and after the October 7 attack, the ``visit [by the SRSG-SVC and
technical experts] was neither intended nor mandated to be investigative
in nature''; and
Whereas, under Article 34 of the Charter of the United Nations, ``The Security
Council may investigate any dispute, or any situation which might lead
to international friction or give rise to a dispute, in order to
determine whether the continuance of the dispute or situation is likely
to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security.'': Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) calls upon the United States to insist that the United
Nations Security Council open an official investigation into
the sexual violence and sexual torture committed during and
after the attack on the State of Israel on October 7, 2023; and
(2) demands that the international community hold
accountable those who perpetrated acts of sexual violence and
sexual torture during and after that attack.
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