GENEVA / JERUSALEM — New details have emerged about allegations that some United Nations human rights experts were pressured by colleagues not to publish evidence of sexual violence committed by Hamas against Israeli and Jewish women and girls, following a dramatic appeal by freed hostage Ilana Gritzewsky nearly 1,000 days after the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel. Appearing before the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Gritzewsky recounted being sexually abused, beaten, and mutilated after Hamas terrorists stormed her kibbutz, and then stood and faced the official at the center of the controversy directly.

Gritzewsky recalled regaining consciousness half-naked with seven terrorists standing over her, saying she did not know what had happened during the moments she had blacked out. She told the Council she returned from captivity with a broken hip, a broken jaw, and what she called “a scarred soul,” adding that the trauma continues to haunt her despite her release.

The appeal was directed at Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, who has denied there is sufficient evidence that Hamas committed sexual violence during the October 7 attacks. Video footage of the hearing reviewed by journalists appeared to show a lengthy silence afterward as Alsalem looked at Gritzewsky without responding or showing visible emotion.

Alsalem has been at the center of mounting controversy for statements and social media posts in which she claimed no independent investigation had found rape occurred during the October 7 assault and argued that allegations of Hamas sexual violence had been “weaponized” to justify what she described as genocide in Gaza. She has also asserted that “no Palestinian cheered for rape in Gaza” while appearing to minimize documented patterns of sexual violence.

Alsalem’s position stands in direct contradiction to the findings of a separate UN body. A fact-finding mission led by Pramila Patten, the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, concluded after a 2024 mission that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe conflict-related sexual violence — including rape and gang rape — occurred at several locations during the Hamas-led attacks, including the Nova music festival, Road 232, and Kibbutz Re’im.

Later reports, including hostage testimonies released after ceasefires, added further allegations of sexual abuse in captivity, compounding the picture described in Patten’s findings.

The controversy deepened after Alice Edwards, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, disclosed that she faced sustained internal pressure while documenting alleged Hamas atrocities. “There was a campaign to prevent that letter going out,” Edwards said in remarks reported by The Forward.

The controversy has also resonated in the Netherlands, where former leading criminal lawyer and commentator Bram Moszkowicz — whose father survived the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp — has warned that public debate about Israel has become increasingly polarized since October 7. Moszkowicz said many Dutch Jews are increasingly reluctant to speak publicly because of growing antisemitism, which he linked in part to what he described as selective media coverage of the conflict.

He also criticized Dutch government plans to ban imports of products from Judea and Samaria, arguing the measure would primarily hurt Palestinians employed by Israeli companies rather than the Israeli government. “If it goes on like this,” Moszkowicz said of the climate facing Dutch Jews, “I fear the worst.”

The European Jewish Association reports that approximately 40,000 Jews have left Europe in recent years — including from the Netherlands — citing mounting antisemitism and growing insecurity.

As Dr. Elkayam-Levy stated in her address to the Council: “Their bodies became a spectacle of war — and they received neither compassion nor protection.” The story continues to develop, with further testimonies and reports expected to intensify calls for reform at the United Nations human rights system.