Amid the controversy surrounding UNRWA employees participating in the Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel, the United Nations sent a sexual violence diplomat on an official visit to the Jewish state.
Pramila Patten, the U.N. Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, arrived at Ben Gurion Airport on Monday. The 55-year-old attorney from Mauritius will investigate allegations of sexual persecution by members of the Hamas terrorist organization during the October rampage.
Patten is expected to compile a report for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on her findings.
Witness testimony and forensic investigations have found that rape, mutilation, and defilement against civilian women was committed by Hamas attackers during the incursion. There are also persistent fears that many of the female captives currently held by the Gaza based organization may be currently undergoing additional abuse.
The Israeli government has sternly criticized what they believe was a reluctance of international women’s organizations to condemn the behavior of the invaders. Patten’s own organization’s gender agency, U.N. Women, waited 56 days before they released a statement reprehending the “brutal attacks by Hamas.”
During her visit, Patten is scheduled to meet with survivors of the abhorrent encounters as well as medical personnel who treated many of the terror victims.
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