A Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist confessed that he raped a terrified Israeli woman and murdered civilians during the October 7, 2023, Hamas led terror attack. The confession video of the captured terrorist was shared by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) in the early years of March 29, 2024.
The PJI terrorist was identified as Manar Qaseem was captured by the IDF earlier this month in Khan Younis He told the investigator that he was a member of the Islamic Jihad’s naval forces.
The Military Intelligence Directorate Unit 504 which specialises in HUMINT (Human Intelligence) carried out the interrogation. When asked about what he did, during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Qassem gave a detailed response including how he breached Israeli territory, raped and killed civilians.
Qassem revealed that he along with his accomplice, Mahmoud Al Khush entered Israel through a border breach in the Gaza fence between the Khan Younis area towns of al-Fukhhari and Khuza’a. He added that he was armed with a handgun and two grenades while another terrorist Mahmoud Khush was armed had an AK-47.
He further stated that when he got to the unarmed Kibbutz in southern Israel, where he found a woman who was startled and asking for help. He called the details regarding what the victim looked like and what she was wearing, Qassem told the interrogators, “I took her and threw her on the couch. The PJI terrorist added, “The devil took over me, I laid her down and started undressing her and I did what I did.
Pressed again by the interrogator, Qassem confessed. “I raped her”, he added “She pushed me, it did not last long, two minutes, may be a minute and a half. “Also, according to Qassem, by that time, two members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist groups entered the home as well, they took the victim together with her mother for a short while, before they took both of them out of the house.
Qassem claimed that he was left alone after which he decided to head back home to the Gaza Strip. He also confessed of killing innocent civilians. He told the investigator that her heard gunshots and then shot one Israeli man near him before throwing one of his grenades and fleeing the kibbutz. While the officials did not say anything about the fate of them, the latter comment suggested she did not survive, an Israel media reported.
The IDF asserted that the footage is “further proof of the onslaught of murder and sexual violence by the terrorist organisations on October 7, 2023, in an attempt to make the voices of those who can be no longer be heard.”
Notably the IDF released the video three weeks after the United Nations envoy on sex crimes during conflict submitted a report at the UN. The report pointed out that the rape and gang rape likely occurred during the Hamas led terrorist attack in Southern Israel.
The 24-page report was submitted after conducting meetings on the ground to believe that Hamas committed the rape and sexual abuse during its murderous rampage on October 7, 2023 and that there is an even higher standard of evidence to indicate that the hostages kidnapped by the Hamas that day were subject to rape in captivity.
Additionally, in an interview published earlier this week in the New York Times, freed hostage Amit Soussana said she was sexually assaulted by a Hamas guard while in captivity in Gaza. On October 7, 2023, thousands of Hamas terrorists through land, air and sea invaded southern Israel and killed over 1,200 people including babies, kidnapped over 253 Israeli and foreign nationals, and raped, paraded women.
In retaliation, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has claimed that it has killed over 13,000 terrorists in Gaza, in addition to some 1000 killed inside Israel on an immediately following the terror attack. Meanwhile reports suggest that the US has authorised the transfer of 2000 bombs and 25 F-35 jets worth billions of dollars to Israel amid speculations of a possible Israeli military offensive Gaza’s Rafah border.
