Human Rights Watch said Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, and at least four other Palestinian armed groups "committed numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity against civilians during the Oct. 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel.”
According to its findings, these included "deliberate and indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian objects; willful killing of persons in custody; cruel and other inhumane treatment; sexual and gender-based violence; hostage taking; mutilation and despoiling of bodies; use of human shields; and pillage and looting.”
In response, Hamas rejected "the lies and blatant bias" towards Israel and demanded Human Rights Watch withdraw its report and apologize.
"The Human Rights Watch report adopted the entire Israeli narrative and moved away from the method of scientific research and the neutral legal position, and became more like an Israeli propaganda document," Hamas said in a statement.
The 230-page HRW report focuses only on the Oct. 7 attacks and does not examine the actions taken by Hamas or Israel during the subsequent war in Gaza. More than 38,400 people have been killed in Israeli ground offensives and bombardments in Gaza since the war began, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.
