[Salon] 'Take it off!': Palestinian women detail sexual assault by Israeli troops during Kamal Adwan Hospital raid

https://thecradle.co/articles/take-it-off-palestinian-women-detail-sexual-assault-by-israeli-troops-during-kamal-adwan-hospital-raid

'Take it off!': Palestinian women detail sexual assault by Israeli troops during Kamal Adwan Hospital raid

Israeli soldiers ordered some women and girls to remove their clothes and touched their private parts before forcing them to leave north Gaza

News Desk

Dozens of Palestinian women and girls reported being sexually abused by Israeli soldiers during the storming of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza last month, Middle East Eye (MEE) reported on 14 January.

Israeli troops blockaded the hospital for nearly three months, preventing the entry of aid, medicine, and food while burning parts of the hospital and heavily bombing its complex and the area around it.

When soldiers entered the hospital, they killed several patients and medical staff and forced the roughly 350 others to leave at gunpoint, telling them to go to southern Gaza.

MEE spoke with 13-year-old Maryam al-Muqayad, who says she was ordered by male Israeli troops to take off her clothes while she was still in the hospital.

The soldiers dragged her by her hair, made her kneel down, and began abusing her.

“We refused to remove our hijabs, so they started exerting more pressure, ordering girls under 20 to move south without their families, but the families refused. They then strip-searched many women and [sexually] harassed them,” Muqayad said.

Israeli soldiers reportedly touched private parts of women and girls while beating those who resisted.

The army then took groups of women and girls to the Al-Fakhoura school in northern Gaza.

“They told us they would film us to show [the world] that Hamas was using us as human shields. When we arrived, they dragged us by our hair across the schoolyard, forced us into toilets, and ordered us to undress,” Muqayad said.

The soldiers then “dragged us back outside by our hair. They threw our clothes at us and made us kneel with our hands raised, then slammed our heads against the walls,” the 13-year-old recounted.

“An Israeli soldier hit a pregnant nurse in the belly with his weapon butt. They searched us and separated children from their parents, then made us walk behind tanks emitting black smoke.”

On 28 December, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor also reported that Israeli forces sexually assaulted women and girls during their attack on Kamal Adwan Hospital.

The “Israeli army detained dozens of women and girls, subjecting them to severe abuse amounting to sexual harassment, alongside degrading treatment that violated their human dignity. This included beating them and forcing them to remove their hijabs and clothing.”

One woman told Euro-Med, “A soldier forced a nurse to take off her trousers, then placed his hand on her. When she tried to resist, he struck her hard across the face, causing her nose to bleed.”

Another woman said that a soldier told a woman in their group: “Take it off, or we'll force it off you.”

In another case, a soldier tore the clothes of one woman, exposing her chest.

Another woman recounted being dragged by a soldier who forced her to press against him, saying, “Take it off now,” while making obscene remarks at her.