The campaign group Human Rights Watch has said Hamas and at least four other Palestinian armed groups committed numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity against civilians during the 7 October attack on southern Israel.
A new report accuses the hundreds of gunmen who breached the Gaza border fence of violations including deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, wilful killing of persons in custody, sexual and gender-based violence, hostage-taking, mutilation of bodies and looting.
It also found the killing of civilians and hostage-taking were “central aims of the planned attack” and not an “afterthought”.
Hamas angrily rejected what it called Human Right Watchs’s “lies” and demanded an apology.
